Kumbh Mela

The Kumbha Mela is the largest religious gathering in the world. And we just happened to be at the right place at the right time--it was almost like the stars aligned and we were meant to go! This year, the Kumbha Mela was in Allahabad, a city at the confluence of three holy rivers, the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the underground river, Saraswati. This confluence is known as the Sangam where many pilgrims take their holy dip. 70 million (yes...million) people were expected to attend this religious pilgrimmage. In fact, the Kumbha Mela is the only gathering that can be viewed from outer space! Also during the Kumbh, Allahabad temporarily becomes the most populated city in the world!

The legend for the Kumbha Mela is as follows: Thousands of years ago, gods and demons made a temporary agreement to work together churning the nectar of immortality, and to share the nectar equally. However, when the Kumbh (urn) containing the nectar appeared, the demons ran away with it and were chased by the gods. For twelve days and twelve nights (equivalent to twelve human years) the gods and demons fought in the sky for possession of this pot of nectar. It is said that during the battle, drops of nectar fell at four places: Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik. Thus, the Kumbh Mela is observed at these four locations where the nectar fell.

The Kumbh was amazing and exhausting all at the same time. We arrived on the 22nd of January to a huge area of tents. Tents everywhere as far as the eye can see! And the area is absolutely huge...over 14 sq km of just a sea of people. Initially, we were thinking we would have to rough it a bit, and that there would just be a slew of tents and people everywhere. But the area was organized into sections, temporary roads were built, and several bridges were made to cross the Ganges rivers so people could reach the Sangam.

The first day we got there, we had a reservation at one of the temporary housing places. It would cost the both of us 600 rupees ($15) to stay there...which we thought was a good deal considering that the hotels in Allahabad would charge us 5000 rupees ($125). But when we arrived to the temporary housing, it was no more than a couple of tents (which we didn't mind so much). The thing we did mind was that it was a half-hour walk away from the kumbha mela. Fortunately the owners of the place were very nice and we told them that we didn't want to stay there. So now we were stranded with our bags and no place to stay. We went back to the Kumbha Mela and met a bunch of police officers who directed us to an ashram (a temple) where we could crash for a couple of nights. The ashram was right outside the Kumbha Mela...we had a wonderful view of the Kumbha Mela and all the noise and raccous that came with it! The only problem was that the ashram room was terrible! All we had were a couple of musty smelling blankets on a dusty, dirty, old floor full of mosquitos. Not the coziest place, but it was a place to stay right outside the Kumbh! That night, we took a walk in the Kumbh. It was not what either of us had expected. There were several ashrams all lined up on the temporary dusty street with their glitzy flashy lights and music blasting from the loudspeakers. It was as if we were in a mini Las Vegas! The tents were lined up on the sand of the riverbed and with 20 million or so people camping out...that makes for literally 1 million cooking fires. We couldn't walk along the riverbed for long because the smoke filled the air to the point where our throats burned and our eyes were watering.

On the 23rd of January, we got up at 5am to hopefully witness the second largest bathing of the Kumbha Mela. The 23rd of January was known as Bacham Punchmani--a very auspicous day for bathing. They were estimating 20 million people to be in attendance. We walked to the Ganga river hoping to walk across the river in order to reach the Sangam, only to find the bridges blocked off by cops. A parade of jeeps decorated with marigolds carrying sadhus (or holy men) lined up to the bridges. Millions of people gathered for this lively procession. It was an amazing experience, but we were disappointed that we couldn't make it across the river for the big bathing. At this point, only sadhus were allowed to cross the river. So most of our morning was spent trying to find an open bridge to cross to attend the large bathing, but of course, millions of other people were trying to do the same, so we were unsuccessful. We felt like we were on a pilgrimmage ourselves, walking miles trying to find the big bathing! On our search for an open bridge, we ended up meeting a bunch of young boys, who wanted our company. Plus, they were fun company and made the search for the Sangam a lot better. We ended up finding the Sangam around noon when the crowds along the river bank were far less. We were debating on bathing--the nurse in Sejal was afraid of cholera and the numerous other bacteria lurking in the polluted waters of the Sangam. But the other part of us were thinking that millions of people do the pilgrimmage to bathe at this very occasion in order to get reincarnated to a higher level. We weren't sure if a bath in the Ganga will help with that, but we were sure that people wait their whole lives to attend this festival. So we both decided to go for it! And it ended up being the best part of the whole Kumbha Mela experience.

The majority of our day was spent walking around the Kumbha and soaking in the atmosphere. There were so many people and so many sadhus (holy men)! There were naked naga babas (a type of sadhu), and sadhus covered with ash to represent Shiva. Elephants roamed around the festival grounds, accepting blessings and offerings from the pilgrims. Elephants represent Ganesh, the HIndu god of good fortune. And all around us was a colorful sea of people. It was definitely a feast for your eyes! We expected to see a lot more tourists than we did, but the whole entire time, we saw maybe 5 tourists. Joe was treated like a celebrity there! People asked for his autograph and several wanted a photo taken with him. It was also difficult for us to take photographs, because everytime we would do so, a crowd of 30 or 40 people would gather around us. They were so interested in us (especially Joe)...which was fun but also tiring! We got several invitation to people's homes, ashrams, and even a wedding in Rajastan!

Our time at the Kumbha Mela ended after three days of hustle, bustle, and excitement. Although we were exhausted by with the lack of sleep and the crowds of people, it would remain an experience we would never forget.