Among 120 Million Believers

A few days at the Kumbh, the world’s largest gathering of humanity at a single place, should be on everyone's bucket list. Shaalu Wadhwa was at the Ardh Kumbh at Prayagraaj last month and writes about all the “bliss and the babas” she experienced.

What makes one go to the Kumbh? How did it happen for me? I sometimes ask myself. There was no epiphany, no mysterious voice of God in my dreams, no one in my friend’s circle was discussing it, let alone planning to go for it, it wasn’t on my bucket list and, to top it all, I am not even religious. Then, what got me to this fascinating madness of a wonderland called the Kumbh? Why did I find myself at Prayagraaj last month, partaking in what is the largest congregation of humans? Was it because it happens in India? My interest in Hindu Mythology? Or a lust for the unpredictable? Maybe a heady mix of all three — maybe none of the above.

When I travel, I try not to overdose on research as I like to unravel my own myths without the trailers telling me what to do. But everything you read, everything you dig, everything they tell about Kumbh — multiply that by a hundred. Think Ganpati celebrations in Mumbai — fifty thousand times amplified, and instead of dunking giant Ganeshas at the end, we are dunking ourselves at the Kumbh.

The real numbers, as we know, are even more staggering — a makeshift city spread over 2500 hectares on the banks of the Ganga and Jamuna, built to accommodate 120 million people over 7 weeks who use 1,22,000 specially set up toilets backed by a mammoth temporary sanitation system. It is a sea of humanity as far as one can see in all directions, a mass of faithful, drunk on unadulterated adoration of the almighty — supreme, and very saffron.