Maha Kumbh begins

So we took the train from Delhi to Haridwar to cover the Kumbh. We landed in a hotel on the ghats and walked the ghats soaking in religion, faith, colors and everything else that's Kumbh. The night was cold and from the chinks in the window, the fog seeped into the room, and it was surreal. The river gurgled past the window and looked bewitching.
Not many people were here. Perhaps thousands only for the Makar Sankriti snan.
An edited version of the story appeared in the Indian Express on Jan. 14, 2010.
We didn't find much yesterday but maybe today. We are hopeful.


Chinki Sinha

Haridwar, January 13, 2010

At his first ever Kumbh Mela in 1974, when he was a young man visiting his in-laws, ML Giri said the ghats weren’t so full of people. Nor were there so many police personnel wielding batons and guns patrolling the Har-ki-Pauri. Back then, it was all about faith, he said.

“Perhaps 100 cops in total. But look at it now. There are new roads, new ghats. Since 1986, we saw crowds, and it has never stopped,” Giri, a volunteer at the Seva Samiti, a charity organization that looks after the upkeep of the Har-ki-Pauri, said.

Thirty-six years later, Kumbh has become touristier, and more upmarket. The ghats have been renovated, bridges have been built, and more than ever before, there’s much more on the minds of men and women – environmental concerns, security, terrorism - going for the holy dip than just salvation and washing away of sins.

From a loudspeaker, a female voice urged the faithful to refrain from using soap as the mass of men and women, an estimated eight lakh visitors to Haridwar for the three-month-long festival, started to descend the steps on the ghats for the ritual snan on the eve of Makar Sankranti, the day that marks the decline of winter in the country, and one of the most auspicious days for the ritual bathing.

Tucked alongside of the loudspeakers that blared instructions and devotional songs as the time of the arati neared, the closed-circuit television captured the moments, and security personnel in the Mela Control Room watched closely for hints.

Security at the Kumbh is unprecedented with thousands of police personnel – state police, CRPF, RAF, CISF, SSB, and ITBP – standing guard at the 26 ghats.

Kumbh Mela rotates among four cities where the nectar that would give immortality fell during a war between the gods and the demons, as per the Hindu mythology. Of the four drops that fell when the tussle was going on, one fell in Haridwar.

Temperatures are expected to take a dip today when the first snan commences. It would be the coldest Kumbh since 1986 in Haridwar. In 1986 and 1988, the temperatures hovered around six degrees.

At a chai stall at Har-ki-Pauri, a group of RAF personnel sipped hot, piping tea as they took a small break before sundown when they anticipated the crowds to converge at the ghats. That’s when they would patrol up and down the 70 meters of the ghat, wielding their batons and guns.

The RAF personnel have been deployed for 15 days now and will remain in Haridwar for three months through the end of the Kumbh Mela.

Clocking in more than 10 hours of work every day, Sulochana Devi said they have been trained to deal with all sorts of issues that could arise – stampede, terror attack, fights, anything.

“Oh, we won’t let anything happen,” she said.

Perhaps, when she is off duty on Jan. 14 when the festival begins, she can come to the ghats to get rid of her sins, she said.

Security personnel in their blue, khaki and military green uniforms mingled with the crowds, watching, and on alert.

Further down the ghat, a bunch of rescue police sat facing the Ganges, ready to take a plunge. Life jackets were carelessly strewn beside them.

Around 250 rescue officers from the Uttaranchal police are deployed at the ghats to avoid any untoward incidents like drowning in the icy old waters.

"This is my first Kumbh and I am excited. This is like an adventure," Harish Kothari, 21, said. "It is not so deep but we are not taking chances."

Kumbh melas have had no history of terrorist attacks but they have been marred by fighting amongst sadhus, and stampedes that have killed hundreds.

But the Uttarakhand government is taking no chances. The ghats are decked up, and the town is all geared up for the millions of people – pilgrims, spectators, and hordes of media persons.

In its bid to promote the temple town of Haridwar as a seat of spiritual tourism in the country, the government has invested around Rs. 550 crores in a number of infrastructure projects including a foot bridges, multi-level modern car park, and a network of roads.

The government also gave approval to Prabhatam Aviation to fly chartered flights carrying five people from Dehradun and Delhi. A helipad near Har-ki-Pauri already exists and Prabhatam officials said they have the permission to operate from there.

While no bookings from Delhi have yet been confirmed, the first flight from Dehradun will take off at 12 in the afternoon. The fares from Delhi are Rs. 50,000 per person, and from Dehradun, it is around Rs. 11,000.

“We have been operating such helicopter services for other pilgrimages like Kedar Nath and Badri Nath but this is our first time for Kumbh,” Neelam Khanna, general manager of advertising, said. “There are flights everyday but for Delhi, we need a day’s notice.”

From a distance, the temple town looks as if it was freshly-painted. The pink mounds of the temples stand out against the lush mountains, and the new asphalt roads shine after the rains on Wednesday morning washed them.

Nearly 10 million pilgrims are expected to flock to the city in the next three months until April 28, when the mela ends.

Security arrangements also make it mandatory for sadhus to carry identity cards like other tourists.

The 130 square kilometres of the notified mela area from Bahadurabad to Neelkanth houses 250 hotels, 300 dharmashalas and around 400 ashramas. Besides, camps and tents set up by charity organizations and luxury tourism chains also exist.