Kumbh Diary: Prayagraj – an overnight megapolis for those seeking an eternal experience

Barring the chaos that is inherent to a gathering of this scale and size, it is the ingenuity and enterprise of India that is on unabashed display at the Maha Kumbh- Annika Talwar (Pic credit)

The Maha Kumbh is a spectacle that overwhelms and mesmerizes with its sea of humanity, devotion and the sheer scale of a grand spiritual festival, the largest such experience in the world.

Early estimates project that this year, over 50 crore people have visited Prayagraj, the city hosting Maha Kumbh in India’s most populous and one of the poorer states of Uttar Pradesh. In terms of size, the city is less than half of the national capital – New Delhi – but the number of people to have visited the city surpasses the population of all countries except India and China.

Several makeshift cities had to be built within Prayagraj in order to accommodate lakhs of devotees making their way into Prayagraj every day. An expansive infrastructure was raised on the plains of the receded ganges, including tented hotels, ashrams made of thermocol, temporary roads, and bridges on which lakhs walk and drive.

Standing in the midst of these expansive, temporary structures of tent cities, it is difficult to imagine that all this would be dismantled once the congregation is over, and the land that millions are inhabiting now will be reclaimed by the river, come monsoon.

These temporary shelters are connected to each other with make-shift bridges, or Pontoons. At all times, these bridges are closing or opening to regulate traffic, and bring a semblance of order to the chaotic movement of cars, tempo travellers, bikes and pedestrians.

Barring the chaos that is inherent to a gathering of this scale and size, it is the ingenuity and enterprise of India that is on unabashed display at the Maha Kumbh.

Countless roadside vendors line up to sell vermillion, bangles, shivlings, or jalebi and chaat. Bike taxis and cab drivers promise a spot at the Triveni Sangam for a holy dip, only for a few thousand rupees. Then, there are helicopter rides for an aerial view of the Kumbh. Around the city, one can find ashrams and hotels letting out rooms or tents, for a tidy sum.

On the dates of the Shahi Snan (a dip at the sangam of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the invisible Saraswati), a basic room at the hotels or simple tents went for as much as Rs 1,00,000 a night.

One taxi driver, a Prayagraj local, when asked about his earnings in the last month or so could not contain his beaming smile, and responded “..bator rahe hai”, which can translate to ‘we are raking it in’. He said he has earned in just one month alone what he possibly earns in over six months.

Millions of pilgrims - several carrying sleeping mattresses rolled under their arms - walk the grounds of the Maha Kumbh Mela. Like any fair, there are giant wheels, swings, and children performing antics, with Prime Minister Modi beaming down from giant billboards. UP government’s posters advertising the Maha Kumbh as ‘divine, grand, digital’ are not hard to find.

One can also find India’s UPI revolution, permeating the narrow, serpentine lanes of ash-covered naga sadhus (naked ascetics), camping alongside devotees and local shopkeepers.

Prayagraj during Maha Kumbh is a city that on the move. Streets and by lanes are brightly lit, coffee and pizza joints are teeming with people at all hours. The freezing night temperatures do not deter the devotees happily walking for hours to reach the holy river for dip under the moonlight.

Last month, from infants to the aged, Indians from all over have descended to the city, which under the Mughal era was built by emperor Akbar, and was officially called Allahabad until 2018.

In the last year or so, development has been rapid. The UP government and the Centre, together have spent about Rs 7,500 crore in building 14 new flyovers, six underpasses, over 200 widened roads, an expanded railway stations and a modern airport terminal.

When devotees leave by the end of the month, Prayagraj would have been a city reborn.