Kumbh karma

It took a trip to Harvard for the Uttar Pradesh top brass to realize that back home their house was not in order

Cosmic alignment and karmic faith in one of the oldest practised religion had set the stage for the biggest show in recorded human history. Juggernaut arrangements by authorities and unprecedented outpour of the faithful and the curious flooded the cyber spaces with ash smeared nudity and surreal vibrance. The world watched spellbound as the mystical drama played out. Came March 12, marking the end of the auspicious arrangements. The shutterbugs flew away and amnesia set in. Both Sangam (confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna) and Allahabad, the city that hosted the Kumbh, rapidly slipped from popular imagination into oblivion.

It would have remained so had not a bunch of researchers from the prestigious Harvard University, who had lived the 55 days of festivities with pilgrims, decided to hold a grand celebration of the mega success of the event. Tens of thousands had toiled endlessly to provide for the millions of pilgrims who thronged the ghats of the Sangam. For a change, Ganga flowed and its water quality became the major national concern warranting personal monitoring by no person less than the prime minister of India. No one knows the exact number of attendees but it is safe to put the estimate somewhere in the range of 100-200 million. With just three dozen dead at a stampede, it surely was a crushing organisational success. But let’s not overwhelm ourselves with the magnitude of the event again, and return to its resurrection in popular media thanks to Harvard.