I thought of only taking my parents to Prayagraj for Maha Kumbh. But then I started seeing repeated advertisements of the government on TV and newspapers that this Maha Kumbh is going to take place in Prayagraj after 144 years and that the government is making all the arrangements for the coming devotees and their holy dip in the Sangam
Like many other people of my village, I would have gone to Maha Kumbh anyway. I did not need anyone’s invitation. I could not leave the tradition which has been going on for centuries.
But on the way, thinking about the crowd in the passenger trains and the crowd that came from all over the country to Maha Kumbh, I gave up the idea of taking my wife and children along.
I thought of only taking my parents to Prayagraj for Maha Kumbh. But then I started seeing repeated advertisements of the government on TV and newspapers that this Maha Kumbh is going to take place in Prayagraj after 144 years and that the government is making all the arrangements for the coming devotees and their holy dip in the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, on the auspicious occasions of the bathing festivals during Maha Kumbh.
Thinking that the next full Maha Kumbh will take place after 144 years which none of us can see, I took my children and wife along as well.
There was not just crowd but mega crowd in buses and trains. My courage failed me repeatedly but because of the company of other friends from the village, I did not lose courage and despite the extreme difficulties in the journey including non-availability of food that we wanted, we reached Prayagraj two days before Mauni Amavasya, the main bathing festivals out of the total six.
But the next test was yet to come. We had to walk miles to go to the fair. Children and old parents were getting tired but somehow, carrying luggage and taking care of the family, we reached the fair site after many hours of tough challenges.
But going to Sangam there proved to be like climbing the Himalayas. We could not make out where we were going amidst the fortification of wooden logs.
In that huge crowd, it was surprising to see from some distance that many leaders, many people with them and security personnel flanking them were seen going in vehicles.
There were no restrictions for them. Even big arenas were making fun of us. It seemed that Maha Kumbh was only for these big people and the participation of the common people was just a formality.
I had heard that the government had spent Rs 7000 crores on organizing the entire fair. I thought was this much money spent so that people like us with old parents and small children walk for miles carrying bundles of luggage on our heads and VIPs keep moving from one place to another in the fair in a way teasing us in their cars?
We kept getting pushed around. Sometimes we would go towards one bridge and find out that it had been closed. Then towards another bridge. We found many such bridges closed.
On asking the police, we would get the same answer that “keep going, keep going”.
Somehow, wandering here and there, on the night of 28 January, we were some distance away from Sangam. We thought that as soon as it would be 12 o’clock at night, it would be the 29th (of January) and we would go back home after taking a holy dip at the Sangam.
But it was not possible to go to Sangam after 12 o’clock because the police were not letting us go ahead. Perhaps they wanted to let the crowd go ahead only after the royal bath of the Akharas.
It was not like this in the last Kumbh. Bathing was allowed after 12 o’clock. As time passed, the crowd kept increasing from behind. I was feeling suffocated in the crowd. I thought of going back from there but due to the pressure of the crowd, that was also not possible.
Then there was a stampede. People fell on one another. Everyone was running here and there to save his life.
It seemed as if earthquake had taken place such was the stampede.
Many men and women fell down and the crowd was passing over them. We wanted to go as quickly as possible to a place where there was no crowd while saving ourselves.
We got injured, had to throw away our belongings but we succeeded in saving our lives. Most of all, I was happy that the family was safe but by evening we came to know that 30 people had lost their lives.
We are in our village but it will be difficult to forget that scene for the rest of our lives.
This question repeatedly comes to my mind that if the government cannot protect the lives of people and Maha Kumbh is only for big people, then what was the need to repeatedly making appeal to us to come to Maha Kumbh and what was the need for so much publicity?
I have many questions in my mind but I know that the government and the administration do not have an honest answer to them.
But I have answers to those questions and that is that this is the destiny of the common people. We get stampedes and deaths in our share and the rich get unlimited comforts of the government system and luxury like kings.
