Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India

JANUARY 23, 2013

The ladies from the Provences of Canadia

We set off on foot for the Mela today.  My role was the Token Male for the group of women from Halifax.  Apparently groups of women can get hassled.  All in all, I found the daytime crowd at the gathering to be very peaceful.

How do I describe this event?  It’s huge.  Estimates come in the tens of millions.  In his opening speech, Pandiji referred to it as a “spiritual trade show.”  More like circus.  Picture the biggest event you’ve been to, like a NASCAR race or football game at Michigan’s Big House or Bonneroo.  Then multiply by, like, one hundred.  Or a thousand.  And drop them in India with limited water and bathrooms. 

My group was fairly conservative in their wanderings.  We saw one percent of the show.  Maybe.  Even at that, it was a good first sampling.  Men draped in orange robes, poverty and depravation like I’ve never seen before, and pilgrims of all shapes and sizes.

The lowlight of the trip, which shall be scarred in my memory for a long, long time, came on our walk back.  Earlier in the day there was on specific spot where the beggars gathered.  They were mothers with small children, adults with unspeakable injury and deformity, and other who were generally impoverished. 

These are the grass huts we slept in, btw.

We returned to that spot on our return trip to find them all loaded up in a covered stake truck with three police officers containing them at the back.  The beggars already apprehended but still resisting.  A plain clothed officer in the back of the truck beat them back with a bamboo cane as thick as a pool cue.  The more they yelled, the harder she struck.  It was horrifying to watch.  The truck could barely navigate given the foot traffic on the road.  For whole minutes we watched the scene unfold in the back of the truck as we walked behind at the same snail’s pace.  

Previously, I thought that was a distinctly European and American move.  Apparently even in India they like to sweep the homeless and destitute under the rug and pretend they don’t exist.