Prologue
It all started in Jan 2025. When we saw news reports of the largest religious gathering in the world coming up in Prayagraj aka Allahabad. I use Allahabad or Illahabad. Like Mumbai is still Bombay or Bambai for us. As a word of caution, this is going to be a long one because it is an account of our trials and tribulations, our moments in ticking off the # 1 item on my bucket list: Ganga snan in the Kumbh Mela.
What is the Kumbh Mela? Lot of internet articles there to find more. I'll try in short. Rishi Durvasa cursed Indra and the Gods so they lost all their power. Vishnu advised them to churn the ocean of milk to get Amrit, which would restore their powers. Devas and Asuras alied for an event called Samundra manthan. Aided by the Kurma avatar, Vasuki and Mount Mandar, the gods and Asuras churned the ocean. By product of the churning was Halahal, which Shiv drank gladly and earned the name Neelkanth. Dhanvantri emerged with the Kumbh or pot of nectar. A battle ensued between Devas and Asuras for Amrit. Vishnu took the Mohini swarup. Some people say Mohini, some say Jayant (Indras son) escaped with the Kumbh trying to protect it from Asuras. He dropped 4 drops, one each at Allahabad Ujjain Nashik Haridwar. While running he was protected by Sun Moon Brihaspati (Jupiter) Saturn. Jupiter does 1 revolution of the sun in 12 years. So a Poorna Kumbh every 12 years. So there you are.
Air tickets were about 27 K when we started planning. Tent at 15 K. We were almost ready to book when Rishi suggested we can drive down in 20 K petrol and 5 K tolls. With 4 pax, it worked to 100 K by air, so a saving of 75 K. Done deal. We blocked space at Justa shivir for 16th Feb. Away from the Shahi Snan dates of 12 Feb, Maghi Purnima.
Early Feb, we got news that the tents caught fire and we would get a refund. Our Kumbh almost shattered. But our resolve was solid. We booked OYO rooms and left the rest to Shiva. Luckily, before departure, Justa restored our booking for same dates.
The outbound journey
On the morning of 15th, we left 5 AM from our home in Bhandup. Reached Powai by 530. We picked up Pooja from Mumbai airport by 640 and were back on the road around 8 AM. 4 pax. Slow progress through the day due to traffic jam at Bhiwandi. We weren't really calculating because our check in was on 16th noon at the camp.
First breakfast. Shiv Sagar Bhiwandi.
To get in the mood. Saffron clothes.
The very pretty Igatpuri.
Igatpuri is so beautiful. Dotted with these hills that look straight out of a painting. Like we say, "if God were an artist, he painted the hills of Igatpuri in hues of brown".
For lunch, we stopped at "Aaji che pustakache hotel" in Nashik. Literally means Granny's hotel of books. Aaji has a million books and she built a hotel around it. She's got loads of recognition. The restaurant serves authentic Maharashtrian food: bhakri, pitla, vangi bhaji, thecha, kandi bhaji. I spent more time going thru the decor than eating.
Back on the road and we realised that by 6 PM we had only covered 300 KM and were close to Dhule. Panic set in. At this rate, it would take us 4 days and our booking was for the 16th which was the next day. We made some quick decisions and decided to hire a driver, with or without cab. After 6 phone calls to different people in Dhule, we found our knight in shining armor. Arbaaz bhai. After circling his location 4 times courtesy Google Maps, in Dhule's narrow lanes, we found him.
Arbaaz bhai is an incarnation of Michael Schumacher. He covered 700 kilometres in 10 hours to make up for Rishi's 300 in the first 10 and put us back on track to make it to our tent by 16th night. Dinner at Hotel Pallavi in Shirpur was a culinary delight. Mixed veg is served in a coconut. Never eaten this before but will remember this fondly.
Mixed veg stuffed in coconut
Arbaaz bhai, our saviour from Dhule.
The morning of 16th
Having made good time, we let Arbaaz bhai take some rest while Rishi drove the morning of 16th Feb. A minor hiccup that could have blown us off course: back left tyre losing air. The mechanic said it would take a few hours to repair but if we didn't, we could just keep refilling from time to time.
Lunch at Hotel Siddhivinayak. A forgettable affair in Chitrakoot. But that's the state of most UP hotels as were about to discover.
We made it to Allahabad
After going through many interior roads and narrow lanes, we finally got to Allahabad around 4 PM. The UP countryside is an explosion of colours: Lush green crops, brick kilns dotting the highway as far as you can see. And when we got on Shastri bridge, we knew we made it to the largest religious gathering in the world. Check out the reel at the end for this experience.
We stopped for Kulhad ki chai and some pakodas in the city. You can tell by now I love food porn.
Finally made it to Justa shivir around 9 PM. This was not without suspense. Google got us to the spot which looks like lands end and no sight of a tent city. So we called the manager and he said 100 metres more 5 times when we finally caught sight of the camp. Nice tents but worth 17 K a pop, you decide?
After a hearty meal at Justa we were off to bed, having logged 36 hours in the car with a plan to set off at 6 AM on the 17th.
Brush with the divine.
Our plan was to walk about 7 kilometres round trip from Justa to Sangam and back. Make it back by mid noon, have lunch and set off for the return journey to Mumbai. We set off walking from Justa at 630. Luckily Justa is by the river so you can start walking along the river bank towards the Sangam. We weren't getting a feeling of the Kumbh yet. The riverside was bare, hardly any people. Then at Nageshwar Ghat, we saw the first set of people taking a dip.
We walked on to the Sangam. Rishi tried to hail a bike cab but had a mishap so we walked on to the Sangam. Glad we did because wee discovered that the bikers are running a scam - they leave you on the opposite river bank and say, bikes only till here, now walk to Sangam. Another bikers comes along and say this is our area and we will drop you. They take you to the other bank, where you started. We made it to the Sangam and it was not overly crowded. We were able bathe freely in the Sangam without anyone pushing us around. The objective of our trip was accomplished and as they say, we washed our sins to now restart the sin counter. On our way back, we walked through the mela and purchased some trinkets. The star attraction of the mela - the Naga Sadhus are gone so you have to make do with fakes.
The return journey
Having accomplished our goal, it was time to head back. Made it back to the Justa camp around 1 PM with 20,000 steps to our credit, we had lunch and started our journey back to Mumbai. Very eventful journey. First, we were stuck on this bridge for over 3 hours. Then a broken down vehicle added about 3 hours of pain. Like in our outbound journey, we barely covered a couple 100 kilometres in 7-8 hours. This ruined our plans to stay overnight in Nagpur because we were nowhere close to Nagpur and it was mutually decided to keep driving. But dinner was a very hilarious experience. Purnima Dhaba. Firstly, they simply told us there is no food - have a seat and in a few hours, you will get some. This is the situation all over. food is scarce. When food was ready, people were ready to beat each other up to get served first. One smart alec even told the owner that I am ok if you give me parcel, I don't want a seat. Rest of the patrons almost beat him up for this. This was the highlight of the return. We made it to Nagpur next day around 4 and back to Mumbai at 2 AM on Wednesday. Thrilling experience but I am not sure I want to drive down 2800 kilometers in 4 days ever again. I hope you liked to read as much as I liked to write. I could have put more details but enjoy the pictures. After all, a picture is worth a 1000 words.
