150 MILLION AT RELIGIOUS FEST
It is easy to get lost in India’s Kumbh Mela pilgrimage
MEGHSINGH Badouria, 75, was left freezing in his underpants after losing his clothes and his friends following a dip in the holy waters at humanity’s biggest gathering, India’s
He is not alone. In the cacophony and chaos of the religious festival, it is easy to get lost among the millions of Hindu devotees.
“I got separated from my villagers and went to the sangam (the holy confluence of rivers) and gave my bag to a stranger to look after while I went to bathe,” Badouria said.
“When I came back, my bag was nowhere to be seen.
“It was early in the morning and it was cold.”
But help is at hand. There are 15 lost and found centres around the Kumbh grounds, a dusty maze of tents the size of Manhattan thronging with people from mid-January to early March.
“We get 70 or 100 people every day,” said Shivani Singh Sengar, 21, a volunteer who makes announcements over the Kumbh’s 3,500 loudspeakers to reunite friends and family.
As Badouria explained his story, clothed by volunteers but still without his friends, a panicked mother sobbed tears of relief after being reunited with her two daughters, aged 5 and 7, at the centre.
As many as 150 million people are expected to visit this Kumbh. On the day of Badouria’s calamity, there were 20 million people attending.
Getting separated at the Kumbh and reuniting miraculously decades later is a common Bollywood storyline.
But technology and mobile phones — there are 830 million of them in India — means that people get lost a lot less than they used to.
The 15 lost and found centres are connected via computer and there is a state-of-the-art police command centre to oversee operations. Pictures of the missing rotate on television screens.
There is a special Kumbh app helping reunite people, providing they can read, which is far from a given.
Comprehension can be an issue, with India home to 22 major languages and hundreds of dialects.
“One lady... it was the first time she had left her village. She couldn’t explain where she came from. She couldn’t identify any landmark,” Sengar said.
“We checked Google. We asked her about the river near her home and temples. Eventually we worked out she was from Bengal.”
Binnu has been at the lost and found centre for two weeks.
“I am comfortable here but a bit worried. Hopefully, someone from my family will turn up soon,” the 65-year-old, who doesn’t know her address or the phone number of any family members, said.