Maha Kumbh: The Reality

Maha Kumbh Mela is a major Hindu pilgrimage and religious festival that occurs once every 12 years at Prayagraj (Allahabad), India, where the Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet. It is the largest religious gathering in the world, attracting millions of devotees, saints, and tourists. However, as auspicious as this gathering is, it also comes with its fair share of challenges, and today, I want to talk about them.

I visited Maha Kumbh just two days back, my family and I traveled by road from Lucknow to Prayagraj, it usually takes 4 hours to complete the journey but as we were headed towards our destination we saw that there was a lot of traffic even before we entered the Allahabad region and it made us think that it will take us forever to reach to our destination but luckily our driver was a local and he knew an alternative route through villages and we reached Prayagraj around 8 pm, the traffic did not just stop there at Highway, it was everywhere in Allahabad and it took us around more 2 hours to reach the tent accommodations. This shows that there was NO traffic management at all, I would have understood if it was only till the Highway but the situation could have been controlled within the city, Yet, it wasn't.

When we reached near Sangam tents, there were barricades all over the place, suppose we wanted to go to Sector 17, and we knew that there was a shortcut path through Sector 14 but we couldn't go because there were barricading and they said it's to prevent crowd but in my honest opinion, it did not do anything, it made everyone else even more irritated and wanting to just lash out at the officials. Oh, and don't even get me started on them, first, they had barricades all over the place and when anybody went there to talk to them, either they were rude or they asked for money to let them through which in India, we call "khana paani" and in simple terms "bribing". We waited there for two whole hours before one of our cars got permission to go through but even inside the Sangam, the same pattern continued. People with cars or bikes just stood there helplessly waiting for the officials to let them through.

By the time we finally reached our tents, it was midnight—a journey that should have taken four hours had stretched into an exhausting 12-hour ordeal. Everyone in my family was tired, irritated, and angry, not just because of the long trip, but because of how poorly everything was managed. We went to Sangam River around 5 am, the crowd was normal and almost controlled around the tent area but as we went near the river, it was the same situation, people pushing each other to go through, dirty changing rooms, no ramps for elderly devotees, and offering being stolen.

To be honest, I am a very spiritual person, and going to Maha Kumbh after so much struggle meant everything to me, and it was worth it. However, this was heartbreaking. Maha Kumbh exposed the ugly side of mismanagement, greed, and lack of basic facilities.

In the end, if over 1 crore people are invited and expected to attend daily, then the administration should at least have the capability and willingness to manage them properly. Instead of corruption, frustration, and unnecessary barricading, authorities should focus on: Better traffic control, Proper placement of barricades, Honest and helpful police behavior, Clean and accessible facilities, and Respectful handling of devotees.