Amit Sharma
They say, when Ganges calls you, there is no stopping but when a bigger sangam/milan of three pious sisters Ganga-Jamuna-Saraswati (GYS) calls you, then all divine forces pull you there and make it happen. Yes, a similar kind of thing happened with me as well on the eve of one of the rarest and biggest occasions of ongoing Kumbh Mela tradition on planet earth on the eve of Somawati or Mouni Amawasya falling on Monday i.e., 4th February, 2019 when I happened to visit Prayagraj (erstwhile Allahabad) to perform my role and take a dip in this holy Sangam of GYS. It is worthwhile to mention here that this dip in Holy Sangam, that too, on the occasion of Mouni/Somawati Amawasya during Kumbh Mela is no less than lifetime event like Hajj Yatra for Muslims or visit to the holy Vatican City for Christians or Golden Temple for Sikhs. Simply, it can be said that it is supposed to be one of the lifetime achievement kind of a thing amongst atheist and ardent followers of Hinduism. This becomes more unique especially when such a thing comes to you or happens all-of-a-sudden, then it is no less than a miracle or simply, one can say, it comes purely as an Almighty’s blessing.
Not to keep anymore inquisitiveness about this rare 24-hour sojourn, let me elaborate about this expedition, how and when it happened to me without any prior planning. It was on 2nd February, 2019 late evening around 10 pm at night, I was going through an inspiring video of Jaggi Sadhguru wherein the importance of holy dip in Sangam at Prayagraj was being emphasised by him, then something touched me and I just started exploring different combinations of flight options from my hometown Jammu to Allahabad (now, Prayagraj) and all of a sudden saw a direct new Spicejet flight from Jammu to Dehradun in morning hours of next day (3rd February, 2019 Sunday). The best thing, I did, was to explore some later flight options from Dehradun to Prayagraj or some nearby city which was near to site of Kumbh Mela. So, it could be either Varanasi or Lucknow which were nearest best options and to my delight, I happened to locate an afternoon Indigo flight for Lucknow from Dehradun. The next task was to find out road distance between Lucknow and Prayagraj and availability of best transportation options. Here in, I found that Volvo Bus Service was available from Lucknow ISBT to Prayagraj in the evening and the average travel time was about four hours. So, the streak for making it to Kumbh Mela increased with these options which is arguably the biggest congregation of Hindus on earth and happening once in every 12 years. But the last major challenge was still looming which was to return back to hometown Jammu which is also the workplace for me and 4th March was first working day of the week, being a Monday in which I had already planned to chair a review meeting long back and especially officers from all ten far-off districts of Jammu division were supposed to attend it. So, while exploring flight options, it was really fortunate enough to locate a direct early Morning Indigo flight from Lucknow to Jammu which would ensure that I am back in Jammu before 9 am in the morning. All this happened in a span of half an hour, that too, after a long tiring Inspection tour of a border district in the daytime. But with God’s grace, the energy levels rose-up again and I consulted family members for same especially my mother who is having strong religious bent of mind and expectedly, she also gave a nod to this short but pretty enriching and fulfilling trip to one of the rarest and pious events of Hindus i.e., Kumbh Mela, that too, for taking a dip in Holy Sangam, on the occasion of Mouni/Somawati Amawasya.
Afterwards, within no time, I booked the tickets as per above-mentioned options to carry-on this Sojourn to Holy Sangam of GYS in Prayagraj and onwards travel next morning onwards and returning back within twenty-four hours after accomplishing it successfully. But as per my vast past travelling experience, the travel plans on paper may look beautiful but when it comes to execution of same, lot of expected and unexpected challenges come up but again, the key to success lies in not panicking but trying to mitigate all such challenges with the presence of mind using all your experience and showing faith on the indication of Almighty which leads you from the front in all such situations.
Accordingly, as per the bookings and planned schedule, I started my journey with a light back-pack next morning (3rd March Sunday) after taking breakfast at my home and boarding Dehradun flight and took my next flight from Dehradun to Lucknow and after landing into Lucknow in the evening, I rushed to ISBT and took the Volvo Bus to Prayagraj, where Kumbh Mela was going at it’s full swing. Although we were encountered with lot of vehicular traffic enroute to Prayagraj, but somehow, around 10 pm at night, we have to touch the outskirts of city with actually city about 10-15 kms away and the biggest challenge was of total traffic jamming and not even a single vehicle was moving due to expected rush of vehicles to the city for upcoming Mouni Amawasya happening entire next day. While consulting well wishers and close friends, all said that you have lost the battle and it is now almost impossible to reach the Sangam and return back to Lucknow by next early morning to catch the return flight to Jammu around 6 am in the morning. For few moments, even I also felt the heat of the chaos and total stalemate kind of situation where everything had virtually come to a complete standstill due to heavy rush of ongoing vehicles towards Kumbh Mela site. But it was at this moment, I happened to keep my nerve and use all my experience of handling some similar situations in the past to fight the challenge of time and event. I took the bold decision of getting down from the Volvo bus with my back pack and explore the alternatives. Once I got down, I started rushing towards city side and requested a biker namely Anjani Kumar who was going up to a distance of few kms in Shantipuram area of Prayagraj where he was residing. But anyways, this came as a sigh of relief to me as it was helping in diffusing the commotion and chaos which would have been disastrous otherwise if I had not moved out of bus. Anjani dropped me at a point from where Kumbh Mela buses were plying to take people inside the city on this big occasion. But unfortunately, due to morning’s upcoming big event of Mouni/Somawati Amawasya, there was an unprecedented rush in those buses and there was not even a single space left for even standing in those buses to reach near the Sangam (where Holy dip is supposed to be taken). On the other side, the clock was ticking fast and almost one more hour had gone past and now, it was almost 11 pm at night. One thing I want to emphatically express here with surety that there would have been a single soul amongst millions present in Parayagraj who would have reached there covering almost a distance of 1500 kms (Jammu to Prayagraj) in a span of 12 hours and further, who would not have been contemplating to return back (same distance) in a span of next 9 hours, that too, after accomplishing the ardent task of taking holy dip in Sangam wherein there was maximum gathering of millions of pilgrims for next day’s biggest event.
I was however, still not panicking and hoping against all the hopes, to make it possible and kept trying out for achieving it with Almighty’s blessings. After some efforts, a BSc Mathematics student namely Shailesh Kumar from Allahabad University happened to be moving there on bike towards the City after dropping his elder brother whom I requested for a lift. He responded positively and then, I rode on his bike and shared the tough challenge I was facing. Even Shailesh got confused for a moment and almost gave-up and told that it was an impossible thing to be achieved in this little time. We were discussing all options while we were moving on his bike towards the Prayagraj city and particularly towards the Sangam holy dip point. Since it was a bike, we kept moving continuously through the lanes and by-lanes crossing most of the heavy rush and security points.
Finally, we touched Sangam area around 11.45 pm and the announcements were already being made that the auspicious timings for holy dip of Mouni Amawasya has started 11.20 onwards and pilgrims wishing to start the holy dip should start now onwards. Much to my delight, I gave my belongings and back pack to Shailesh and requested him to hold on till I rush to Sangam point and come back after the holy dip. But let me share that my going to Sangam point and coming Point was at a snail’s pace as we were moving with auto-push due to heavy rush of pilgrims and there was not even a single vacant space in and around Sangam ghats as many pilgrims were lying down there only under open skies waiting for their turns. With the help of few police cops, I happened to reach quickly and took the holy dip around midnight and rushed backwards. The gentle friend Shailesh Kumar, who had arrived from nowhere, was now acting like a good old friend, who was equally worried for my safe and timely return and he was waiting for me to come back after taking holy dip. Much to my surprise, he mentioned that he himself also had not taken dip in Holy Sangam till date but further said that he has got highly inspired with my indomitable will and determination to achieve this nearly impossible task and would also take the dip next morning.
Afterwards, we both tried rushing out of Sangam and Ghat areas on his bike only as the rush towards the Ghats had started increasing due to official announcements for beginning the Holy Dip in Sangam by the pilgrims. For returning back to Lucknow from Prayagraj, I had hardly 5 hours left to catch-up 6 am hometown Jammu flight from there. We tried a lot for Taxi Cab services but none was available due to the heat of event in odd midnight hours. But during the process, we just happened to find a Taxi operator, whose trip had got cancelled and he agreed to drop me at Lucknow Airport after convincing him much for charging higher rates for same. I finally hugged and thanked Shailesh and gave him equal credit for making my Yatra and Holy Dip possible without which it would have been almost impossible to do it. During return drive back to Lucknow, again, we witnessed a huge traffic jamming in first 15-20 kms due to incoming traffic of people towards Parayagraj for Monday event and even there was lot of fog in these plains but somehow, we happened to hit Lucknow airport at the nick of hour around 5.30 am and within no time, I rushed inside to catch-up flight to Jammu but only as a ‘lucky’ last passenger. As most of the stories have a happy ending and delightful climax, same happened in my case and as expected, I reached back safely and again took breakfast at home on Monday (4th March) morning before going to official as usual and taking the Review Meeting of all district officers at the Pre-scheduled time.
(The writer is a Senior KAS Officer)
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