Kumbhmela - the biggest gathering of mammals on the earth.

KUMBH MELA IS THE biggest gathering OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ON THE BANKS OF SACRED RIVERS, WHO GATHER FROM ALL aROUND THE GLOBE seeking spirituality. KUMBH IS A SANSKRIT WORD FOR PITCHER, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS THE KALASHA. MELA MEANS A GATHERING OR SIMPLY A FAIR. THE KUMBH CELEBRATION ROTATES AT FOUR PLACES IN INDIA, BASED ON CERTAIN CELESTIAL ALIGNMENT OF THE PLANETS. MILLIONS OF DEVOTEES TAKE HOLY DIP IN THE SACRED RIVERS WITH THE BELIEF THAT IT CLEANSES THEIR SOULS AND LEADS TO SALVATION.

How I reached: during kumbhmela event the air fare goes super expensive. I booked direct flight to Varanasi & from there 3-4 hours bus journey to Allahabad & vice versa.

Stay: During Kumbh the govt arranges for tented accommodation in vast area for all the visitors which will cost you few hundreds rupees only.

you can book them online or book directly in the venue.

Food & refreshments: You won't be getting any kind of nonveg food items here. If you are non veg lover you may have to sacrifice your appetite till ur last day of stay. once you get into the kumbhmela venue you have to plan your meal based on the available street foods (oily noodles, masala puri, channa, sugarcane juice, groundnut etc). you may not get a proper food inside the venue. But if u can visit the muts of sadhus they provide free lunch for all visitors.

I always carry a paperboat & few chocolates (snickers, munch) so that I can concentrate on photography.

Crowd: the main challenge of attending kumbhmela is how you gonna tackle the crowd? specially on the day of holy bath the crowd will be enormous. the usual routes will be blocked by cops & you have to take the long route by walk. Also the transport facilities will be un available with no auto rickshaw you have walk for few kilometres.

during the last day of my trip (on holy bath day + sunday) I didn't get any modes of transport to reach the bus stop to look for any transport to Varanasi. Finally ended up booking an OLA ride direct to Varanasi (4k rupees).

Choosing photography gears: I took my new Sony a7ii + 28-70 kittens & Nikor d750 + 85mm f1.8 & Nikon 10.5fish eye f2.8 DX lens as spare lens. As I have to walk everyday at least 6-8 hours everyday I have to carry lighter bag. during holy bath mornings the event will start by 3:30 am so its recommended to use minimum 2.8 aperture lens but 1.8 aperture (35mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.8).

DOs & Dont's: never do anything which irritates sadhus. Always keep a safe distance as many sadhus don't like getting clicked & few will expect u to pay them also. So you need to act accordingly.

Whether: the temperature went min 8 degrees in 3-4am. in daytime it will be close to 30 degrees

Holy bath event: Sadhus will begin their holy bath from around 3:30 am which will be fully protected by police. So it may be tough to reach the bathing point.