Rishikesh and the Kumbh Mela

March 14-15, 2010

Well we survived the Kumbh Mela festival held in Hardwar (12 miles from Rishikesh). The festival is held in four different cities every 12 years. Reportedly it is the largest religious gathering on Earth; up to 100 million Hindu pilgrims gather for a ceremonial bath in the holy Ganges or Ganga River. We stayed clear of the major masses of people here in Rishikesh but the spillover had enough energy and people for the festival to fulfill our curiosity. Large groups create problems in India - even when they are peaceful. A couple weeks ago 61 people were killed in a stampede at another holy site gathering and another 7 were killed at a stampede during a Police recruitment day. When you have this many people in a country, things can go wrong very quickly.

We have really enjoyed our stay in Rishikesh; Laurie was able to attend a couple yoga classes and chanting while Steve joined in for two private meditation sessions. We attended a few nightly pujas (public praying on the river) and launched a bowl of flowers with candles and incenses down the river for our own special blessings (wishes). Between that and our holy dips into the Ganges (two white water rafting trips) we feel complete and ready to move on from this beautiful yet strange city.

We met a man last night at our hotel who lives in Spain but grew up in Naples. We must have talked (and gestured) for a couple hours about Naples and its unique way of living. He and a friend just finished a stay at an Ashram near Delhi. Hard to imagine a Neapolitan practicing silence in an Ashram. We just love all the interesting people we meet while traveling. We don’t just meet Indians, but the rest of the world through other travels.

The Ganges really is a special river and people here say it is very clean (up here anyway) and scientists are baffled that they cannot find bacteria in the water. Hmmm, not sure about that, but we didn’t get sick from the water so that says something. We may not feel the same way once we get to our next destination Varanasi where the Ganges is not so clean.

Unfortunately because of the festival, we could not get a train or flight to Delhi for our transfer to Varanasi, so we’ll be traveling by car most of the day tomorrow.

Laurie