Maha arrangements!

The biggest gathering of humanity is currently at Allahabad, for the grand Maha Kumbh Mela. Monday, 14th Jan was considered to be the most auspicious day and an estimated one lakh people bathed in the Ganges or Sangam as it is known during the Mela. And this crowd was so big that one could see the milieu of people from even a space satellite.

And managing this largest human gathering on earth is no small feat. It requires gargantuan machinery in place, which ensures not just ease in bathing but security too. Consider these mind boggling figures - 700,000 tents are erected to house the visitors, around 25,000 tonnes of foodgrains are sent to feed the pilgrims, 31 police stations and 41 police check-posts have come up to maintain law and order and 36 fire stations are on alert. And laying the temporary infrastructure is huge too with new pipes being laid for clean drinking water, a super-specialty hospital has been erected and there is a massive TV screen which flashes security messages and information about missing people. After all major Hindi movie plots earlier had the typical siblings getting separated during such Kumbh mela’s!

Harvard University is astounded with these arrangements and is actually trying to study this entire process of ‘temporary infra’ built every 12 years. This huge habitat which comes up is stated to be as large as New York, London and Paris combined. A fantastic effort and it goes on to show how when the Govt wants to do something, it gets to doing it and does it well too! If only all Govt machineries worked like this, all the time, even when there is no Kumbh Mela. Kudos to the state Govt for having put up this gigantic temporary city!