Making Proper Arrangements

If I had one rupee for every tourist I have heard making plans to go to the Khumba Mela, I would be able to give quite a tidy sum to the families of this tragedy in India.

In this story twenty five thousand people had gathered at a temple in rural Uttar Pradesh for a festival and a free lunch, which is a bit like the tourists gawping at a Khumba Mela.

In any case, as one paper reports, half of the people were there "without proper arrangements" which is also a bit like the tourists who are wandering off in the direction of Haridwar with no idea or arrangement in mind.

While officials in the UP case are denying that the deaths which currently amount to 63 are the result of a stampede, you only have to put stampede and India into a Google search and see how many hits you get!

The story now coming out is that a temporary shelter collapsed onto the pilgrims who were gathered to eat, but that people were injured in the rush the panic that ensued.

It's a risky business being in a crowd of highly excitable, often uneducated Indians. During the 2004 Khumba Mela in Ujjain, I also had some vague I idea that I would watch the whole thing from the sidelines, as in the case of the tourists now heading to the Khumb. I was in attendance with my Guru ji, the wild and crazy Naga Baba Chandon Giri and his brotherhood of Baba's under the Nerenjni Akhara. These are the guys who lead the march down the river in the bathing rituals. 

So I had in a way, made proper arrangements. I was safely tucked away behind the temporary walls of the fierce Naga Baba. But when it came time for the procession to begin, my idea of watching from the sideline proved to be a bloody silly idea. There was no sideline in any case.

As I watched the procession swell into its own majestic version of itself, the scene was something out of a storybook!  The Naga's in front naked and smeared with holy ash leaping and jumping and totally primal were shouting Om Namah Shiva like a war cry. Behind the Naga ranks of orange robed sannyasi and a brass band, behind the rank and file huge wooden wheeled carriages pulled by swarthy Naga carried Holy Men who were being fanned by young boys, behind that the rank and file of the followers of the most fierce sadhu in India which must have numbered two thousand.

Since Nerenjini is the oldest brotherhood of sadhu in India, they usually lead the march in this kind of glorious procession, like gods going off to war. 

The whole world for one glorious minute was the sound of total worship of the God Shiva and then the gates swung open.

What I saw in that instant was that there was no bloody sideline to watch from, the sideline had disappeared under a tsunami of people and faces all waiting to catch sight of the Naga in their primal glory.

There was not one inch of space between earth and sky that was not occupied by people. At the moment I was about to turn and flee back into the bowels of the camp, my arm was very firmly grabbed by my Guru ji and we were swept into the army of naked Naga as they surged out of the gates.

At this point in any festival, you loose any individual will, you become a fish in the stream of life, or a piece of seaweed in ocean pulled this way according to the will of the tide.

Three times in the push and surge of the procession, my feet were lifted clear off the ground from the crush of human bodies. Three times I was hauled out of the procession by cops guarding the sideline and three times hauled back in by a Naga, twice I was groped and at all times I only prayed for a heart attack that would kill me instantly before I fell to the ground and was stampeded to death.

I have never been so scared in all my life! In the crazy kind of way that the gods have of keeping me just this side of safety and sanity, I was in the best and most protected place to be. 

I watch these tourists head off to Haridwar as innocent as the villagers in UP, with nothing but hope and faith and a tola or two hashish and shake my head. I want to shout, "It's not a bloody rock concert! You have to make Proper Arrangements!"