The rich affluent after the dip do charity , they take batatawada and a single loaf of bread and feed the poor that sit across the Kund at Nasikh Panchvati.
Even the poor Sadhus sit along with the beggars and each beggar is given one set ,,and I was fascinated with this Sadhu ... what was he thinking about the batawada and the bread in his hand ,,I tried poetically perhaps even mystically to penetrate his mind ,, but I failed both as a poet and as mystic of sorts ,, the man who was giving the bata wada and loaf came near me seeing me barefeet but was confused by my camera and walked away without uttering a word ,, I never refuse food but I would have given it to some beggar child down the road .
I gave money to some poor Sadhus and asked them to eat at a hotel near the Kund they thanked me I gave them bottles of water and made my way to the ricksha stand I was planning to go to Tapovan Sadhugram.
At Tapovan I saw and shot the Akhara people feeding the poor and the Sadhus ,,hundreds of them were being fed ,,it was amazing so many different looking Sadhus under the canopy of true Indian hospitality ,, the chant of Sitaram Sitaram Radhe Sham Radhe Sham flowed freely I began to shoot a video and chant it too and some more minstrels joined me chanting along with me ,, I was no more a photographer I had become one with the Sadhus and the beggars I shot .
If you shoot the Kumbh the way I shoot it you wont even need the camera in your hands ,, myriads of faces and eyes shot me ,, they knew heart to heart I was one of them we were one in body soul and spirit living out a role into eternity ..
The Kumbh is an unseen passion holding your inner soul in a bind ,, I have perhaps not come out of it ,, my wife was coming back from Lucknow a few days back and the entire coach was packed with Sadhus going to Nasikh and when she reached Mumbai she told me that on seeing the Sadhus she was searching for me among them mentally ,,,,
And mind you these are after thoughts of the Kumbh ,, Ramkund and Tapovan are vast huge far flung and you need several days to real shoot them on your soul.. this is what I shot in a few hours ,,a sadhu humbly holding a batatwada a loaf of bread ,,, and this is the story of our life too.. the eating items were given to him as charity ,,, by the rich.. the amazing cycle of cosmic give and take ,,,
I will now wrap myself in the silence of my picture ,, soak in it for some more time ,,,
