Search Results for: kumbh Much of the world is currently in lock-down, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the inadvisability of being in small spaces with large numbers of people. I currently have two lots of travel insurance – and travel plans – that are functionally worthless as countries spiral into panic and wonder how their already-stretched health systems […]  Kumbh Melas are among the largest religious gatherings in the world. According to the BBC News, which published pictures of the 2001 Allahabad Kumbh Mela taken from space, that particular mela was “probably the largest human gathering in history”. The more recent mela in Allahabad (Prayagraj) in 2013 attracted an estimated 120 million devotees over […]  In the ancient Hindu holy city of Haridwar, on the banks of the sacred river Ganga, there is a ghat (set of steps down to the river) that is said to to have been built in the first century BC by the legendary King Vikramaditya. Called Har Ki Pauri, which means the feet of Lord […]  India is a bundle of contradictions: chaos and calm permeate everything in equal measure. The sacred and the mundane rub shoulders. Think of the mingling scents of incense, cow dung, and refuse, and you might get a sense of it. India is never dull! Every time I wander Indian streets, I return to my lodgings […]  India is a collection of colourful paradoxes. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Holy Cities along the Ganges: that river that is the embodiment of all the sacred waters in Hindu mythology and at the same time, one of the most contaminated rivers in the world. So, while it is said that you […] |
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