The Curious and Curiosities

There is a saying in Bengali “shob tirtha bar bar; Ganga Sagar akbar“. It roughly translates to “All pilgrimages may be visited many times, but visiting Ganga Sagar once is enough”. The origin of this saying has its moorings in the beliefs of the people of West Bengal centred around the Ganga Sagar Mela, a religious congregation of the Hindus at the confluence of the River Ganga. More precisely, the congregation happens on one of the many islands of the Gangetic Delta called Sagar that comes under the South 24 Paraganas District of West Bengal in India.

The Ganga Sagar Mela claims to be the second largest religious gathering in the country and it occurs on the day of ‘Makar Sankranti’, the last day of the month of Pousha as per the Bengali calendar. People arrive in large numbers to take a dip in the holy Ganga near the point where the river meets the Bay of Bengal. Devotees believe that a dip in the holy waters will wash off all sins and prevent their re-birth.

Kolkata, being 150 kilometers away, becomes the most important transit point for devotees. The government runs buses from Howrah Junction to ferry people to the Sagar Island. This year, despite the threat of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic looming, the Mela had a sizeable turnout.

The empty swathes of land along the banks of the River Hooghly near Babughat were converted to the Ganga Sagar Transit Camp for Hindu monks and hermits. Pilgrims flock to this place to avail of a mode of transportation provided by the West Bengal government.

The Mela itself has its unique sights, sounds, and colours — the splash of the red vermilion, Hindu monks with their dreadlocks and blots of ash smeared generously on their faces and bodies, the freely available and marijuana, the devotional music and the instruments, the flowers of various colours — it oftentimes betrays a surreal spectacle. People believe that offerings to the monks and seeking their blessings and receiving ‘prasadam’ from them would make them achieve their unfulfilled desires.

T‌here were two odd additions this year necessitated by the circumstances — the compulsory mask and sanitisation machines. Perhaps the Ganga Sagar Mela became an occasion where the boundaries between faith and science blurred.

This photo feature takes you inside the Kolkata Transit Camp.