fotoIndia- the Maha kumbhMela

The largest ever gathering of humanity in a simple place in all history.More than 80 million people converged on the holy city of Allahabad to bathe in the Ganges during the sacred Hindu festival held between January and March2013,an event that occurs once every 12 years(and,on a lesser scale,every third year.)in this city of tents ash-covered sadhus gather; gurus whose signs and sound systems are straight from Bollywood.. There are holy men and hucksters, men who have remained standing for two decades, or simply, in one case, held their hand in the air until it atrophied in that position,all to escape the Karmic wheel of reincarnation. Ii is an extraordinary spiritual happening ,leavened by an almost Chaucerian lack of piety. There is no alcohol, but some will offer their chillum,or conical pipe, if you join them in prayers.It is a quintessentially Indian mass of contradictions; the woman blathers remain modest in saris, while naked sadhus road into the waters beside them.