Kumba Mela from the land
- Kushala
- Jan 22
- 4 min read
I took a break in this gazebo. While I was hanging out there, a snake charmer came in and put on a show for us. It was pretty amazing. The snake looked fake, until the snake charmer started playing his flute. Then the snake started dancing!
Inside the Kumba Mela, it felt like a big festival. I've been to music festivals before, and this reminded me of that. On a much grander scale, of course. And without all the stages and musical performances. Walking through the festival grounds, there were several girls performing balance feats. This girl was particularly adorable. I gave her a thumbs up and she returned it without missing a beat. Then I saw her collection plate and dropped a 200 rupee note in it. 200 rupees is about $2.30. You should have seen her face light up!
There were several pontoon bridges to get folks from one side of the river to the other. The bridges were all constructed for the Kumba Mela and are built to hold thousands of people and vehicles.
I've talked in prior years about all the people that stop me for selfies. I used to ask to take pictures with them, too. There were way too many people stopping me at the Kumba Mela to take that kind of time. It got a bit overwhelming a couple of times. I couldn't get away from the folks lining up to take their picture with me. My friend had to pull me away from the crowd. I felt like a rock star. I'm not going to lie - I enjoyed it. Lol!
Apparently a lot of these folks have never seen a white person before. Many of the people attending the Kumba Mela come from very small villages. It got so I could recognize the look on someone's face when they wanted to take a selfie with me and were too shy to ask. In those cases, I would ask. I found the whole thing very touching.
Not only did I get the rock star treatment, my friend and our tuktuk driver benefitted as well. Our driver was able to drive his tuktuk into the festival grounds because of the foreigner in the back seat. Then, after we parted ways, he was able to stay inside and make money.
There was a reporter from one of the national news outlets. He spotted me going into one of the port-a-potties that were set up. You may recall that bathrooms were another source of some stress for me. I finally broke down and used one of the Indian toilets, which is a basin dug into the ground that you squat over. That was my second time using an Indian toilet. The whole time I was in there I was praying that I would not pee on myself. I was in there awhile, as my bladder was quite full. When I came out, I found this reporter standing with my friends waiting to interview me. Thank God I didn't pee all over myself in the bathroom! 😅
My friend got us into the Hanuman temple without having to wait in a very long line because I was a foreigner. We went in the exit and were able to have darshan of Hanuman, the monkey God and get out in about ten minutes. Amazing!
Our visit to the Hanuman temple was our last stop at the Kumba Mela. When we started walking toward the Hanuman temple, the plan was to get a tuktuk to take us there. I didn't think I would be able to walk all the way to the temple - it was pretty far away. When we started our trek, we headed over one of those pontoon bridges. It was sunset, which made for a breathtaking view.
The thing is, we never found a tuktuk to take us to the temple. Despite my belief that I couldn't walk all that way, I did. The temple was even farther than we thought! (Insert facepalm emoji here) After the temple, we continued our quest for a tuktuk. That was a real challenge - there were very few tuktuks in our area of the festival. There was lots of foot traffic, and plenty of people headed in the direction of the train station. The train station was 6km away. I was confident that I would not be up for a 6km walk!
A man on a motorcycle offered to give us a ride to the train station. I was dubious about the three of us all going on the same bike at the same time. People here do it all the time. It's not unusual to see whole families on one bike. Still, I wasn't up for that kind of an adventure at the end of a long and full day. We trudged along, and finally found an available tuktuk. Most of the tuktuk drivers were restricted from entering the festival grounds. It is a 6km walk from the entrance to the festival grounds to the banks of the river. We weren't walking from the banks of the river, but I was running on fumes. The driver dropped us off at a restaurant right across the street from the train station. After dinner, we made our way over and settled in to wait for our train.
I thought the train was coming at 9pm. Turns out, it was 9:25. At least until it was running late. The train pulled in to the station at 10:10pm. We arrived back in Varanasi close to midnight, and it was well after 12am when I finally got to bed. What a full and amazing day! And this was just the end of my second day in India.
Dear Kushala,
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, I feel like I had a chance to visit Kumba Mela with you. Can't wait to hear from you when you are in Ganeshpuri!