no free meals for the naga sadhus

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no free meals for the naga sadhus
no free meals for the naga sadhus

at the gangasagar mela transit camp, kolkata
there were in excess of 20 such kitchens at the camp, & some could cater to tens of thousands of people
these kitchens were mainly organized by groups of traders, shop keepers & merchants
at least the pilgrims did not have to bother about the fooding - all free
it was heartening to see such pious intent
now these naga sadhus will not be allowed to eat in the many camps serving free meals, not until they cover up and wash off all the ash strewn on their bodies. but then that goes against their business interests

The Gangasagar pilgrimage and fair is the second largest congregation of mankind after the triennial ritual bathing of Kumbha Mela, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagar_Island#Pilgrimage
pilgrims gather here from all parts of india, to proceed to the gangasagar mela which is another 110 kms - the final stretch
the big day is makar sankranti, which was on the 15th of jan this year. the camp winds up on the 18th

This was my first visit to the camp which was teeming with activity. My subsequent visit was on the 17th - post the big event & the camp was almost deserted - most pilgrims were already on their return leg of their journey

i would love to be there for the 2 to 3 days of the fest, but alas i cannot summon up enough courage
the journey is not the bigger issue, it's around a 4 hour journey during the mela (festival) and maybe 3 hours otherwise
185.17.252.55/gangasagar/
so what is this bigger issue
there is one single hotel with around 10 to 20 rooms & a youth hostel and other religious organizations have maybe another 50 rooms. now during the festival period plus some days prior and post - meaning the whole of january all these rooms are taken over by the state administration for managing the entire show
all these pilgrims cart along their bed and bedding on their heads. i do not think you can quite maneuver with a backpack. the tented accommodation is utter rudimentary, maybe a few thousand people in one tent. you will be lucky to sleep on a plastic sheeting or maybe even if the ground is dry enough

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Taken on: January 13, 2016
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with gangasagar transit camp gangasagar transit camp
Sets appears in:   • Gangasagar transit camp   
Groups appears in:   • Bengal / Bangla   
Camera: Nikon D7000, f/3.5, 1/320 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Nikon D7000
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure Time: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length: 18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO: 160
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Sharpness: Hard
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Ver.1.05
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