Pilgrim Bus Stop

One night in Orchha, Alyse and I head out of the yellow Paryatak compound on a foraging expedition for food and bottled water.  An Indian once joked with me that all tourists have the same four items in their day pack: The Lonely Planet (a popular guide book), a bottle of mineral water, toilet paper, and a camera.  He had me pegged. What a curious creature, the backpacker.

A large bus is parked just outside the Paryatak.  A group of women sits together, and a group of men sits nearby.  They are having dinner, and the sense of community is strong.  We smile, bid Namaste, then walk on, when one of them motions to us, movements that say "Would you like something to eat?  Come sit with us!".

When we join them, they warmly welcome us and remove a bus seat from their bus for us to sit on.  They function as a cohesive unit -- everyone has a task.  A cook and his two helpers serve up delectable dal, sticky rice and an endless supply of chapatis, as well as a potato mixture that makes me salivate just to think of it.

A tall man with a strong countenance and a commanding voice speaks to us in Hindi, and we chat as best we can ("tora tora Hindi" = "little little Hindi").  We learn that the bus is headed for Haridwar, on the holy Ganges River northeast of Delhi, for the Kumbh Mela, a massive spiritual gathering that occurs once every three years in India.  It alternates between four sacred cities: Allahabad, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar, and so returns to the same place once every twelve years.

Click here for more on the Kumbh Mela.

This year, some six million people are expected to descend on Haridwar, to camp out for weeks in massive tent cities, to discuss spirituality and to bathe in the Ganges River.  It may be the largest gathering of humanity ever.

I run back to the Paryatak barracks to grab a few magic tricks to show these spirited pilgrims.  After one trick, they bring everyone out of the bus to watch.

When I run out of magic tricks, the strong-countenanced man grabs our attention with some catchy-sounding syllables or words, something like "oonchie coonchie coonch oonch".  A man in a long-sleeved red flannel shirt contributes more slick rhymes.  With words and with body language rich in meaning and humor, they try to teach us several Hindi tongue twisters.  Our twisted tongues try to mimic the sounds that emanate from their mouths, and for the most part, we fail hilariously.

As we tie our tongues in knots, the pilgrims are packing up their belongings, getting ready to move on to the Kumbh Mela.  Soon, the bus engine revs to life, and they rumble off into the night towards Haridwar.

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