Kumbh Mela/ Mahakumbh, Nashik
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
Coins
Making money from money has been the new business mantra for many at the Maha Kumbh Mela
Sitting on empty, folded sacks, they neatly pile up coins in multiple rows and jingle them every time someone passes by. For the unaccustomed, it takes a while to realise they are out to make ‘money from money’. A large number of men sit along the – a much sought after item at the Maha Kumbh Mela as over the years they have come to be a part of various rituals.
If you give these men a 10-rupee note, in return they give you anything from Rs 5 to Rs 7 in coins, pocketing the remaining amount. Though there are no “fixed rates” in the business, if you have good bargaining skills you can narrow their profit margins.
You can’t go to the Maha Kumbh ceremonies without coins. Devotees know that very well. We fulfil the need for coins at the Maha Kumbh,” Hirendra Bajpai, 52, who sells coins, said.
Be it for the aartis or fire rituals at the Maha Kumbh along the sacred ghats of Har-ki-Pauri, making offerings in temples, offering money to the river, or just giving alms, coins come handy on many occasions.
According to people in this business, devotees throng them daily to buy these coins. “From 5 am, devotees and tourists, particularly those coming from abroad, start lining up before us for coins for the rituals. During the early hours and at around 5 pm, we get our prospective buyers,” said Dwarika Prasad, 50, who sells coins with his two sons along the Parmanand ghat.
“The reason for getting buyers in the early morning and then in the evening is the popular aartis performed daily along the ghats, particularly the most-visited Har-Ki-Pauri ghat,” he said.
These men earn Rs 500-Rs 700 on a daily basis, while the earning crosses the Rs 1,000-mark on important bathing days and auspicious occasions.
Recently, on the Magh Poornima snan (bathing ritual) on Jan 30, I earned Rs 12,000. Our business definitely turns brisk on important bathing dates. We are eagerly waiting for three shahi snans (royal baths) as our earnings increase on those days,” said Deshraj Kumar, a youth who sells coins.
Asked how they managed to refresh their stocks, Kumar said, “Actually, big time traders and shopkeepers don’t like keeping coins. We approach them on a daily basis and they give away coins in lieu of currency notes.” IANS
Innovations
The Times of India, Aug 24 2015
John Sarkar
India's biggest religious congregation turns into testing ground for innovators
Tech companies are camping in Nashik Kumbh to study conditions of rapid urbanization and offering solutions that can help build smart cities Around three crore pilgrims have gathered at the Kumbh Mela in Nashik this year, but sadhus and spectators aren't the only faces visible at the world's largest religious congregation. Innovators from organizations like MIT, Nokia, Wikipedia, the Tata Centre for Technology and Design, the IITs and Reliance Innovation Lab have started camping at the religious jamboree. They're viewing it as a unique opportunity called the Kumbhathon to work with a very large test group, study the stresses of rapid urbanization and create disruptive solutions in the domains of health, housing, food, payments and transportation.
Over 30 days, the Kumbh Mela has become for them a petri dish to test out frugal innovations that will one day power the smart cities of developing economies. “Our research team in Bangalore is looking forward to collaborating with MIT during the Kumbhathon in Nasik, to pilot innovations that will make a positive difference for rapidly growing communities,“ said Sophie Vandebroek, chief technology officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group to Kumbhathon members, “Researchers at Xerox are addressing a wide range of urban challenges using a combination of mobile sensing, crowdsourcing, and prescriptive analytics to create actionable insights for cities and their citizens.“
The Kumbhathon is a year-round project set up by these organizations to brainstorm and come up with solutions to address the challenges of Kumbh Mela. For instance, a 17-year-old has designed a foot mat that can count footsteps.
“It can be placed anywhere and can help in sensing crowd movement, thus preventing stampedes,“ said Darnish Singh Kalra, co-founder of Lucid Lane, a creative agency that is taking part in the event. Stampedes are a common occurrence at the melas with the 1954 edition witnessing around 1,000 deaths.
Similarly, Twitter and Facebook-savvy gurus like Swami Chidanand Saraswati, founder of Ganga Action Parivar, along with Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji, secretary-general of Global In terfaith WASH Alliance, are working to support PM Narendra Modi's push for renewable energy . To make Kumbh clean and energyfriendly, the spiritual leaders are using their clout among devotees to promote the use of solar lamps sold by Urjakart, an Indian startup.
Mentored by tech companies, students too have hopped on to the Kumbh bandwagon with startup ideas. Two interesting apps developed by them for the mela are Epimetrics and Meditracker. While the former attempts to curb the spread of epidemics by digitizing doctors' logs across the city , the latter acts as a `911' service alerting medical personnel in case of any serious injuries.
Among other innovations playing a significant role at Kumbh is the concept of crowd steering using mobile towers, which is a real-time system that not only shows the density distribution of a large crowd but also tracks its flow, allowing people to be redirected away from saturated areas.There is also Annadan, an innovative supply chain that di verts food donated to temples to those who are hungry , thus reducing food wastage.
See also
Kumbh Mela/ Mahakumbh, Nashik
