I realize the entire mela went by without a post… my apologies. So much was happening everyday, it was very difficult to leave the mela grounds and go to town to use the internet. So I’ll be posting a series of recaps to cover what I’ve gone through the past few weeks. I’m heading to Varanasi in a few days and there I will have 24 hrs electricity and internet access daily. So I plan to write, edit video, build photo galleries and post things online more frequently in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile below is the first of several recaps…
After a few days in Delhi trying unsuccessfully to complete some New York freelance work, (while waiting for Jessica’s delayed flight to arrive from Thailand), and a few days helping the family (with whom we stayed in 2001) get Adi Veni Madhav Mandir ready for the many pilgrims planning to stay there, we finally ventured into the mela area. Instantly I felt the stress of New York drift away along our boat ride across the Jamuna River.
Big sigh of release once we hit the opposite shore. But of course after 6 years I can’t remember the layout of the mela grounds, much less the fact that the Ganga river has shifted, bridges are now in different places and sectors that were once on one side of the ganga are now on the other. I am completed disoriented and trying to hide the fact from Jessica, that we are slightly lost.
We walked and walked and walked all day till nearly sunset…magically making our way to Prabu Premi Sang, the ashram camp of Juna Akhara’s Mahamadeshwar Avedeshanand Giri, where Saugat and I stayed in 2004. Nearly instantly we were greeted by warm welcomes and inquiries on the status of my leg, including from Puri, Avedeshanand Giri’s head painter and graphic designer (for all his stage backdrops, banners, billboards and posters). Puri told me he had been to Hari Giri’s tent and Hari had already asked about me.
Hari Giri we met in 2001 the first day we took the Take Me to the River film crew into the mela area.
There in his tent he played around with one of the Cannon Eloras. Then in 2004 he was the first baba to remember me and look out for me while I was limping with me hurt knee. Midway through the 2004 mela, Hari Giri was using my Panasonic 3chip DVcamera to shoot all the men’s naga initiation.
Puri offered us a ride on his scooter, later after he finished another hour of work. So meanwhile we sat in the office area trading mobile numbers, drank chai, took a tour of one of the most fancy camps in all of Kumbh Mela, then finally sat down in the back of his pavilion among a several hundred, quite possible a thousand pilgrims and saints listening to his daily sermon.
And of course I pick the section of the floor with a small group of women dressed in orange. We sit quite close to them, only exchanging modest glances, just enough for me to confirm that I think I know one of them. I dig through the ziplock bag of photos I’m carrying around (for the sole purpose of ice breaker giveaways) and sure enough I find two photos of this lady sadhvi, on the day she became a Shri Mahant in Ujjain 2004. But I don’t want to interrupt in case these ladies are really hanging on Avedeshanand’s every word, so we sit and wait, during which time I replay recent phone conversations with Shri Mahant Meera Puri (from Nahaan, my main sadhvi contact who in Ujjain invited me to shoot the women’s initiation). In November when she told me she was not attending the mela I told her my plan was to camp with her, so I asked who would be attending who she though would remember and welcome me. She told me she’d make some calls and when we spoke again in December she told me to look for another Meera Puri (from Locknow), reminding me of the photos I shot of her on the day she became Shri Mahant….
Ah ha! It’s her. Of course the first sadhvis I sit next to are the ones I’m supposed to meet. But again I don’t want to disturb them. So we sit and wait and just as it seems Jessica is growing impatient, the sadhvis get up. I nudge Jessica to get up too, as I quickly approach Meera Puri with two photos in my hand, “Ye aap, hai na? (This is you right?)”, I ask. She takes a look at the photos, then at me and asks “Aap Nicole hai?” (your’re Nicole?). I said yes, she grab my hand and said “Chelo! (Let’s go!)”. Jessica and I quickly grabbed our sandals, exchanged numbers with Puri (the painter with the scooter who was planning to take us to Hari Giri’s tent) and follow theses ladies for a half hour trek through sandy alleyways between tents as they tried to remember there way back from sector 9 to sector 5.
Along the walk, while the other sadhvis tried to figure out which direction was the shortest route, Meera Puri (Locknow) told me that Meera Puri (Nahaan) called her several weeks ago telling her I would be coming, to welcome me and help me with what ever I needed during the mela. She said when we sat down next to them she thought it might me me, but since I didn’t say anything at first she wasn’t sure.
Once we sat down in her tent, her coatwal (appointed guard – in red shawl),prepared two boxes of sweets and presented them as Prasad (blessed food offerings from a saint of temple), while Meera Puri (Locknow) told me the other Meera Puri (Nahaan) has been calling her daily to see if I have arrived yet. I told her I had several cameras and film to give them, as well as a printer to print digital photos for them and footage from 2001 and 2004 (to show and or burn dvds) for them. She told me Meera Puri (Nahaan) already told her to allow me to shoot bathing processions and initiation rites.
After an hour or so of shooting the shit, testing my translation skills (to allow Jessica to follow what is going on), I get a call from Hari Giri, Puri (painter) now in his tent had given him my phone number. I tell him where we are and in a few minutes Puri and another old baba show up to escort us to Hari Giri’s tent.
So here we are 6 years after our first meeting and this Gujarati photo wala (photographer) pulls out a photo of me and some other’s from the 2001 crew in the very same tent. They joke that I look so much older and thinner now. I tell Hari he can use my video camera again this year and that I have a printer to print photos of him from the past two kumbhs. I also mention we have some more friends coming in a few days. Next thing I know we are offered a large tent, with two rooms, a toilet and running water, which will be ready in a couple days.
As with most of my time at the mela, in our first day, things are already rolling effortlessly…
To watch video clips from our experiences at the mela, check out Casey Meade’s (of Projectile Arts) video blog
http://blip.tv/file/132608Deeply embedded within Juna Akhara this time, these shots show a much more insider perspective of the mela, than in our first experience making
TMTTRFootage shot by Casey Meade, Hari Giri (using my camera) and Dharam Giri (using his Nokia N70 mobile phone camera). Truly amazing!
Ok that’s all for now. Heading off to get film processed from all the disposable cameras and film I gave out to the Sadhvis!
Here's some images from the first few days at the Mela handing out cameras in the Mai Varda (Juna Akhara's woman's camp):
This is a test entry for what I will begin in 2007...
