Godavari Maha Pushkaram (Great Worship of the Godavari River) is a Hindu festival and it was celebrated from 14 July 2015 for a period of twelve days. This year it is considered to be Maha Pushkaram which happens to come every 144 years. Godavari river is almost 2.5 KM in width at Rajamundry in Andhra Pradesh. Beautiful road and rail bridges span across this river. I went to capture the essence of this festival and it was an amazing experience. Govt of AP has made amazing arrangements and given a facelift to city of Rajamundry. I know it is really sad what happened on the day 1, we should not judge the effort put by number of police, medical and govt. officials and huge number of volunteers based on the day 1 event. It was just an unfortunate event and everyone including frenzy crowds realized what happened and started listening to police and volunteer's request to be orderly and follow instructions.
This is a small attempt to give you a day in life of Rajamundry visitor during one of these 14 days and experience the same through my lens.
Approximately 4 Crore (40 Million) People took dip in Godavari at Rajamundry during these 14 days which itself is a mind boggling number.
Visitors came from all walks of life; expecting mothers, new born babies, teenagers, people at thier ripe age and everyone in between. It was more an homogenous crowd than what I experienced at Kumbh Mela. I missed the babas, gurujis and akhadas.
Many different voluntary organizations and locals helped a lot in conducting this event. However Satya Sai baba seva dal organization takes the cake. Their volunteers were every where offering water through portable containers, controlling the crowds at ghats politely by using word 'Sairam' and cleaning up the place. They came from all over the country and worked in shifts. Hats off to Sevadal members!!
Local did their part of hosting visitors, feeding them and taking care of them in hot sun.
Highlight is of course Aarathi to Godavari River every evening on the floating pantoon between the two railway bridges.
That brings the day to an end and depending on the arrangements, people either sleep on the road, at community centers, railway stations or hotels and head back to their destinations carrying thier memories back. They feel that all thier sins are washed away by holy river and they can start a fresh account of the same. As I was completing this trip, thought came to me if Govt. calls for cleaning the river instead, how many people would show-up? Can Government, media and Gurujis call for action to clean river? We have Pushkaralu to clean ourselves every 12 years then why not start reverse pushkaralu every other year to clean the river? I should start a blog on the same and see the reaction. What do you think? Please leave your opinion on social media.
