Nashik Kumbh of 2015

The Nashik Kumbh of 2015 is separated from the last event not just by 12 years. From a religious congregation in its last avatar, the Kumbh is now a mega event pegged to generate business worth Rs.15,000 crore, an estimate that covers hotels, airlines, and transport among other key services. On the Kumbh bandwagon are half a dozen websites hard selling the event. And they seem to be doing a good job.
In the sea of saffron, the tolling of bells at temples, crowds milling on the banks of Godavari and sadhus riding chariots are marketing ventures. A Noida-based company is offering helicopter rides in Nashik and a Faridabad-based tour operator is a key player in the luxury cottage segment. An executive of this operator, Sanjeev Rana, says this is his fourth Kumbh; from Swiss tents in the Allahabad Kumbh, the company has switched to deluxe and super-deluxe cottages this time.They are half-full currently, mainly with foreigners, but bookings are on in full swing. The Kumbh officially started on July 14 and will conclude on August 11, 2016, but religious activity and pilgrim numbers will surge during the two shahi snans next month.
Meanwhile, the postal department has also taken a holy business dip -it's offering to sell purified Godavari jal in post-offices across the country. The river water will be collected, purified and packed in one-litre and half-litre bottles. These will be kept at the Nashik post-office and distributed to different places once the orders are placed.
Locals, too, are selling stainless steel kamandals for Rs.15 each, with images of Nashik and Trimabakeshwar embossed on them. “It can carry 300ml of Godavari water and people can take it back home as a souvenir,“ says Suraj Ghadwaje, a local potter. Private companies are offering to sell purified Godavari water online, harvested during the auspicious days of the Kumbh. The souvenir idea also has Nashikite Darnish Singh Kalra come up with a merchandise plan -mugs and shirts with cheeky slogans -that he plans to sell online.
But beyond sadhus and snans, and big and small businesses, is the digital leap this Kumbh has taken. There is an app for everything this time -the key one is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-backed Kumbathon that offers information ranging from Nashik's history and tourism hotspots to bed availability in hotels, and in case of emergency, hospitals. It also has live traffic updates at the swipe of the smartphone screen. For the charitable at heart, there is the Annadan app, which collected donations worth Rs.1 lakh within a week of its launch. And then there is Milaap, the lost-and-found app, to ensure there are no stories of people lost in the Kumbh.
In the last Kumbh, officials recall how a “few hotlines and mobiles“ kept them connected. The Nashik district administration, determined to avoid a repeat of the 2003 stampede, has this time latched on to digital solutions for crowd management, including a massive CCTV network and digital screens doing the countdown to the next dip and offering live darshan of deities to prevent crowding at temples.
There's more on the digital front.On Saturday, when a sea of humanity surged towards the Godavari for the first shahi snan, the district collectorate kept a close watch on the data from mobile towers -a smart technique a bunch of professionals developed to map crowd density in each area.
And for sadhus who like to be frugal, BSNL has given them free SIM cards with a free roaming pack. It's also offering wi-fi at eight locations, ensuring connectivity for everyone at all places.
There is no offer for a hotline to God just yet. Maybe that's for Kumbh 2027.