Maha-Mela
This story is a descriptive narrative about a family’s visit to the annual Maha-Mela in Omkareshwar, a temple town in India. It follows the experiences of Kailash, his granddaughters Nandini and Prachee, their family friend Rajen, and a local woman named Maya as they navigate the festivities, rides, and preparations for a film screening during the Mela.
Kailash is ready to go out with Nandini and Prachee, his granddaughters. It is the first night of the annual Maha-Mela that takes place in Omkareshwar in the month of November. Being a temple town, Omkareshwar is always flooded with tourists. But, the inflow of people from various parts of the country on the occasion of the Maha-Mela is unimaginable. Omkareshwar isn’t allowed to rest during these days, not even at nights. The entire town looks like a newly wedded bride, ornamented to the full in every way possible. Both the girls are neatly dressed up in their brand new dresses- Nandini is wearing a knee-length maroon frock with white dots all over its upper part; while Prachee is wearing a dark blue Salwar suit, without the Dupatta. Kailash calls Rajen asking him to pick them up. But Rajen has already arrived a few minutes back with his auto and is waiting outside, which Kailash gets to know only after the phone call. As soon as they come out of the house, Rajen picks Nandini up and starts pouring heaps of praises for her lovely dress- “You’re looking like a princess. Do you realize, my dear?“ Nandini responds with a reticent smile, the kind very common with kids that age, and sits in the auto carefully, trying her best not to put her dress in any sort of danger. Prachee sits in the front as always, putting both her hands on top of Rajen’s, holding the wheel properly. Rajen asks Kailash where they should head towards.
“Let’s go towards the river bank first. We’ll see what to do afterwards,” Kailash replies. “Why didn’t you bring Radhika along?”
“She will come after a while. She isn’t ready yet. I’ll ask her to come near the river… Or maybe, I’ll pick her up myself. We’ll see…“
“That will be better… Drop us first and then go pick her up.”
Kailash is a 65-year-old man living with his bedridden wife, his daughter and three granddaughters. He runs a tiny stall selling Puja related wares near the Mambleshwar Ghat– a stall he set up ages back by putting a tarpaulin above a raised platform with the help of two bamboo sticks. He speaks aloud each time a tourist passes by his shop- “Fifty rupees for one plate… Fifty rupees for a plate…” It’s like a song that comes out of his mouth instinctively- like a robot responding to spotting any potential customer. The plate consists of two Diyas, sometimes the painted ones if the customers are lucky; a few flowers, usually orange marigolds; two pieces of Batashas, and a small packet of incense sticks. Kailash, sitting slightly slanted in the shop in his pale grey shirt and white pajamas, talking to different people at different times of the day is a common sight in the Mambleshwar Ghat. Though very rarely, but he also wears Dhotis on the odd days if he feels like. A Gamcha put on his shoulder is another of his ornaments- mostly the red one with white stripes; but occasionally, the green one too if he had washed the red one the night before after it started stinking. He would use it to wipe sweat off his face on sunny humid days, and also to shoo away flies and mosquitoes otherwise.
He has lived in Omkareshwar all his life. He used to drive a boat when there were only 5 boats in the entire Omkareshwar region, as opposed to the 500 boats which are currently in business. He often blows his own trumpet speaking about it and how he used to make people cross the Narmada River as a kid at one go, that too in his hand paddled boat. When the government decided to build a bridge over the river, Kailash was the first one to protest against it. He was also the one making everyone aware of the repercussions they would have to tackle with, if the bridge was built. Nobody actually knows if he really did that, but nobody complains either as almost everyone in the town is a fan of his charming storytelling abilities. In fact, it is the favorite pastime of most of his neighboring stall owners. They eventually couldn’t stop the construction of the bridge; but Kailash did get an acre of land from the government in the form of compensation, which he used for growing a variety of crops for a couple of years. He often narrates stories to kids describing how Omkareshwar used to function without electricity and transportation once- how it used to look nothing more than just a jungle- and how tourists used to be much kinder in the earlier times. Now, Omkareshwar is one of the busiest temple towns in the country. It sits on top of an island surrounded by Narmada River on one side and Kaveri on the other. The island itself is of the shape of a hillock. Mambleshwar, which is on the opposite side of Narmada, is also a Jyotirlinga temple, but Omkareshwar, as a temple, is so popular that the entire place goes by its name. Narmada stands as a border demarcating the busy, chaotic Omkareshwar side from its strikingly contrasting and much calmer Mambleshwar side. Even the people behave differently on each side.
Kailash, his granddaughters and Rajen reach the congested Goumukh Ghat, which gets even more congested during the Maha-Mela, so much so that once people get inside that crowd, they will start moving forward by themselves. People have set up tiny stalls on both banks of Narmada- clothes, mostly of flashy colors with a bit of glitter and sequin; Samosas, Kachori and Jalebis, which they claim to make from fresh Ghee; homemade toys and idol statues, from the size of a fingernail to almost the size of giant Banyan tree, glass made bangles of every color, which the shopkeepers are convinced will go well with every woman’s Saree walking the street tonight; and posters of movie stars, mostly of Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, but a few smaller ones of Alia Bhatt can also be found in the corner. It seems like everything that can be found under the sky will be found by the river at the moment. All the stalls are lined up in parallel rows, barely leaving any space for people to walk. People who have permanent stalls in other parts of the town have also set up temporary ones by the river. The other part of the town, each year during this time, feels like an abandoned child. A Ferris-Wheel and a small Roller-Coaster are standing tall at a distance, looking like the newly built skyscraper in the city, which catches everyone’s sight from miles away. The kids, obviously, are being pulled towards the Ferris-Wheel without even their own consciousness, how ants would be pulled towards sugar cubes. And the ones who are slightly afraid of trying it out are opting for the smaller Roller-Coaster, which seems like a much safer option. Parallel to that on the other bank, a big white cloth is being hanged by two bamboo poles, ready to be used as the screen for the movie that would be shown later at night. Usually, all the boats are parked on the river by the bank and people take the foot-bridges at night. But during Maha-Mela, the boats fill up the river in such a way that it won’t be surprising if one decides to simply walk over the boats to the opposite bank.
Nandini and Prachee get down from the auto and straightaway run towards a guy selling cotton candies, even before Kailash realizes that they have reached. By the time Kailash walks up to them, they have already bought three, two pink and one yellow, just for safety if the pink ones decide to disappoint them tonight. Prachee usually never picks anything except for the pink, but went ahead with the extra yellow one today as she knew that even if she repented her choice later, she would still be able to lay her hand on the other one from Prachee. Rajen suddenly shouts at the shopkeeper from a distance sitting inside his auto, making him feel guilty of even thinking of taking money from Kailash. Kailash, nevertheless, makes several attempts to pay; but the shopkeeper reassures that Rajen will pay him later anyway. Rajen tells Kailash through gestures that he will be back within an hour and quickly turns the auto around.
“Listen… Get ready. I’ll be home within 20 minutes”, Rajen tells his wife Radhika over the phone. Rajen’s parents hail from a village called Aartu in the outskirts of Omkareshwar. They moved to Omkareshwar slightly after Rajen was born. His father didn’t find any work in the town, contrary to what he expected, but they never returned to the village either. Rajen, who is 35 now, has spent all his life in Omkareshwar ever since. He has never been to school and started tagging along his father doing labor work from a very early age. After he grew up and started doing better, he finally managed to buy an autorickshaw in installments. He rides that auto in and around Omkareshwar now. He starts around 5 in the morning to make sure that he doesn’t miss the morning passengers heading towards the bus stop. He has three different tiny idol statues glued to the cabinet next to the wheel. In addition to that, there is also a sticker of Lord Shiva stuck on the back side of the auto. In the evening, after he is done with his rides, he goes to Mambleshwar temple each day. He has been doing that for more than ten years now. He finds it peaceful and comforting to spend the evening in the temple and help in whatever way possible, as if he waits the whole day eagerly for those two hours. Even the Pujaris wait for him so that he can lend them a hand during the time of Aarti. “We are getting a chance to be of service to the holy mother Narmada. What else do we need!”, he often tells his passengers, mostly tourists, boasting proudly of his beloved hometown. But he has never really been fond of the atmosphere inside the Omkareshwar temple though. He thinks of it to be way too loud and crowded for honest and sacred devotion, and that’s why prefers Mambleshwar- “They will put hundreds of flashy lights and LEDs all over the place during Puja. What sort of devotion is that!”
He got married two years back, a little too late according to him. “But the wait was worth it,” he often tells Kailash with a sheepish smirk on his face. Radhika is from a neighboring village and his parents decided on their marriage the very day they went to her house. They took an immediate liking for Radhika’s family. When asked by Rajen about how the girl is, they replied, “the girl must be nice if the family is.” Radhika and Rajen met each other after that, but only once. He has been quite involved in his married life right from the beginning. His wife often complains about his nature of working too hard. She would rather have him leave a little late in the morning and come back early at night- “The world won’t turn upside down if you miss a few passengers.” He just smiles back in reply. He does tag her along every now and then to the temple in the evening. She enjoys the affection Rajen gets from the people there. There is always someone or the other singing praises of Rajen and she listens to them as calmly as possible, wearing a proud smile on her face. Radhika, though very rarely, gets jealous of the female customers who frequently keep calling her husband. “Why do you need to give your number to everyone?” she often argues. In response, he simply boasts of the endearment his customers shower upon him- “What can I do if they like me so much?”- he would cheekily add to Radhika’s annoyance. There is one specific woman she is particularly more jealous of- an elderly lady called Andrea who travels to Omkareshwar every year from Germany and has been doing that for the past twelve years. She spends around 4 to 5 months there, and Rajen always becomes her primary helping hand. He has been asking Andrea about her country and her culture for several years; but could never wrap his head around the fact that children start staying separately from their parents after a certain age.
Rajen’s wife has a sewing machine and she works from home. That was the first thing she ticked off the list before all the other dowry objects. She is quite good at stitching and sewing, which she has earned a name for in the neighborhood. She gifted Rajen a hand-embroidered handkerchief with his name written on it on his last birthday. His name was wrapped around two tiny little flowers made of pink threads. Rajen himself speaks about his wife’s expertise to his customers and in the process, often brings a lot of lady customers to her. Radhika wants to open a shop of her own and run a proper business someday. She keeps expressing her desire to Rajen, but also realizes that only after they set a seal on the loan they have taken for the auto, they can think of spending on other things. To cheer her up, Rajen keeps reminding her that they will get done with the installments within a year or so.
They have been to Delhi recently. Usually, Rajen doesn’t like travelling out of Omkareshwar. In fact, he doesn’t like travelling in the first place. But when he has to, he behaves like a school kid having to get out of bed in the morning. Radhika literally had to drag him out of the town. It was their first trip in two years after they have been to Amar Kantak for their honeymoon. Rajen doesn’t even like going to Indore which is just two hours by road. But somehow Radhika can manage to get him to Indore or Khandwa once in a while, whenever she feels like going out. But she prefers going by the bus rather than travelling in Rajen’s auto. “I am not one of your customers…”- her assertive tone usually puts an end to any probable discussion, even before Rajen can think of taking out the auto keys from the cupboard.
Rajen arrives and Radhika comes out of the room, trying to fix her earring. Rajen’s eyes get glued to her new deep-cut blouse. He asks her with a twinkling smile, “Is this the new Saree?” Radhika nods her head smiling back, still fixing the earring. Rajen tries holding her from behind, putting his hand on her stomach, but she quickly moves away. She looks at him with a sense of victory on her face as if she escaped a complex trap. Carrying the teasing smile, she checks on the food touching the containers to feel the heat and goes to the next room to tell her in-laws that food is kept on the table. She has been pestering them all day long to go out with her. She asks them one last time, but politely gets refused again. She smiles back and asks them not to lock the door at night. Rajen tries to play his tricks again, touching her ass this time; but gets pushed away, only to irritate Radhika as she has to recheck the creases on her Saree again before stepping out. Like every year, Rajen constantly keeps gushing over the Maha-Mela throughout the ride and tells Radhika how the decoration this year is as gorgeous as anything can get. He starts narrating stories from his childhood, stories she has heard from him infinite number of times before. His Maha-Mela stories are like the Maha-Mela itself, repeating every year at exactly the same time. Radhika also joins in with her part of the story, recounting how their family used to travel for more than 10-15 kilometers each day to Omkareshwar during the festival.
Kailash is maneuvering through the crowd holding Nandini and Prachee on either sides. They are moving towards the big wheel, holding a balloon each, coincidentally, one yellow and one pink, just like the cotton candies. They have enjoyed riding that big wheel every year, but Kailash is really scared of it. Kailash has to pretend being in pain and walk slower, so that he can somehow avoid the ride. Luckily, he met Maya a few minutes back while buying the balloons. Maya comes to his rescue and both the girls hold Maya’s hands to stand in the queue.
Maya often meets Kailash on the Ghat whenever she comes to Omkareshwar. She is from Kariakund, a tribal village in the suburbs of the town. She is 20 and left school after studying till sixth standard. She has never really liked studying. Anyway, it wasn’t as if her parents really pushed her to study further either. She likes going to the fields to help her father instead, a habit she developed quite early in her life. She even learnt how to drive the tractor, but her father never gave her the nod to do so as it wasn’t owned by them. She is more involved in whatever they grow on the fields than her brothers and has far superior understanding of the crops, and she loves the smell of corns when it is fully bloomed. She walks around the jungle collecting woods to sell it in Omkareshwar. Whenever they have to go to Omkareshwar, she would always prefer the jungle route to the main road, not because it’s shorter, but because she has some sort of a peculiar fascination with the jungle. She likes deer and often loiters around the woods in the hope of seeing one. On rare occasions, she takes the main road leading to the Ghat; only when she feels like taking a dip in the river. She would put aside her Dupatta and swim for a while, wait under the sun for the clothes to dry off a bit, and start making her way again in the same clothes. Most of the others of her age, be it a boy or a girl, are quite content staying in the village only. But Maya always likes going out- Omkareshwar, Barhwai, Indore, or any other place she can have a chance to easily go to. She even travels with her father to sell crops in the Mandai. She even keeps teasing her parents, “I’ll run away from this place one day.” There is a strangely placid, yet restless, energy about her. She is like a nuclear bomb on the verge of explosion, whose entire ferocious force is concentrated inside her tiny little head, utterly ready to burst apart and gulp the entire world at once.
She can always come up with reasons for going to Omkareshwar whenever she finds time. She would sometimes sell woods, sometimes visit the post office to put money into her account, and sometimes she would just randomly chat with people for hours without any reason whatsoever. Kailash is one of those Maya enjoys chewing the fat with. Maya doesn’t go back unless she goes to the Mambleshwar Ghat once specifically to eat Pedhas from her favorite Ratanlal Sweets. She then habitually sits with Kailash in his stall conversing with him at length, often losing the track of time. Kailash also treats her like family. Maya loves watching his animated face while telling her stories. He often moves his hands diligently while talking, as if trying to paint a canvas in the air- “Do you know, I used to swim from this bank to the opposite one at a stretch? I used to make more than 25 people cross the river on my tiny boat… Years will pass by if I start narrating those stories… Do you see my grey hair? Where do you think they come from? Experience, dear… Experience… Years and years of experience…” He also doesn’t shy away from sharing about his daughter’s troubled marriage at times- “He was a good boy, you know? He loved her too. I don’t what happened to him suddenly!” Maya shares an intimate bond with his family too, especially his daughter. But his daughter never mentioned anything about her failed marriage to her. Even when Maya would bring something up, she tactfully diverts the conversation.
Maya often questions the notion of god and wonders why so many people from different places, including foreigners, pay a visit to that particular temple only. She often locks horns with Kailash regarding this. Kailash makes attempts at reasoning with her by putting forward his arguments about the importance of God and “Narmada Maa”. He tells her that she should feel blessed to be so close to great river. Maya usually responds vehemently, and at other times, just smiles back without uttering anything, letting the childlike exuberance of Kailash drive the conversation forward.
Maya’s parents have been trying their best to persuade her to get married for the past two years. They keep reminding her from time to time that it will be difficult to find a groom once she gets older. Maya, though, is least bothered by it. Somehow, she never bought into the idea of marriage, but deep down, she knows that she will probably have to go ahead with it anyway someday. She tells her parents that she will move to Indore or Khandwa, and do something on her own rather than getting married. She did fall for a guy a couple of years back. It was her first ever encounter with ‘love’, if it could be called so. He used to drive a boat in Omkareshwar, on the Kaveri side. His name was Mohan, but she liked the name of his boat more than his- Shivraj. She even saved his number on her cell by that. He would keep touching the water with his hand while driving the boat; and sometimes, he would drink it too. Maya often asked him to fill her bottle with Narmada’s water. And on days when she didn’t, he would speed up the rate of drinking water from the river to somehow get her attention. She used to meet him each time she headed for Omkareshwar. She would deliberately kill time on the Ghat waiting for his boat to arrive. She made sure to make him aware of her plans to settle in Omkareshwar for good. She actually wasn’t planning anything of that sort, but she just said it to gauge his response. He encouraged the idea; at least, she felt so. He told her that even he was planning to buy a camera and invest in wedding videography. But he got married after a few days, before anything could really take shape between them. She still bumps into him at times when she visits Omkareshwar. He is still driving the boat and has not yet ventured into his videography plans; and neither did she has moved to Omkareshwar yet.
Maya really loves watching the films that are screened during the Maha-Mela. Last year she watched a Shah Rukh starrer. She even brought back home a poster of him where he looked much younger than in the film. This year, “Thugs of Hindostan” is scheduled to be screened. As far back as her memory can trace, she doesn’t remember skipping a single screening, ever.
After the wheel ride finishes, all of them move towards the screening area. The white screen is tightened at both ends properly, bricks are being put near the foot of the bamboo poles for stronger support, the speakers are being checked and people are slowly starting to find their families the best seats possible. The ones who can’t find seats are looking for other alternatives that can pass off as a seat just for that night. Kailash calls Rajen to ask where they are. “We will be reaching in just five minutes”, Rajen informs. Meanwhile, Nandini is mentioning to Maya how much she liked Alia Bhatt and Siddharth Malhotra in their new film. Maya has no clue whatsoever who they are, but nods her head in excitement not to look dumb. Prachee tells Maya that Nandini is really into dancing and aspires to become a dancer; while Nandini gets shy and looks away pretending to have not heard it. “We will dance during the songs in the film, okay!”, Maya prepares the kids already. “The films nowadays don’t even have dance numbers. I really hope this one does”, Maya adds further, with a bit of irritation mixed with mild hope. Rajen arrives with his wife and sits next to Kailash, on the seats Kalisah has reserved for them. Rajen makes Nandini sit on a higher platform for a better view, and Prachee automatically comes to sit on his lap. All the nearby lights are switched off, the projector starts and everyone goes silent. Only the sound of the Narmada flowing in her calm and comforting pace can be heard.
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