Kumbh Mela: Seattle Globalist

Check out The Seattle Globalist for my short essay and set of photographs from this year's Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad, India.

It remains-- and will always remain-- one of the most intense experiences of my life.

To see the article click the tearsheet below:

Darjeeling

For many travelers, Darjeeling offers a bit of a respite from India's usual madness and unpredictability. Situated at 6,700ft on a steep hillside of the Himalayan foothills, the small town moves at a comfortable pace. 

Porters and sherpas hoist massive loads as they methodically ascend the narrow staircases that wind through the hill station as school children smile and scamper between their legs.

Like all streets in India, the hum of life and cars and horns and animals is still there-- though perhaps at a few decibels lower than other areas of the busy country.

On clear mornings, the world's third highest peak, Mt Kangchenjunga (28,169ft), looms in the distance and dwarfs its surroundings. From Tiger Hill, a lookout point in the nearby town of Ghoom, spectators gather in total blackness to await sunrise, huddled together with blankets and cups of steaming chai and coffee, waiting patiently for an unfiltered view of the massive mountain.

The respect and general calmness more commonly associated with Nepalese and Tibetan culture has obviously migrated across borders into Darjeeling. 

Portrait of a Fire: Janta Lodge

On March 8, 2013, a fire tore through Janta Lodge in Darjeeling sending the typically quiet town that sits just on India's side of the border with Nepal into a panic.

Crowds flocked from the nearby market, "Chowk Bazar", to watch the flames as they ravaged the old building-- completely destroying its interior and leaving it smoking late into the afternoon. To date, no casualties have been reported.

A mixed group of ragtag firefighters and pedestrians worked to fight the blaze but couldn't prevent the interior from burning out on every floor. 

The day after the fire, I explored the gutted interior of the once bustling guesthouse with a group of locals. The blackened walls, melted sockets and singed decorations left an eery atmosphere.

Nostalgia hung like a thick fog in the air-- disconnecting the past from the present in a messy break.

Varanasi

Below are a few snaps from Varanasi-- a stunning riverside city most known for its Ghats where bodies of the deceased are cremated before being sent off down the river. 

The city carries with it an intense atmosphere. Sunspots reach down and highlight sections of ancient structures that house a maze of narrow alleyways inhabited by cows, dogs, monkeys and a constant bustle of people. 

Kumbh Mela

Insanity...

.... is what happens when 33 million people decide to gather in the same place on the same day for the same reason; to bathe in the holy river Ganges during the Kumbh Mela festival.

On the eve of the auspicious and most attended day in the months long gathering, February 10th, I made it to Allahabad via a local bus from Varanasi. Moments after I was lost in a sea of people and beginning to realize the gravity and sheer energy such a crowd generates. Ten minutes later I had a guy try and pickpocket me using an annoying little decoy kid who wouldn't shut up about his "dreams of getting a piece of currency from every country in the world". When an Indian man came up out of nowhere and started telling the kid off in English (why not just do it in Hindi-- your first language?) I knew something was up. The awkward hug he proceeded to give me sealed the deal. Zippered breast pockets for the win...

Darkness came and I went to sleep with plans of an early rise to make it to the river before sunup the next morning. Hours later I woke up, stepped out into the road and was enveloped by the crowd moving excitedly through the predawn cold. 

I photographed during the early morning hours and then decided to get out while it was still possible. Ten hours in the back seat of a taxi with countless misguided turns and a stint of driving in the wrong direction against oncoming trucks on the freeway, to avoid miles of gridlock traffic, I was back in Varanasi. But my journey out of the mighty Kumbh was nothing compared to what some endured-- or didn't, unfortunately. A bridge collapsed that afternoon at the completely overrun Allahabad railway station killing pilgrims who had swarmed to make their way home.

To attend this festival is to see humanity on full display.

Delhi Polo

A few photographs from an afternoon of Polo at the Jaipur Polo Grounds in New Delhi, India. 

Like I mentioned before, the light was warm and hazy and the crowd dapper-- a nostalgic throwback to the time of the Brits and their heavy influence on the country.

See the previous post for a single image of a performer from the same event.