8th February, 2025
We had planned to visit Kumbh and have dip at Sangam of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati during the auspicious month of Magha.
We left Delhi for Prayagraj on 08th February, 2025 by Indigo flight No. 6E 6386 at 18:55 hrs and arrived Prayagraj at 20:20 hrs. We checked in at Aurum Heritage (Super Deluxe) Airbnb. The booking of the accommodation had been done by our daughter-in-law Neha. She had also booked a taxi for us. We were received at the Airport by Brijesh Kumar and Anurag Singh. At the time of arrival there was no difficulty in travelling on the road to our Guest House. We reached it at about 10:00 PM. After check-in we went out for dinner. Not many restaurants were open at that time. We had a thali each. It was the only restaurant of Haldiram open in the market at that time. After dinner we returned at abouth 11:00 PM and retired for sleep.
9th
We left Guest House at about 05:00 AM for Kumbh. On way we came across big crowds of people heading towards Sangam for a dip like us. But we could steer our way to the Boat Club where we were supposed to hire a boat for Sangam. But we noticed there were about 50 boats and 10,000 people struggling to hire them. We decided not to wait there anymore and proceeded to the VIP Ghat on the river Yamuna to board a boat to Sangam. It was then about 07:30 AM. We reached Sangam before 08:00 AM and had dip at the auspicious day. The Sangam was quite crowded. All three of us me, wife Venita and her younger sister Sunita had a dip. I had two dips so also Venita. Sunita had dip on the right side of the podium and we had dip on the left side. The bathing was over by 08:00 AM. The ladies changed their clothes in the enclosures provided for them. Some photographs of the Kumbh taken by us are given below.
After
the ritual of dip at Sangam we left for the Tent City. We had our tent there
arranged by our relations. It was a big tent for comfortable stay. We were
given some breakfast of curd and jalebis after we arrived there at about 12:00
noon. The drive from Sangam to the Tent City took about an hour and a half. The
location of our tent was at “Pontoon Bridge No. 26, Chakra Madho Marg,
Sector-24 in front of NTPC camp and Foreign Flag Point”.
As
I had not taken enough water as I am used to everyday in the morning I felt
dehydrated and tired, I lied down about 2 hrs and sipped a couple of bottles of
water (about 2 ltrs) to enliven me. Venita also took rest while Sunita continued
talking to the Balaji and his family, owner of the tent. We had lunch about
02:30 PM followed by tea and left for “Chaudhary Garden, Gate No. 3, Near
Kalyani Devi Temple Attasruiya” at about 04:30 PM for night stay. On way to
Chaudhary Garden we visited “Pracheen Nagavasuki Mandir”. Chaudhary Garden accommodation
was quite comfortable and after dinner we retired to sleep.
10th
We left Chaudhary Garden on way to Airport at about 11:00 AM through a safe route so that we can avoid traffic jams due to restrictions on movement of traffic on arrival of President of India to Prayagraj for a dip in Sangam. On way to Airport we had lunch in a restaurant. As our flight was at 07:45 PM, we had enough time. We boarded the flight No. 6E 233 for Delhi and left about 07:45 hrs. We arrived Delhi 21:20 hrs.
