Huge posters of wannabes in the Samajwadi Party welcome you as you near the Kumbh Nagar township. Leaders, young and old, have put up welcome posters for pilgrims, with photographs of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, and the Kumbh Mela seems to be providing a perfect opportunity for building up public relations. As you travel into the township, huge vinyl banners of commodities can be seen fluttering in the air. Different brand of luxury soaps, oil, incense sticks, instant herbal cures for arthritis and other oldage problems, detergent powders, mosquito repellents, soft drinks and blankets, you name them and you find them. For children, there are stalls selling bay-blades, pin wheels and other attractive items including chocolates and candies. There is even a series of advertisement for the facility of getting testtube babies in the Mela area. In fact, at a glance, you feel like you have landed at a trade fair instead of a religious congregation. Such hoardings can be seen inside the religious pandals and sources say that agencies have been paying handsome amounts to religious sects to advertise their wares. A few days ago, a popular soap brand had put up a revolving hoarding on a podium on which a statue of Lord Shiv was installed. The same had to be removed after some local people lodged a protest. One of the pandals recently served rotis during a bhandara (community kitchen) that were stamped with the name of a popular soap brand. The rotis were withdrawn after hue and cry by some. Inside Kumbh Nagar, you can stumble upon agents selling premium holiday packages and even instant-repair kits for scratches on your car. There are makeshift shops for umbrellas, kurta-pyjamas, jackets, shoes, suitcases, cell phones. The food stalls offer varieties that range from Maggi noodles, bread-pakoras, dosa, poori-sabji and pav-bhaji. “There are people who have come from all parts of the country and even outside it. They want variety and we offer them that. We also make food-on-order if the person makes the payment in advance,” says Pritam, who runs a North Indian food stall but has been making rasam, especially on order by three South Indian families living nearby. “One of the ladies taught me how to make rasam and I have been preparing it for them everyday,” he said. The advertisement blitzkrieg at the Kumbh has been seen in Allahabad for the first time and if sources are to be believed, it has brought in good money for the Mela administration. “It means good business for the companies and good money for us but we plough the money back here in improving the arrangements for pilgrims,” says a Mela official without divulging further details. Some of the sadhus, however, are upset with this crass commercialisation of a religious event. “What is the need of allowing people to sell toys, cellphones and holiday packages In previous years, there used to be shops selling bare essentials and religious items like incense sticks but now this place has become a market place of sorts and this vitiates the entire atmosphere,” said Acharya Swaroopanand of Nirvani Akhara.
