Varanasi, India - February 2013.

The biggest gathering of humanity was about to take place in India, the Kumbh Mela. A smaller event happens every three years in different parts of the country but once every 144 years it is the BIG one, the most auspicious event on the calendar for a mass gathering. An estimated 30 million souls would come together in Allahabad, a few hours south of Varanasi to bathe on the special day and by doing so they would wash away the sins of the previous 10 generations and the next 10 aswell.

I flew from Saigon to Kolkata then up to the holy city of Varnasi before heading to the Kumbh Mela. I have seen lots of images of Varansi but nothing prepared me for the reality. It truly is an ancient city and it seems to me that a lot wouldn't have changed much over the centuries. The funeral ghat's fire had been burning non stop for 1300 years and the constant chanting of pall bearers bringing their deceased loved ones to the ghats, through the narrow lane ways was a macabre sight. Everything is faded and run down and the place stinks of human and animal waste but the throngs of folk that venture to the city formerly known as Banares add the colour and spice.