This is not the story of Ganga Sagar Pilgrimage, it is about the place which lies in between . It is a Transit camp. Before starting for Ganga Sagar, people stop over at this Transit camp situated near Outram Ghat in Kolkata . They come here every day, starting 4-5 days ahead of Makar Sankranti, where they stay for 1-2 days before heading towards Sagar Island.
Sadhus stay on one side of the camp and general people on the other. Can this place be treated as small Gangasagar Mela? Not really. But one can describe it as stage rehearsal before the final. A place where Sadhus and common people intermingle as one, enjoying the varied colours of life and host various events which make the Transit Camp an attractive proposition. The pictures here are trying to uphold the colours of ritual , pilgrimage and devotion while narrating an honest story of common people with their beliefs, conventions and varied shades of expression.
The whole place, overflowing with a deluge of Sadhus and smoke dust attracts common people from across the country who cook, feed, play, sip tea , pose for photographs, meet old dehati friends while portraying a sense of solidarity in diversity. As the day rumbles on, the place becomes immaterial while the journey gains importance with people trundling on amid a ravenous thirst for divinity.
(A sadhu, or Hindu holy man, smokes marijuana at a transit camp in Calcutta, India, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. Pilgrims are arriving in the city before proceeding onward for an annual holy dip at Gangasagar, the confluence of Ganges River and Bay of Bengal, some 140 kilometer (87 miles) south of Calcutta, on the occasion of Makar Sankranti that falls on Jan. 14).
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