riktata
Curated by Nandita Raman at Kriti Gallery, Varanasi, India, 2017
What does it feel like to move in a crowd of millions? 30 million people trying to reach a particular mythic crossing, all at the same time? This was the question I asked before making plans to visit the Hindu pilgrimage site Kumbh Mela in 2013. My month long stay on the river bed encampment, 10 feet underwater during monsoon season, brought me closer to answering this question through a series of images being exhibited at Kriti Gallery in Varanasi. The answer is simple; 30 million is the person next to you, feeling the mass of people, not resisting and moving as if in water. The fullness is in the emptiness of the event. This is also the way I was told one should approach this Mela, empty as a pot, not full of expectations. For me the masses only made sense on the margins, where structures and events were in a state of anticipation. A recognition happened here, a familiarity.
