‘Atithi Devo Bhava’: Bhandarasensure nobody remains hungry

Sangam, Prayagraj: As crores of devotees took a holy dip in Ganga on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, bhandaras across Prayagraj ensured nobody remained hungry, promoting the Indian culture of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava' (guest is our God).This time, the Uttar Pradesh govt invited the Akshaya Patra Foundation to feed people attending the Maha Kumbh nutritious and home-made food. The foundation has set up a special camp at Sector 5 starting from Jan 13 and aims to serve more than 20,000 people a day.Fostering a sense of community and compassion during the Maha Kumbh Mela, locals also joined the holy initiative, irrespective of religion and sect, to serve the devotees by organising bhandaras across the city. All the roads leading to Kumbh Mela, be it Jhunsi, Naini, Chowk, railway station, Phaphamau, Sulem Sarai, Civil Lines, Church Lane, Allahpur and Old Katra were dotted with bhandaras serving khichadi, poori-sabji, tea, kheer, biscuits and desi ghee laddus to the devotees and tourists.Business organisations, private companies and groups all came together to offer free food and snacks to the exhausted pilgrims, who had to walk long distances to reach their bathing ghats.At several places, there was a mad rush of passers-by and youths to get free food, but the organisers were quite smart to identify the pilgrims amongst the large crowd and treated them with special attention and they were not made to wait."Every year we arrange bhandaras for the pilgrims as this will bless us too despite the fact that we were not able to take a holy dip in Sangam on the occasion of Khichadi," said Satyendra Srivastava, a local busy filling khichadi in the small paper plate. For us, offering free food is more pious work rather than taking the holy dip, he added.Apart from this, there were several devotees who were seen offering ‘daal and til' (considered very auspicious on this festival) to the beggars sitting in the magh mela area.