Kanwarias

SHIVAS FOOT SOLDIERS

Kanwarias are now a familiar sight during this season in the city. Theyre a motley group, united by devotion for Shiva. And Delhi has learnt to host them

Nandita Sengupta | TNN


Myself Bholenath, sab Bholenath , hollers 20-year-old Rajkumar, fist in air, bare skinny frame dripping with water, eyes excited. Friends cheer him on, all in Bermudas dyed saffron, shades and prints amalgamated into a turmeric hue. The kanwaria is supreme in his knowledge that this is his time of the year.
Rajkumar is a freelance photographer at India Gate. All 11 members in his group belong to Gurgaon. Mostly in their 20s, they are variously employed as drivers, courier boys and shop helpers. Most have no surnames . On their second kanwar, each is a Bholenath, Shivas very own, for the last 10 days.
Traffic crawls along the UP-Delhi border roads, one lane cordoned off for the walking pilgrims, mostly men. The few women walk purposefully, colourful kanwars on their shoulders . Kanwars are triangular bamboo frames. The kanwarias buy them in Hardwar Rs 80 upwards and then decorate it with multi-hued cheap plastic festoons and toys, Pokemon dumroos and Krrish posters included.
Come shravan (monsoon), kanwarias are a familiar sight across the plains of north India. From Bihar to Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand to Rajasthan , they make their way by bus, car or mobike to Hardwar, Gangotri and Gomukh. Having collected gangajal in their steel kalash, they make the return journey on foot, and they have to be on road till the jal charhai ceremony where they worship their favourite local Shivling. This year the ceremony falls on July 20, Monday next. The journey back home is a long walk, and they have to follow a strict regime. You cant put down the kanwar just anywhere, you must bathe every time you eat, drink or answer natures call and more.
Walking long hours means extreme exhaustion, irritability and ultimately , endurance. Its a different level of worship, says 24-year-old Sohan Kumar Rana of Behror, on his 10th kanwar. Hes quieter and not animated . He disapproves of the multiple shivirs (resting camps) that dot their route now. Especially in Delhi, half the kanwarias are petty thieves out to steal the pilgrims travel money , he says.
Rana doesnt appreciate the raucous delight of younger kanwars like Rajkumar either. He says the cocktail of bhang, bhajan and bhojan attracts newcomers for whom the pilgrimage becomes one long fest.
The rowdiness doesnt worry 30-year-old Renu Saini, who runs a beauty parlour in Nangloi. Saini is carrying her 11-month-old son on the pilgrimage in his decorated pram which doubles as a kanwar-holder . Mahadev makes sure nothing goes wrong, she says, on her sixth trip.
The kanwaria pilgrimage is essentially a bharat festival: urban India grappling to understand its growing popularity, administrators learning to cope and prepare for the kanwaria event, the police instructed to manage, not mob, and governments doing their bit to woo their votebanks . Kanwaria scholar Naresh Goswami has called the growing phenomenon a display of underbelly religiosity . They say that while the police treat them with contempt otherwise , as kanwarias they get respect , he said in a newspaper interview .
Respect is indeed in abandon. Blistered feet are rested, limbs massaged and the kanwarias fed and pampered at the shivirs. All 50 shivirs are sponsored by the Delhi government and managed by various charities. The state provides the land, DJB the water while paying for the electricity is a tricky area that the charities need to negotiate, says organiser Avdesh Kumar Verma at the Shahdara shivir. Walking over flyovers is equivalent to 10 km of plain roads, theyre dead beat when they reach here, he says.
Vivek Vihars transport businessman Kailash Goyal runs the camp at Jhilmil Colony. Its his 15th year, and his charity has 50 karyakartas and 600 daily volunteers from neighbouring areas. They cater to 10,000-12 ,000 kanwarias everyday. Volunteers, who have I-cards , work in four shifts around the clock. This year, we got a new roti machine that makes 960 rotis in an hour, says Goyal. He also has CCTVs installed and private security guards in place, many looking like bouncers.
Rajkumar and his friends have reached the shivir at Shahdara before schedule. They have till Monday to make it to their Shiv mandirs in Gurgaon . Till then, theyre simply letting down their hair basking in gods name, knowing that by next week this time, it will be back to the grind.

Changing hues of pilgrimage



Simple poori-sabzi replaced by lavish spread of chawal, roti, dal, sabzi, halwa



Old-timers find less-bhakti among newcomers



Price of kanwars can go up to Rs 51,000, which usually is a high gated one, shared by a community



KANWARS There are many kinds



JHOOLA

You can hang the kanwar but cannot keep it on the ground

DAK

The toughest kanwar. You have to run with the kanwar all the way. So a man runs with the kanwar and a team of relay runners follows in a van or a truck. This lot causes the maximum traffic jams

KHADI

You cannot hang it like a jhoola kanwar. Or keep it on the ground. So when you want to rest, somebody has to hold the kanwar and stand

BAITHI

Easiest of the lot. As the name suggests, you can keep this kanwar on the ground





FAITH I N FULL CRY: (Clockwise from left) Kanwarias wait at a camp; a baby pilgrim at Shahdara; some in fancy masks