Mega fair over, Sangam city residents savour return to easy-paced life

Shorn of curbs and crowds, it was back to life as usual for residents of Prayagraj now that the 45-day Mahakumbh has concluded and the Sangam city has returned to its normal, easy pace.

- HT Correspondent

PRAYAGRAJ: Shorn of curbs and crowds, it was back to life as usual for residents of Prayagraj now that the 45-day Maha-kumbh has concluded and the Sangam city has returned to its normal, easy pace.

One such Sangam city resident Ravi Pandey, 46, once again feels at home in his 'mohalla' (locality). After weeks of living under self-imposed restrictions, he is now free as the barricades that dotted every crossing and were cordoned off by police and paramilitary personnel are gone.

He is now free to drive, meet friends and visit his favourite sweet shop 'Bhagwan Das Mishtaan Bhadar' nearly 300 metres away from his house to savour his favourite morning delight of "dahi-jalebi"—simple pleasures that he never could think of living without but was forced to forsake, as his hometown hosted the world's biggest religious fair of Mahakumbh-2025, attracting millions from across India and even abroad.

With the mega fair over, Ravi Pandey on Friday morning took a break from his advertising business, brushed clean his Golden Brown Wagon-R in his garage and left his two-storey house at Nai Basti in Kydganj locality of Prayagraj to drive around his beloved hometown, which is back to its well-known and much-loved, albeit slow-paced routine. With his wife Anita, 44, children Anshika, 23, and Yasharth, 21, in tow, Ravi drove around his favourite haunts at Katra and Civil Lines markets. He had a lunch at a restaurant in Civil Lines, collected his wife's salwar suit from tailor shop on Mahatma Gandhi Marg. Then, in the evening, he took a round of the Sangam that hosted over 66 crore people from across the globe between January 13 and February 26.

Pandey said, "We finally went to Sangam, did "aachman", made an offering of flowers, "sindoor" and lit earthen lamps — simple rituals we were unable to perform owing to heavy pilgrim rush and stringent traffic restriction during the Mahakumbh."