Roads of Allahabad host bhandara for devotees

ALLAHABAD: Even as lakhs of devotees took holy dip in the holy water of Ganga on the occasion of Makar Sankranti and felt blessed on the day of Uttrayan (the day when sun enters the northern hemisphere), thousands of Allahabadies—irrespective of religion and sect they belong to—arranged free bhandara, mainly comprising Khichadi, for the pilgrims and denizens.
These bhandaras were arranged at several localities and important roads of the city, some leading to mela area and also in their respective localities.Locals, organisations and groups, all were seen actively involved in offering free food and snacks to the tired pilgrims who had to walk long distances to reach their destination, or for that matter bus and railway stations, because of the traffic restrictions.
While chunk of these stalls offered Khichadi to the pilgrims and fellow denizens, some of the selected stalls also offered puri-sabji and tea to the tired devotees. These bhandaras operated from the tents erected on the roadside and busy interjections of the city. Although, many of these free distribution of Khichadi were organised at the roads leading to station and that to Allahabad Junction, some of the devotees had organised the same at the magh mela area itself.
At several places, there was mad rush of passerby and youths, of the locality concerned, 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 free distribution of food to the pilgrims as this will bless us too despite the fact that we were not able to take holy dip in Sangam on the occasion of Khichadi”, said Satyendra Srivastava, a local, busy filling Khichadi in the small ‘dona’ (saucer) made of dry leaf. For us, offering free food is more pious work rather than taking the holy dip, he added.
“On this pious day, while many people visit the magh mela area to take the holy dip, me and my friends arrange this event of distributing Khichadi along with papad to everyone, be it those coming to mela area or just the passerby”, said Mitlesh Singh, a local who organised bhandara at Jhunsi.
Apart from this, there were several devotees who were seen offering ‘daal and til’ (considered very auspicious on this festival) at the beggars sitting in the magh mela area.