19 coaches, 19 passengers aboard Kumbh Mela special

Standing on the near-deserted platform, Sanjay Maurya, whose parents were among those bound for the Big Bath, put the blame on the railways. “The government is packed with fools. If they had decorated the same train with some flowers and done a lot of publicity, it would have been filled with people.”

Others endorsed his view. Devendra Kumar Sharma, a sweatmeat seller, says he was lucky to spot a small insertion in a Hindi newspaper about the train. “Not many people would have seen it,” he said.

He may have a point. Forget publicity, the railways hadven’t even bothered to put up a board informing one where the train is headed. The one that hung outside the only reserved second-class three-tier compartment on Monday’s special train said “Howrah-Mumbai-Howrah.”

Central Railway’s Chief PRO Mukul Marwah however contends that regular announcements are being made at the station every time a special train leaves for Naini — the railhead at Allahabad where Kumbh-bound pilgrims alight. “Boards are also usually put on special trains. I’ll check to see what happened in this case.”

When 15 million pilgrims converged in Allahabad in 1989, the Guinness Book of World Records described the gathering as the “largest number of human beings to ever assemble with a common purpose in the entire history of mankind.” This year’s congregation is expected to number seven crore. Obviously, not many of them will be from Mumbai, going by the size of the crowd at the Kurla terminus.

And even if a few turn up the next time the railways ply a special train, don’t be fooled. Not all of them will be intent on a holy dip. Some would probably use the train just to go about their regular work, like P K Yadav who boarded the special train to reach Itarsi where he is an apprentice with a subsidiary of Coal India. “Are you writing about people who take advantage of the Kumbh Mela specials to travel comfortably?,” he inquired. Yadav certainly knew how to peg a report.