On this early February morning the weather is quite hot and drops of sweat trickle down my back as I walk into an unknown town. The better part of the town is where the Collectorate and other district offices are housed and of course the Kothi Bazaar which is not a market but a nice and quiet residential area. The Ghat has been witness to a Rangoli competition where scores of girls have unleashed their art on the steps leading down to the Narmada. Rangoli is every home's daily affair and the girls are deft in their use of forms and colours. Several steps down, closer to the river, the ghat is thronged with pilgrims.
Pandas are in great demand orchestrating pilgrim rituals.
Barbers are busy shaving heads of devotees who had promised to offer their hair to the river goddess. Families undertake ablutions and offer puja. Itinerant saints and Parikramvasis rest in the shade of a large tree outside the ancient Narmada temple where the soft spoken chief priest Mr. Dhaddar offers me prasad. A group of women after their bath in the river chat up with each other on the steps of the Narmada Satsang Bhawan which houses Swami Onkaranandagiri the 'founder' of Narmada Jayanti. In the meantime a stage mounted on three boats is pushed midstream and anchored.