'Tehrvi' turns festive as ‘dead man’ walks in after his Kumbh adventure

The “tehrvi” of a 60-something man, presumed dead in the Maha Kumbh stampede, saw a range of emotions in a span of few minutes – from mourning to shock, disbelief, amusement and then peals of laughter, before finally erupting into a celebration – as the protagonist of the drama breezed in, as cool as a cucumber, after alighting from an e-rickshaw!

Turns out, Khunti Guru had had one smoke too many with the sadhus at the mega festival, which had knocked out his senses for a few days.

Apparently, two weeks went by when he came out of his trance and recollected his home and life at Chahchand Gali, in Prayagraj's Zero Road, which he had left on January 28 after boisterously announcing to the neighbourhood his plans to take a holy dip at the Sangam.

He had hinted at his return soon thereafter.

A day later, the news of the stampede and deaths broke out and when Guru didn’t turn up for days, his extended family and neighbours assumed that he had died during the mishap. They went ahead to organise his ‘tehrvi’, a ritual which is performed on 13th day after a person’s death.

So, when he suddenly turned up at that ironical time, people looked at him in disbelief! He was reported to have told the gathering that he felt as if he had slept for a few days. The mood quickly turned celebratory and the event turned into a feast to mark the homecoming of their loved one.