The Kumbh mela is the grandest and the greatest assembly of people not only in India but also in the entire world - Some 30 million people are expected this year. But for many of the residents of Allahabad – the small town where the Kumbh mela is held – the Mela is a complete nightmare.

"With so many people around, I expected there to be loads of rubbish - and that would mean good business for me - but there is nothing. It's almost less than half of what I use to pick earlier because the municipality guys have started to collect it all - this mela has brought us bad luck," cries ten year old Shakuntala. Her friends Radha, Rani and Bitty feel the same.

Shakuntala is a rag picker – She spends her days looking for polythene bags and bottles for which she gets two Rupees (3 pence) for a kilogram. The waste plastic is recycled into buckets and bags. "Now we have to start earlier and work harder," adds Radha. They are too young to understand the sacredness of the event but in future, one doubts that the Kumbh will evoke happy memories for them.

"I have no interest in the Kumbh at all. Last year I took the holy bath because I was newly married and my parents-in-law expected me to. But the riverbank is swarming with people. Where is there any place for us to take the bath? It's impossible to drive to the mela area," laments Karuna Batra. Karuna resides in the posh Civil Lines area of Allahabad. Her husband has not been able to get the supplies for his shop and last week he was stuck in a traffic jam for three hours. "Thank God my son's school is closed, otherwise...." she sighs.

Mamta Kaliya – principal in the local Mahila Sewa Sadan Degree College – is also deeply unimpressed by the Kumbh. "Look we have to work for our bread and butter. And then, every twelve years, millions of people turn up and destroy our steady routines - though in the end I think all Allahabadians get used to it. After all in this city your age is determined by the number of Kumbh melas you have seen,"

Nevetheless, even though Mamta's parents-in-law are flying over from Canada to take the holy dip, she is not accompanying them to the banks of the river either. "Look, I get Ganga water out of my tap you know, - I bathe in it every day of the year…"