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ALLAHABAD, INDIA, Kumbha Mela, 2001. The place is packed with nearly four million people. Stranded in the crowd, eight-year-old Subodh holds out a 10-rupee note (US$0.21) and sobs, “Please take this and help me find my father.” The milling crowd has separated the two. After wandering around for a few hours, the boy finds himself before the “lost-and-found” camp. Soon, he is playing in his father’s lap. 75-year-old Raja Ram Tiwari, who founded the camp, is happy each time a lost person is reunited with family. He has been helping people in this manner at many festivals and fairs since 1946. Tiwari has so far helped 400,000 adults and 25,000 children in six ardh-kumbhs, 46 megh melas and five purna kumbhs. In the millennium’s first maha-kumbh in 2001, he reunited 130,000 people. Tiwari founded an organization called the Bharat Sewa Dal with 150 volunteers. He is now indispensable at the melas and has been nominated senior member of the mela committee. Tiwari’s wife, Shanti Devi, also aids his efforts. “She takes care of the little children who get lost at the fairs,” he says. The couple have three sons, who also help out whenever possible.

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