At Kumbh Mela, These Children Are Learning Vedas; Have Views On Politics Too | Read

Dushyant Parashar is all of five, but already sports a janeu or a sacred thread around his body - the thread is an essential element that marks the acceptance of a student by a guru or a teacher in Hinduism. Dushyant is one of the 300-odd children below 15 - all of them from the famous Shri Vidhya Dham, a prominent Varanasi-based religious school that is taking part in the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. 10-year-old Ashish Mishra is from Varanasi and his father drives a car of a prominent Hindu priest there. Ashish came to this school about two years ago and will soon start learning the Vedas. Ashish and the other children here get a break of two months every year in which they are allowed to go home.