A Qrati Case Study
Beginning in mid-Jan of this year and lasting for 45 days, approximately 600 million Hindu pilgrims gathered in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India for the “Maha Kumbh Mela” or the great (maha) festival (mela) of the sacred pitcher (kumbh). Kumbh Melas occur every 12 years, but the “great” festivals take place on a 144-year cycle. This year’s festival attracted significant attention and created a spectacle of epic proportions.
For those in the West, it’s likely that you heard about the mela and perhaps were curious enough to read or watch some stories. In India, of course, this was one of the major stories of the year and a lifetime spiritual highlight for participants. Whatever your familiarity with this gathering, I have a special treat in store. One of our Qrati team members made a pilgrimage to the Maha Kumbh Mela and used Qrati to help document and share his experience.
Chiranjit Sarkar (Chiru) is a senior Qrati developer and a Brahmacharya—a term in Hinduism meaning someone who is learning about life and scriptures under the guidance of a guru. Chiru felt a strong calling to experience the mela and partake in rituals such as taking a sacred bath in the Ganges River. Another draw for Chiru was to observe the rituals of the Naga Sadhus, a sect of Hindu ascetics or monks who dedicate their lives to spiritual enlightenment. They famously eschew all worldly desires and possessions—including clothing. Taking inspiration from their culture and devotion is a significant experience for Hindu pilgrims.
This is Chiru’s account of his journey and experience at the Maha Kumbh Mela.
You’ll notice that his article is nicely illustrated with photos and videos you will not see elsewhere on the Internet. The source media for the article come from a Qrati community album that Chiru created for his adventure. He shared the album link with friends and various devotees whom he encountered, encouraging them to upload photos and videos of their favorite moments. The result is a unique perspective that was easy for users to contribute to and fascinating for visitors to explore.
I hope you enjoy the album and feel free to share your thoughts in comments. It was an interesting exercise for Chiru and me to moderate the content. Fortunately, no one uploaded anything inappropriate that expressly violated our community standards. This does not mean that we simply let everything pass through. For example, we rejected a lot of selfies since we felt these were not of general interest and did not help tell the grander story of the mela. We also rejected certain content that we deemed to be redundant. Then there was the matter of the Naga Sadhus who often covered their privates with a piece of cloth… and sometimes not. Following an abundance of discretion, I made the call to remove a few of the least modest photos from the album. To be honest, I struggled the most with one particular image I found rather fascinating. Per the caption, it depicts a Naga sage supporting another sage on his back via the power of his lingam. In Hinduism, the lingam is a symbol of divine energy and a representation of the god Shiva. So this feat of strength is an important sign of devotion. Perhaps in the future Qrati will add something along the lines of a viewer discretion warning and we’ll post more of the content.
Stepping back, you might ask what Qrati offers for photo/video sharing that cannot be found on social media, on a Google Drive/Album or in WhatsApp groups? Excellent question, and I appreciate your curiosity!
- Qrati is designed to host shared community albums on a large scale, equipped with moderation tools to ensure safe and relevant content. Chiru simply showed people a QR code on his phone or distributed a dedicated link. Sharing a private Google or iCloud album in the same manner would present all kinds of issues. These platforms are not intended for open community use.
- According to Qrati’s terms of use, event hosts have the right to utilize user-submitted content for commercial purposes, while the original uploader retains copyright ownership and grants a right-to-use license. Social media platforms like Instagram do not allow 3rd parties to “scrape” photos and videos to use commercially. For this, you would need to go through an arduous process of contacting the original poster and reaching an agreement outside the platform. Our terms made it easy for Chiru to incorporate great content in his article since permission was expressly provided by the uploaders.
- Group chat platforms like WhatsApp would also not be suitable. Opening a WhatsApp chat to perhaps hundreds or thousands of strangers is clearly unwieldly and problematic. Additionally, WhatsApp’s feed-driven nature makes it impractical for organizing and posting media in an album format for easy scrolling and viewing by visitors outside the chat.
- Lastly, I need to say something about those social media algorithms. Qrati is designed to share stories without manipulation. We don’t try and keep your eyes glued to our site (or a host’s site where we are integrated) by presenting a feed of sometimes entertaining, but often disturbing and random, content. We are a safe place. A community space with relevant content all in one place. And there is no need to search for various combinations of hash tags to find the content you are seeking.
*Seriously, any event at all: Weddings, travel groups, conferences & trade shows, festivals, banquets, etc. Your event can be as small as a friends outing or as large as, well, the largest gathering on Earth! To learn more, please explore our website (and our many examples) and contact us.