For Lora Leigh and Teresa Castillo, who live around the corner from Ms. Lawe, Friday was Survival Day, Saturday was Shock Day, Sunday was Clean Up the House Day and Monday, thankfully, was Bathing Day (with a bit of Liquor Day thrown in).
Tens of millions of people - 30 million on the main bathing day on Sunday - bound by faith that a dip at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna river will get rid of their sins - throng the event.
However, even this bathing day gets cancelled.
Celia W. Dugger (NYT) INDIA: LAST BATHING DAY Hundreds of thousands of Hindus, hoping to wash away their sins, immersed themselves in the Ganges on the last bathing day of the Kumbh Mela, a vast religious gathering that drew tens of millions of people over 43 days.
The human mass is so immense that it can be deciphered from space; in the last Maha Kumbh Mela, upwards of 30 million people participated in one bathing day alone.
The spa can be experienced only in a bathing suit; a day pass is $18 and includes a book of black-and-white photos (ask at the desk).
Bathing days for men: Mon, Wed, Fri".
But there were certain things I would not put up with, like donning a uniform more revealing than a bathing suit, working all day in heels and submitting to the body scrutiny that in more recent years has become official policy at one casino, the Borgata, whose so-called Babes must maintain their hiring weight or risk being fired.
Though there is not an official estimate of the crowds yet, the police and organizers say that on Sunday, the largest bathing day, the number of people separated from their family and friends at the mela rose above 20,000.
I spent every day in a bathing suit and could not imagine wearing anything more.
