UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will take with him to Harvard later this month a documentary film and multiple copies of a coffee-table book on the Kumbh Mela to showcase his state.
Yadav will take the help of the film and a power-point presentation in his lecture on crowd management.
The books will be given away as gifts.
Yadav, who will be the first UP chief minister to lecture at Harvard, got the invitation for the way the fair was managed for 55 days in Allahabad earlier this year.
Photographers - professional and freelance - captured various facets of the religious carnival on high-definition video cameras and still cameras. "Photography was part of the mela arrangements. We even had aerial photoshoots," said a state government officer.
The invitation to the chief minister in March followed a 50-member Harvard team's visit to the Kumbh in January to study rituals, arrangements and crowd management. Yadav himself looked after the arrangements and chief secretary Jawed Usmani led the effort.
Some of the delegation members had camped in Allahabad during the mela, which began on January 14 and ended on March 10.
{{/usCountry}}Some of the delegation members had camped in Allahabad during the mela, which began on January 14 and ended on March 10.
{{/usCountry}}The state government had launched the preparation for the Kumbh within days of the change of guard in Uttar Pradesh last year. As part of the effort, nearly 6,000 acres (one acre = 43,560 sq feet) was turned into mela ground.