Maha Kumbh Mela<\/a> was being celebrated in full swing in Uttar Pradesh, Deepak Goel, an entrepreneur, saw an opportunity that you and I didn\u2019t. When the world was rushing to dip themselves into the Ganges, Deepak put out a video on Instagram introducing himself. \u201cHi, I\u2019m Deepak Goel from Prayagraj and I am performing digital snans for people. All you have to do is send me a WhatsApp picture of yourself. I will take a printout and dip you five times. I come here every day,\u201d he declared. <\/p>\n![\"\"]()
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Earlier, the dips came at a hefty price. When the Kumbh was taking place, Deepak could be seen standing at the ghats by the river with his pants rolled up, holding up passport sized images of strangers who wanted their sins to be washed away. He charged \u20b91,100 for a picture. Since February 23, the end of the fest, the service has been largely free though. One only needs to pay \u20b925 to cover the cost of printing the photo out and conveyance. \u201cI offer digital snan services at Sangam-Prayagraj, Narmada-Jabalpur and at Haridwar. For Sangam-Prayagraj, you only have to pay \u20b925 per photograph. There can be many people in one photograph also,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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A representational illustration
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\n Illustration: Sreejith Ravikumar\n <\/p>\n
Since February, the entrepreneur has been flooded with requests \u2014 gag and serious ones alike \u2014 for digital salvation. It has also invited several spoof spin offs. Do you have a broken leg but still wish to work those abs? Go to the digital gym where someone places your photo on a treadmill for cardio? A parody account @digitalgym01 has 608k views on their first video already. Can\u2019t drink a peg of whiskey because your parents or partner disallows you from doing so? A digital peg by YouTuber Mister Param is the way to go.<\/p>\n
Deepak\u2019s video of a snan of American influencer and wrestler Logan Paul, his wife Nina Agdal and their child Esme, has gotten nearly 5 million views. Pop-culture content creator @thepjexplained sent a collage of himself and actress Sydney Sweeny, known for her striking beauty, and requested a dip. <\/p>\n
In a television interview, Deepak said that he was using advanced technology to help facilitate the wishes of those who could not be present at Prayagraj for this festival. \u201cOld people who cannot travel need to be accommodated somehow. People say that I am using advanced technology for this,\u201d he said. How kind.
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I ended up saving a number of his videos so my algorithm now only shows me an odd mix of F1 and Maha Kumbh reels. The ones that cracked me up the most were requests from Westerners like Alex, a woman from Kent, who paid $20 for this; and from forlorn Formula One fans who prayed for Ganga-fuelled victory laps of drivers like Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. \u201c\u2018Charles\u2019, \u2018Charles\u2019, \u2018Charles\u2019. How many of you have requested him. Hope he wins the race tomorrow,\u201d Deepak said in all seriousness, announcing the date: May 24 and location: Sangam Prayagraj. <\/p>\n
Curiosity got the best of me so I wrote to the man on WhatsApp requesting an interview. I am upset to report that I only received an automated reply from an account with a profile photo that reads \u2018Digital Snan Guru\u2019.
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For your sake, dear reader, I have sent him my photograph and \u20b925 on Google Pay, hoping to see if this experiment works. Let us if he can wipe my sin slate clean. At least this way, I will end up taking a bath.
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Level up<\/p>\n
Chad:<\/b> A \u2018Chad\u2019 is usually a generic, attractive, young white man who is supposedly muscular and cocky. Now, the term is synonymous with male entitlement and is often used to describe the incel community. For example, Henry Cavill is a hot Chad.<\/p>\n
Are you wondering about what\u2019s happening on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit and Discord? Pop it like it\u2019s hot, a fortnightly column from The Hindu, catches you up on everything pop culture. All you need to do, is tune in.<\/p>\n
Published – May 30, 2025 02:07 pm IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A girl taking dip at Triveni Sangam, a sacred confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3161],"tags":[5070,62021,3082,998,62022,62023,1073,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-143675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-charles-leclerc","9":"tag-digital-snan","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-lewis-hamilton","12":"tag-maha-kumbh-mela","13":"tag-mahakumbh-2025","14":"tag-max-verstappen","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114595933906820233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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