Last week, my friend and video journalist Pooja Arya and I trekked along the Sangam at the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj, attempting to capture the essence of the largest gathering on Earth. We also interviewed two policemen diligently manning one of the Khoya-Paaya (lost and found) centres. These centres are the most active at Mahakumbh, buzzing with anxious people and proactive officials and volunteers, trying broken Assamese, Telugu, and other languages with gestures, asking the lost person to remain calm and remember as much as they can about their family members.

I asked one of the cops if the challenge was bigger with lost children or senior pilgrims, and he promptly replied, "always the buzurg (senior people). They are invariably from other states, and the language is difficult to understand. They are tense about whether their family members will come or not. When kids get lost, parents search frantically and eventually find them."

British economist Joan Robinson once remarked: "The frustrating thing about India is that whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true." This insight has often helped me understand the country better. It applies not only to India at different times but also to us as Indians.

I am glad my country is full of paradoxes, and I'll tell you why. While the policeman's experience was significant, in the very same Mahakumbh, I also witnessed something truly heartwarming.

There was a large family from Hubbali in Karnataka that had come to Mahakumbh with 21 members, after visiting Ayodhya. One of the older members had gone missing in Ayodhya and was found after six hours. Terrified, the family had made a long rope of at least a dozen dupattas that all of them would hold on to while walking.

"The oldest member is 89 and the youngest we have is 3. We will never take a risk again," a woman in the group told me. Her commitment to her family's safety was admirable-an assurance that, even in the vast ocean of humanity at the Kumbh, those who are lost eventually find their way back to their loved ones.

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