ON any given day, as the sun rises over the ‘Ganga ghat’ in Nashik, hundreds of priests make their way to the banks of the Godavari. Among them is 32-year-old Mahendra Parashar. While all the other dhoti-clad priests are armed with ‘‘ritualistic materials’’, Parashar carries his laptop to work. While the others flip through the yellowing pages of their record books, the B.Com graduate logs on to his computer and browses.

Parashar’s work place is steeped in tradition, hosts the Kumbh Mela every 12 years and is the site for numerous religious functions. Thousands flock to the ghats in Nashik to perform last rites of their relatives. And slowly, amid the chanting of prayers, priests are opening their minds to the possibility of a cyber invasion.

The change has come 10 years after Parashar was ridiculed for wanting to computerise the family trees of all the people who came to him. Today priests (many of whom are graduates) in the pilgrimage city are slowly succumbing to the wonders of the World Wide Web.

‘‘I was just out of college when I first started toying with the idea,’’ remembers Parashar. ‘‘At that time I had no idea about computers or how to write a software. It has taken me 10 long years to finally develop a software to trace the ancestors of any family who has been coming to us to perform various rituals.’’

At the ghats, generations don’t just come to perform last rites. They also come to trace their family roots. Priests maintain immaculate records of every person who comes to them to perform rituals.

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