A Hindu woman applies auspicious red paste to her forehead, a mark that shows she is married, in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta January 10, 2001. The woman is among hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees on a pilgrimmage to Sagar Island, 150 km (95 miles) south of Calcutta, for a holy dip at the confluence of the Ganges River and the Bay of Bengal for the "Makar Sankranti", a festival marking an auspicious day in the Hindu calendar.

JS/CP/JD