The Westside Story XIII – Ahmedabad

The day at Ahmedabad started not so early! We were quite happy catching up on our sleep!! Considering we left around 1100 hrs, we were able to cover only 4 places of significance! We headed out to Sabarmati Ashram. The place is the humble abode of Gandhi from 1917. He had founded another ashram before this at a place called Kochrab in 1915 which he had to abandon because of the plague epidemic apparently. He started his famous Dandi March in 1930 when he pledged he wouldn’t return till “complete independence” wasn’t achieved!

The ashram has been converted to a museum and part of it remains an ashram where the teachings of Gandhi and the art of yarn spinning is still taught! The museum gave me the impression that Gandhi was an extremist in thought and action. But I guess you can’t be a moderate if you want to excite an entire nation and result it into a nation-wide movement fighting for freedom, giving up their entire lives for this movement.

Sabarmati House (where he lived) is plain, humble and empty. What I found weirdest was the fact that Gandhi had his own room and Kasturba (his wife) had a separate room to herself! There was another building not too far from the house, with 2 rooms, for Vinodha bhai (his guru) and Meera (a German – I think – who was an ardent fan of Gandhi and had come to live with him wherever he went!).

After spending the entire afternoon here, we headed to the City Museum! We were in for a rude shock! The museum was pathetically handled, guarded and promoted! The museum was closed on an “open” day! The reason – there was a wedding happening in the complex and “the children were a menace”!! We had to fight with the guards to open it!

After it was opened, it was a good experience! The information available was varied! About Ahmedabad, the historic significance of this city during independence, lots of photographs and some paintings! We also came across Emperor Jehangir’s letter granting trade permission in India! This was the beginning of the greatest and the worst chapter of Indian history!!

Our next stop was probably tantamount with what we had been doing all through our trip – we went to another mosque. :D Ahmedshah’s mosque. As usual, very beautiful but very much the same architecture as the Jama Masjid in Champaner. Here the signature minarets on the top of the mosque were missing, possibly because of proper preservation!
Having been to so many mosques, there are a couple of tips you pick up that aren’t written on sign boards :
- Never walk in front of someone kneeling on the ground, praying. This is because they’re not supposed to bow down in front of anyone but Allah and take it very offensively!
- Women are supposed to cover their heads inside the mosque and in Dargah’s.
- Wear something that covers your knees.
- There is a separate room upstairs for women to pray in. These rooms have small meshed windows that have such intricate designs, making it a beautiful sight but also very difficult to see inside the rooms – kinda like the point ain’t it!
- You’ve got to take your shoes off! So try not to wear sneakers!!


After Ahmedshah’s mosque, we headed for lunch to a place mentioned in Lonely Planet! But after searching for around half an hour, driving through a crazy bazaar and maddeningly hungry, we decided to stop over at any place that looked decent! This bazaar was a nightmare for the driver, but was great fun for passengers! We stopped at a small joint that looked like it was fine (because it had an a/c)! The food was good but we were charged for 4 “nons” and 2 “cocks” :D (4 naans and 2 cokes!). We got a copy of the bill for memory! :D

After lunch we headed to the Shaking Minarets. These minarets are just 2 very well designed minarets that used to shake when pushed hard!! But probably to preserve it, that has been disallowed to the public. You could tell that this place is frequented by tourists because as soon as we reached the place and stepped out of the car, we were surrounded by little kids. And the second we whipped out the camera, they swamped us to take their pictures!!! They were very cute and we didn’t mind obliging at all..! They all tried showing off their talents to us! We identified a SRK in the group and an Indian idol!! :D

We went to the Jama Masjid very briefly as we had to try and beat the closing time of Akshardhama temple of what we were told is 1830 hrs. The Jama Masjid here is huger than any we had seen earlier and was beautiful as usual! There was a water place in the middle of the Masjid. The architecture was the same as all other Mosques, although for the second time today, we saw the minarets missing!

The hunt for Akshardhama temple (a Swamy Narayan temple) was nothing less than a high speed car chase! We looked like we were part of the popular reality show on AXN “Survivor” and our next clue was at the temple! :D One tip: any kind of electronic items are not allowed inside – phones, cameras, ipods, cd players – so keep them all in your car before entering! Once inside the gates, we had to go through an elaborate security check. The man at the counter will yell out “Belt, wallet, chabbi, chillard, chain”! All these items need to be kept in a tray and you have to pass through a metal detector. Once on the other side, take your belongings and head inside the massive building that looks really amazing at night. The real closing timings are 2030 hrs, so try going after dark to capture the beauty of the place!

Doing a friend a favour, we headed to a restaurant called “Bawarchi” on Drive In road. Also met another friend who studies in IIM A there. I didn’t know this, but here’s an interesting fact – did you know that in most restaurants and showrooms in Amhedabad, IIM A students get a default 10% discount!! The restaurant is a pure veg restaurant but the food is good! Try it out if you have the time!