Journey to Rajasthan. second stop-Ahmedabad.

Pics: Baroda Palace, Baroda University, Baroda Makarpura Palace, now an Airforce Training Center; view from the Highway, street scenes in towns on the way,
last two pics-Ahmedabad, new, and old-the swaying minarets.

From Udvada to Ahmedabad.




On a cool crisp morning, with ozone breeze from the gathering high tide on the beaches of Udvada (see post below-Rajasthan, journey to! A personal experience!) with a breakfast of fried eggs, (excuse the cholesterol bit), with spicy minced mutton and hot chappatis (unleavened bread), washed down with a hot cup of tea, all after a quick hot shower, we were off on the second leg of our journey, Udvada to Ahmedabad. (one note of caution-if you ask the hotel staff for a very early breakfast, before 7 a. m., they will offer packed egg omelet sandwiches, the main kitchen staff comes in an hour later.)

We, my family and I, piled into the rental, my travel bug further boosted by noting the car was cleaned, washed and spruced up. Somehow a clean car feels more comfortable.

As was expected of me, I put my driver's morning mood up, by asking him whether his stay in the hotel staff rooms was satisfactory and how well did the food go down with him!

The short 8 kilometer drive inland, from Udvada (beach) town to Udvada railway station is not conducive to chatting, as each of us wanted to put away memories, in our minds, of this beautiful real country drive, with its farmland, huge growth of trees between farms, mango orchards, cacti plant property fences, quaint flat roofed houses. Its also the only time you can drive with the car windows down as there is no pollution, just a little dust kicked up on the narrow country road.

You know you have left the country road behind when you emerge (or merge) into the highway to Ahmedabad some 500 kilometers north, at Udvada Station; the highway was, in parts, incomplete.........so here at the junction, with half the road blocked by dumpers, trucks jammed the rest of the motor able road.

Its not a easy feeling to sit amidst huge trucks on either side, with these monsters wanting right of way, and "angry" drivers, perched high up in their cabins, looking down ominously at us poor underlings in our small cars. You inch your way, a few meters, in first gear, keeping your windows up to avoid breathing air thick with fumes and dust.

Here, water and cold drinks (cold? nope,) stashed in a large thermos container comes handy, because it is plain unwise to stop at restaurants you pass, every few kilometers. Leaving the choked traffic is easy..........but try and get back on the highway, every truck driver will make it his life's mission to prevent your inroad into his fiefdom.

At the bypass bordering Navsari, a large town with an ugly flyover trailing inwards into town, the highway is in a complete stage, both sides with two/three lanes; the traffic clears with trucks, except for a few renegades, hugging the inner left lanes, and cars having a clear way.

You now have the opportunity to look out of the raised windows and see the country go past you..........more farmland, houses set in clusters, trees and shrubs, and wasteland cutting the landscape, several river crossings over dried river beds. (I have realised later these dry rivers are not an indication of the lack of water, rather these rivers are dammed upriver, that form lakes for storage of water for irrigation!)

The drive was rather uneventful until we came, of a sudden, to a screeching stop, with a huge traffic pile up before Bharuch. An accident on the bridge, a few kilometers ahead, has stopped all traffic.

And, surprise of surprise, a few good souls, locals, went from one car to the next, advicing we leave the highway, motor through Bharuch town, across another older bridge, and then catch up with the great road after the town's end the other side! That gave us the chance to look at Bharuch............not much except for some fine old homes (in need of repair), enclosed in garden walls, with the usual open water well with a low circular stone fence circling its "mouth." A few "high rise" blocks of 4 or 5 levels, that certified the architects unfit; the market has the usual crop of shops with the usual clutter of cycles, rickshaws, old cars hugging the road corners. My family, in Mumbai now for several generations, trace Bharuch as their original home .......so I looked out with some nostalgia with no clue which of the several old houses may have been home to my great great great.............

We went past Baroda, now Vadodara, the bypass some distance from the town, sorry we could not stop to take in the great palace of the erstwhile rulers of Baroda princely state. At that time I had no clue it is a magnificent building, so my advise to anybody touring this region, please stop and look at this huge structure with its domes and turrets rising high from the green lawns.

We had had lunch at a restaurant, (on the highway before it bypassed Baroda)-vegetable Gujrati fare, delicious but oily, reminding us of we had taken our antacid and delhi-belly, here highway-belly, medicines.

It was around 5 p.m. in the evening, we arrived at the suburbs of Ahmedabad, with the noticeable increase in local traffic, the local rickshaws, as everywhere else, claiming the road, brazenly going through the gaps in traffic, significantly showing us outsiders are welcome, only after we give them right of way...........or a mouthful of quick words giving newcomers driving lessons.

Ahmedabad (Amdavad in local Guj.) is divided into the old city, east of the river Sabarmati, and a new city west of the river crossing. The highway that goes on to Rajasthan is on the eastern periphery of the old town.

The old city is home to some 70 cotton mills that let Ahmedabad claim itself Manchester of the East; the pride of modern Ahmedabad is the new Mahatma Gandhi road, running parallel to the river, with office blocks, cinema theatres, hotels lining the wide road.

Local city guides are always on the lookout for incoming tourist rentals, the car registration gives them the instant clue the car is from another place. They flag down the incoming vehicle, waving their identity badge strung around the neck, offer their services with the first statement "saar, I show you a good very clean hotel, very good." Their commission from the hotel now assured, they climb in next to the driver and commence bargaining for the next day city sightseeing.

We checked into a hotel that occupied a few upper floors above an office block(!!!), the offices fully deserted (it was 6:30 p.m.) and our lift climbed up to the hotel "entrance"level. The hotel room was rather cluttered with some garish furniture, but thankfully the air conditioner worked. After unpacking, a quick shower, we went looking for a place to eat...........and found the broad sidewalk pavements occupied by the poor immigrants to the city, preparing to sleep the night, not an unusual sight in India.

As I hit my pillow, I had a sense of exhilaration that next morning/afternoon I will enter Rajasthan, its superb palaces and forts, crowded town alleys, and the flashing coloured turbans and Rajasthani clothes, and the sense of history, all waiting to be explored!!!