I left Mandu shortly after 7 on morning of the 19th on a bus bound for Dhar, twenty-some miles to the northwest. We traveled past ruined 15th and 16th century mosques and tombs and past Bhil villages through the early morning sunlight, arriving in Dhar shortly before 9. About a half hour later I got on a bus bound for Ahmedabad, about 200 miles to the west. My seatmate was a young lawyer from Dhar bound for a friend's wedding anniversary in a town about three hours away. The countryside was mostly flat, with wheat, cotton, tomatoes, onions and other crops and not many people. We were traveling through the western end of Madhya Pradesh towards Gujarat, India's westernmost state. There were some hilly sections as we descended from the plateau.
The bus was uncrowded until we reached the first city in Gujarat sometime after noon. It got crowded and moved slowly in the increasing traffic. We passed through the city of Godhra, where Muslims burned a train car full of Hindus returning from Ayodhya in 2002, setting off riots in Gujarat that killed over a thousand people, mostly Muslims. The Gujarat government has been accused to lending a blind eye to the killings and the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, is banned from entering the US. He is still Chief Minister, re-elected twice since the massacres and there were posters of him in Godhra. I later found out that he was coming to Godhra the next day on a "pilgrimage of forgiveness." He has ambitions to be India's Prime Minister if the BJP wins the elections in 2014 and his state government is highly regarded for its economic development, the best in India over the last ten years or so.
It was a long trip from Dhar to Ahmedabad, over ten hours. The sun went down about 6:30 (Ahmedabad is about 16 degrees of longitude further west than Calcutta and all India is in the same time zone) and we arrived between 7:30 and 8. I took an autorickshaw to a hotel and it was full. Finally, the fifth one I inquired at had a room and I took it. Tired and hungry, I had a great dinner of tandoori chicken, garlic naan and a lassi at a relatively fancy restaurant for all of $4.
I slept late the next morning, despite the noisy hotel, and then checked into a much nicer one. It is relatively expensive at 674 rupees (about $13) a night (though only 74 rupees more than the previous night's hotel), but about the nicest hotel I've had in India. I ordered breakfast in my room (a cheese omelet, buttered toast and tea for about $1.75) and watched television. The cable system had about a hundred channels, with even a few in English. I watched the National Geographic Wild channel, with great wildlife documentaries, until shortly after noon, when I left to look around the city. Nearby is the Siddi Sayid Mosque, built by an Abyssinian general in the employ of the Sultan of Gujarat about 1570 (just before Akbar conquered Gujarat and incorporated it into the Moghul Empire). It is small but has exquisite jali screens, the most beautiful I've seen. Two of them depict the tree of life, as they have been called, very graceful, seemingly swaying trees, especially with the blue of the sky and the green of real trees behind them. While I was there the muezzin went to a little room in one of the minarets (rather than climbing it) and began the Friday midday call to prayer on a microphone as I watched him. Worshipers, many in white skullcaps, streamed in and began their prayers.
I walked a short distance to the Mosque of Ahmed Shah, formerly the palace mosque and one of the earliest buildings in Ahmedabad, a city founded in 1411 by (you guessed it) a guy named Ahmed (Ahmed Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat). Many men were streaming into the mosque for Friday prayers and most of them stopped first at a tank in the courtyard in front of the main hall to wash their hands and feet and faces before going in. I didn't enter the main hall as it was crowded with worshipers, but watched from the courtyard. There were very few women in the courtyard and none in the main hall.
I walked to a nearby government building with lots of people in the courtyard sitting behind old typewriters, ready to prepare legal documents. Several signs listed names and the word "Advocates" under them. I wandered around and talked to a few of the lawyers and clerks. Nearby is the former palace in the early 15th century Bhadra Fort, now a government office, and a guy let me go through the gates and up onto the roof for a view of the city. There was a colorful market and a Hindu temple below. I walked east to and through the Teen Darwaza, a gate with three arches, and through the crowded and colorful bazaars to the Jama Masjid, now mostly empty after Friday prayers. It has a huge courtyard and a main hall with something like 300 pillars, plus beautiful jali screens letting in light. It used to have two minarets, but they fell down in earthquakes, one in 1819 and one in 1957. Also inside is a raised section for women, built on half size pillars, with jali screens, a sort of mosque within the mosque. I wandered around inside for a while and then sat for a while. It was pleasant among that forest of pillars with the light filtering through the jali screens. On the way out I talked to a couple of friendly guys all in white, visitors from Karnataka in southern India.
I walked through the bazaars of Manek Chowk to the Mausoleum of Ahmed Shah, which turned out to be just outside the eastern entrance to the giant courtyard of the Jama Masjid. (I had originally entered and left through its northern entrance.) It contained more exquisite jali screens and the cloth covered tombs of Ahmed Shah and his son and grandson, his successors as Sultan of Gujarat. A guy told me Ahmed Shah is worshiped as a saint for his piety and learning. There were two other tombs in the mausoleum, and several outside. Women are not allowed into the inner sanctuary, with the three main graves, but a woman in black was praying just outside the door.
A short distance away is the mausoleum of Rani-na-Hazira, the queens of Ahmed Shah. It is very much run down, with shops clustered all around it and lots of junk stored on the walkway around it. However, it did have some beautiful jali screens. There were several cloth covered tombs in the courtyard, with a group of women sitting next to them. Children were playing in the courtyard and one little girl, with several missing teeth, came up to me and handed me a ping pong type paddle. We played a sort of badmitten for maybe fifteen minutes, as many kids and adults watched. Her companion kept coming to me to get the paddle back, but when I gave it to her her strong-willed friend quickly took it away and gave it back to me.
In the market just outside the mausoleum I bought some sugared dried fruit, after the vendor had had me sample various kinds to the amusement of the crowd. I walked to a nearby and very colorful fruit and vegetable market, where the vendors seemed to take pride in how they displayed their wares, and bought some guavas. I then walked back into the Jama Masjid courtyard through its southern entrance, just as the faithful were gathering for sunset prayers. There were fewer than at midday and few of them were washing before their prayers. I watched for a while and then walked back to my hotel in the dark and had another good meal, followed by a long, hot shower, my first shower (as opposed to bucket baths) in about two months. Usually, in the hotels I've stayed in there is not enough hot water even if there is a shower to chance taking a shower and having the hot water run out. So you take bucket baths and be careful with the water.
The next morning, after breakfast in my room at the hotel while watching television, I walked again to the Ahmed Shah Mosque, much quieter than the day before. It was almost deserted and I went inside this time to look around. More very nice jali screens. From there I took an autorickshaw to the train station and then walked to two nearby 15th century "shaking minarets," about 70 feet high. The minarets of Ahmedabad were built in a way that allowed them to sway and, with luck, not fall down, during earthquakes. Unlike those of the Jama Masjid, these had survived, but the mosque itself was gone! It has been replaced by a more modern one.
From there I took an auto rickshaw to a step well, with a long stairway leading down to two wells far underground. It must be more than 50 feet deep as there are five levels of landings above the wells. The pillars and walls are covered with carvings. The wells now are dry and you can stand in them and stare up at the sky above. Two spiral staircases rise up from one of the wells, and I came up through those, stopping at each landing. The trees above the well, like trees all over Ahmedabad, were full of kites. Ahmedabad has a kite festival every January, around the 14th, and kite flying is very popular. Next to the stepwell was a small mosque and tomb, with more of those beautiful jali screens. Midday prayers were just ending and the friendly caretaker showed me around and showed me how to get up on the roofs. Some boys led me to another old step well, this one only three levels high and locked up. It appears now to be a Hindu temple.
From there I took an autorickshaw across the wide Sabarmati River (quite high with water, with water diverted from the Narmada River, I've read) to the Sabarmati Ashram on the west bank of the river, which was Gandhi's home and headquarters from 1918 to 1930. I suppose back then it was out of town, but now Ahmedabad is huge, with something like five million people. (It is usually pronounced "Amdavad," by the way, and I've seen it written that way on several signs, including street signs.) Gandhi left the ashram in 1930 to begin his salt march to Dandi, vowing never to return until India was independent. It is now a memorial, with a museum with great photos if somewhat poor captions. His house is still standing, as are other buildings. His room is simple, with just a cushion bed and a hand loom. Also in the small house are his wife's room, a room for guests, a kitchen, a storeroom, a small courtyard and a large porch. On the porch a man was working a hand loom, spinning cotton. He showed me how to do it and I finally understood how balls of cotton are spun into thread. It was quite easy to do, though I'm sure the quality of my thread was not high. The ashram rules are posted on a wall on the porch in Gandhi's handwriting. I hung around until a prayer service began at 6 on a sandy patch above the concrete walled river below, the place where Gandhi used to have morning and evening prayers.
I spent most of the next morning in my room, having breakfast, reading the paper (delivered to my room each morning) and watching television. My sinus infection had returned in force, which was discouraging. The paper said this had been a particularly cold winter, but the temperatures in Ahmedabad weren't too bad, with lows of about 50 degrees and highs in the upper 70's. A little before noon I took an autorickshaw to the City Museum on the other side of the river, in another of those hideous Le Corbusier builkings. It was a pretty good museum, with historical and cultural stuff, plus a kite museum and a century old statue of Queen Victoria, now with a smashed face, relocated from a park (Victoria Park; they seem to have retained the name but not the statue), near the city center.
I spent a couple of hours there and then recrossed the river by autorickshaw to the small Mosque of Rani Sipri and her tomb. Midday prayers were just ending. The doors to the tomb were locked, but you could see through them and see the wonderful jali screens letting in light. I counted and there were 524 little jali windows, each about ten inches square, with a different design for each row. On the two sides with doors there were 128 little windows, with 141 on each of the other sides. The mosque was very nice, too, and I sat inside for a while. A poster had the 95 names of Allah on it, with English translations, and that was interesting, as was another poster with the family tree of Mohammed. The caretaker there was a friendly old guy, who encouraged me to take photos.
I walked from there to the Jama Masjid and nearby markets again, buying some dried candied mango strips and tasting some delicious dried figs. I also bought some very good sweets made of milk, sugar, almonds, walnuts and pistachios. I took a photo of some people buying dried fruits and nuts and they came up afterward and asked me to take a family photo of them. Ahmedabad doesn't seem to get a lot of tourists and the people seem particularly friendly. I walked north along a very crowded little lane of sari sellers and a group of friendly women asked me to take their photo. Eventually, I reached the colorful Swami Narayan Temple, built in 1822, and then headed back to my hotel before dark.
The next morning I took an autorickshaw to the Calico Museum of Textiles in time for their free tour, limited to only 20 people each morning. I was lucky to get in. The museum is housed in a 200 year old wooden haveli and the collection is spectacular. They may have been the most beautiful textiles I have ever seen, including a Moghul tent. The guide explained tie-dying and double ikat and that was interesting. There were textiles from Gujarat, including Kachch, and from Rajasthan and Orissa, among other places. I headed back to the hotel soon after noon, planning to spend time in an internet cafe updating this blog, but internet service was out. I spent most of the afternoon watching tv in my room and saw the first episode of The Wonder Years, the end of the Golden Globes awards show, and wildlife documentaries. Later I discovered The Daily Show, shown at 11:30 on India's new Comedy Central network and also saw the first two episodes of 30 Rock. It is also quite interesting to see how this channel markets American humor to Indian audiences.
The next morning I set out to take a bus to the Adalaj Vav step well ("vav" means "well" in Gujarati; in Gujarat most people speak Gujarati, similar but not the same as Hindi) about 12 miles to the north. It took a long while to get the right bus and then to get there, but it was a spectacular step well, about 100 feet deep. It also is five levels deep, but the levels are higher than at the step well I visited in Ahmedabad. The carvings are very good, but visitors are prevented by barriers from visiting parts of the step well, including the spiral staircases and the landings of the octagonal well, with some of the most interesting sculpture. (You get to the bottom via the long, straight staircase.)
From there I took a bus a few miles north to Gandhinagar, the new (1970) state capital, built along the lines of Chandigarh, the Punjab-Haryana capital, with wide straight streets and arranged into "sectors." From the city bus stand I took another bus to the Akshardham Temple, operated by the Swami Narayan sect. I had visited their spectacular temple in Delhi. This is similar, but built earlier (1992) and not as elaborate as the one in Dehli. I got there just before 5, had a quick meal, and then set out to see the exhibitions, but the crowd of pushing and shoving Indians put me off and I decided to skip them. The temple itself contained some of the possessions of Swami Narayan, who lived from 1781 to 1830 and is considered god by his adherents. He ended up in Gujarat in 1799 after a seven year pilgrimage around India, including a barefoot, almost naked trek to Mt. Kailas in Tibet during winter. At least that is the story. At 7:15, after dark, there was a spectacular water show, billed as the "World's First Vedic Water Show," with not only water but also fire, lights, lasers and projections of figures. It was really very good, but all in either Gujarati or Hindi, so it probably didn't do me any spiritual good. Afterwards, I was able to catch a bus nearby all the way to near my hotel in Ahmedabad, an hour trip.
I had thought about leaving for Patan the next day, but decided to spend another day in Ahmedabad, relaxing for the most part. I spent the morning reading the paper and watching television and the afternoon in an internet cafe catching up with the news, among other things. It really is quite wonderful to be able to read the New York Times while you travel. I did make a few forays out into the city. Crossing streets in an Indian city is always a challenge. There is so much traffic, so much more than when I was here in 1979, and it seems to come almost always in a steady stream. Red lights at intersections are often treated more as suggestions rather than commands. You have to gather your courage and carefully step out into the traffic and the cars and buses and autorickshaws and motorcycles and bikes and other vehicles do manage to avoid you. Just don't make any sudden, expected moves. I got my first haircut in more than two months, since I was in Bangkok. I have gone from quite long hair to quite short hair. It cost me a dollar and the barber asked me how much haircuts cost in the US.
The bus was uncrowded until we reached the first city in Gujarat sometime after noon. It got crowded and moved slowly in the increasing traffic. We passed through the city of Godhra, where Muslims burned a train car full of Hindus returning from Ayodhya in 2002, setting off riots in Gujarat that killed over a thousand people, mostly Muslims. The Gujarat government has been accused to lending a blind eye to the killings and the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, is banned from entering the US. He is still Chief Minister, re-elected twice since the massacres and there were posters of him in Godhra. I later found out that he was coming to Godhra the next day on a "pilgrimage of forgiveness." He has ambitions to be India's Prime Minister if the BJP wins the elections in 2014 and his state government is highly regarded for its economic development, the best in India over the last ten years or so.
It was a long trip from Dhar to Ahmedabad, over ten hours. The sun went down about 6:30 (Ahmedabad is about 16 degrees of longitude further west than Calcutta and all India is in the same time zone) and we arrived between 7:30 and 8. I took an autorickshaw to a hotel and it was full. Finally, the fifth one I inquired at had a room and I took it. Tired and hungry, I had a great dinner of tandoori chicken, garlic naan and a lassi at a relatively fancy restaurant for all of $4.
I slept late the next morning, despite the noisy hotel, and then checked into a much nicer one. It is relatively expensive at 674 rupees (about $13) a night (though only 74 rupees more than the previous night's hotel), but about the nicest hotel I've had in India. I ordered breakfast in my room (a cheese omelet, buttered toast and tea for about $1.75) and watched television. The cable system had about a hundred channels, with even a few in English. I watched the National Geographic Wild channel, with great wildlife documentaries, until shortly after noon, when I left to look around the city. Nearby is the Siddi Sayid Mosque, built by an Abyssinian general in the employ of the Sultan of Gujarat about 1570 (just before Akbar conquered Gujarat and incorporated it into the Moghul Empire). It is small but has exquisite jali screens, the most beautiful I've seen. Two of them depict the tree of life, as they have been called, very graceful, seemingly swaying trees, especially with the blue of the sky and the green of real trees behind them. While I was there the muezzin went to a little room in one of the minarets (rather than climbing it) and began the Friday midday call to prayer on a microphone as I watched him. Worshipers, many in white skullcaps, streamed in and began their prayers.
I walked a short distance to the Mosque of Ahmed Shah, formerly the palace mosque and one of the earliest buildings in Ahmedabad, a city founded in 1411 by (you guessed it) a guy named Ahmed (Ahmed Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat). Many men were streaming into the mosque for Friday prayers and most of them stopped first at a tank in the courtyard in front of the main hall to wash their hands and feet and faces before going in. I didn't enter the main hall as it was crowded with worshipers, but watched from the courtyard. There were very few women in the courtyard and none in the main hall.
I walked to a nearby government building with lots of people in the courtyard sitting behind old typewriters, ready to prepare legal documents. Several signs listed names and the word "Advocates" under them. I wandered around and talked to a few of the lawyers and clerks. Nearby is the former palace in the early 15th century Bhadra Fort, now a government office, and a guy let me go through the gates and up onto the roof for a view of the city. There was a colorful market and a Hindu temple below. I walked east to and through the Teen Darwaza, a gate with three arches, and through the crowded and colorful bazaars to the Jama Masjid, now mostly empty after Friday prayers. It has a huge courtyard and a main hall with something like 300 pillars, plus beautiful jali screens letting in light. It used to have two minarets, but they fell down in earthquakes, one in 1819 and one in 1957. Also inside is a raised section for women, built on half size pillars, with jali screens, a sort of mosque within the mosque. I wandered around inside for a while and then sat for a while. It was pleasant among that forest of pillars with the light filtering through the jali screens. On the way out I talked to a couple of friendly guys all in white, visitors from Karnataka in southern India.
I walked through the bazaars of Manek Chowk to the Mausoleum of Ahmed Shah, which turned out to be just outside the eastern entrance to the giant courtyard of the Jama Masjid. (I had originally entered and left through its northern entrance.) It contained more exquisite jali screens and the cloth covered tombs of Ahmed Shah and his son and grandson, his successors as Sultan of Gujarat. A guy told me Ahmed Shah is worshiped as a saint for his piety and learning. There were two other tombs in the mausoleum, and several outside. Women are not allowed into the inner sanctuary, with the three main graves, but a woman in black was praying just outside the door.
A short distance away is the mausoleum of Rani-na-Hazira, the queens of Ahmed Shah. It is very much run down, with shops clustered all around it and lots of junk stored on the walkway around it. However, it did have some beautiful jali screens. There were several cloth covered tombs in the courtyard, with a group of women sitting next to them. Children were playing in the courtyard and one little girl, with several missing teeth, came up to me and handed me a ping pong type paddle. We played a sort of badmitten for maybe fifteen minutes, as many kids and adults watched. Her companion kept coming to me to get the paddle back, but when I gave it to her her strong-willed friend quickly took it away and gave it back to me.
In the market just outside the mausoleum I bought some sugared dried fruit, after the vendor had had me sample various kinds to the amusement of the crowd. I walked to a nearby and very colorful fruit and vegetable market, where the vendors seemed to take pride in how they displayed their wares, and bought some guavas. I then walked back into the Jama Masjid courtyard through its southern entrance, just as the faithful were gathering for sunset prayers. There were fewer than at midday and few of them were washing before their prayers. I watched for a while and then walked back to my hotel in the dark and had another good meal, followed by a long, hot shower, my first shower (as opposed to bucket baths) in about two months. Usually, in the hotels I've stayed in there is not enough hot water even if there is a shower to chance taking a shower and having the hot water run out. So you take bucket baths and be careful with the water.
The next morning, after breakfast in my room at the hotel while watching television, I walked again to the Ahmed Shah Mosque, much quieter than the day before. It was almost deserted and I went inside this time to look around. More very nice jali screens. From there I took an autorickshaw to the train station and then walked to two nearby 15th century "shaking minarets," about 70 feet high. The minarets of Ahmedabad were built in a way that allowed them to sway and, with luck, not fall down, during earthquakes. Unlike those of the Jama Masjid, these had survived, but the mosque itself was gone! It has been replaced by a more modern one.
From there I took an auto rickshaw to a step well, with a long stairway leading down to two wells far underground. It must be more than 50 feet deep as there are five levels of landings above the wells. The pillars and walls are covered with carvings. The wells now are dry and you can stand in them and stare up at the sky above. Two spiral staircases rise up from one of the wells, and I came up through those, stopping at each landing. The trees above the well, like trees all over Ahmedabad, were full of kites. Ahmedabad has a kite festival every January, around the 14th, and kite flying is very popular. Next to the stepwell was a small mosque and tomb, with more of those beautiful jali screens. Midday prayers were just ending and the friendly caretaker showed me around and showed me how to get up on the roofs. Some boys led me to another old step well, this one only three levels high and locked up. It appears now to be a Hindu temple.
From there I took an autorickshaw across the wide Sabarmati River (quite high with water, with water diverted from the Narmada River, I've read) to the Sabarmati Ashram on the west bank of the river, which was Gandhi's home and headquarters from 1918 to 1930. I suppose back then it was out of town, but now Ahmedabad is huge, with something like five million people. (It is usually pronounced "Amdavad," by the way, and I've seen it written that way on several signs, including street signs.) Gandhi left the ashram in 1930 to begin his salt march to Dandi, vowing never to return until India was independent. It is now a memorial, with a museum with great photos if somewhat poor captions. His house is still standing, as are other buildings. His room is simple, with just a cushion bed and a hand loom. Also in the small house are his wife's room, a room for guests, a kitchen, a storeroom, a small courtyard and a large porch. On the porch a man was working a hand loom, spinning cotton. He showed me how to do it and I finally understood how balls of cotton are spun into thread. It was quite easy to do, though I'm sure the quality of my thread was not high. The ashram rules are posted on a wall on the porch in Gandhi's handwriting. I hung around until a prayer service began at 6 on a sandy patch above the concrete walled river below, the place where Gandhi used to have morning and evening prayers.
I spent most of the next morning in my room, having breakfast, reading the paper (delivered to my room each morning) and watching television. My sinus infection had returned in force, which was discouraging. The paper said this had been a particularly cold winter, but the temperatures in Ahmedabad weren't too bad, with lows of about 50 degrees and highs in the upper 70's. A little before noon I took an autorickshaw to the City Museum on the other side of the river, in another of those hideous Le Corbusier builkings. It was a pretty good museum, with historical and cultural stuff, plus a kite museum and a century old statue of Queen Victoria, now with a smashed face, relocated from a park (Victoria Park; they seem to have retained the name but not the statue), near the city center.
I spent a couple of hours there and then recrossed the river by autorickshaw to the small Mosque of Rani Sipri and her tomb. Midday prayers were just ending. The doors to the tomb were locked, but you could see through them and see the wonderful jali screens letting in light. I counted and there were 524 little jali windows, each about ten inches square, with a different design for each row. On the two sides with doors there were 128 little windows, with 141 on each of the other sides. The mosque was very nice, too, and I sat inside for a while. A poster had the 95 names of Allah on it, with English translations, and that was interesting, as was another poster with the family tree of Mohammed. The caretaker there was a friendly old guy, who encouraged me to take photos.
I walked from there to the Jama Masjid and nearby markets again, buying some dried candied mango strips and tasting some delicious dried figs. I also bought some very good sweets made of milk, sugar, almonds, walnuts and pistachios. I took a photo of some people buying dried fruits and nuts and they came up afterward and asked me to take a family photo of them. Ahmedabad doesn't seem to get a lot of tourists and the people seem particularly friendly. I walked north along a very crowded little lane of sari sellers and a group of friendly women asked me to take their photo. Eventually, I reached the colorful Swami Narayan Temple, built in 1822, and then headed back to my hotel before dark.
The next morning I took an autorickshaw to the Calico Museum of Textiles in time for their free tour, limited to only 20 people each morning. I was lucky to get in. The museum is housed in a 200 year old wooden haveli and the collection is spectacular. They may have been the most beautiful textiles I have ever seen, including a Moghul tent. The guide explained tie-dying and double ikat and that was interesting. There were textiles from Gujarat, including Kachch, and from Rajasthan and Orissa, among other places. I headed back to the hotel soon after noon, planning to spend time in an internet cafe updating this blog, but internet service was out. I spent most of the afternoon watching tv in my room and saw the first episode of The Wonder Years, the end of the Golden Globes awards show, and wildlife documentaries. Later I discovered The Daily Show, shown at 11:30 on India's new Comedy Central network and also saw the first two episodes of 30 Rock. It is also quite interesting to see how this channel markets American humor to Indian audiences.
The next morning I set out to take a bus to the Adalaj Vav step well ("vav" means "well" in Gujarati; in Gujarat most people speak Gujarati, similar but not the same as Hindi) about 12 miles to the north. It took a long while to get the right bus and then to get there, but it was a spectacular step well, about 100 feet deep. It also is five levels deep, but the levels are higher than at the step well I visited in Ahmedabad. The carvings are very good, but visitors are prevented by barriers from visiting parts of the step well, including the spiral staircases and the landings of the octagonal well, with some of the most interesting sculpture. (You get to the bottom via the long, straight staircase.)
From there I took a bus a few miles north to Gandhinagar, the new (1970) state capital, built along the lines of Chandigarh, the Punjab-Haryana capital, with wide straight streets and arranged into "sectors." From the city bus stand I took another bus to the Akshardham Temple, operated by the Swami Narayan sect. I had visited their spectacular temple in Delhi. This is similar, but built earlier (1992) and not as elaborate as the one in Dehli. I got there just before 5, had a quick meal, and then set out to see the exhibitions, but the crowd of pushing and shoving Indians put me off and I decided to skip them. The temple itself contained some of the possessions of Swami Narayan, who lived from 1781 to 1830 and is considered god by his adherents. He ended up in Gujarat in 1799 after a seven year pilgrimage around India, including a barefoot, almost naked trek to Mt. Kailas in Tibet during winter. At least that is the story. At 7:15, after dark, there was a spectacular water show, billed as the "World's First Vedic Water Show," with not only water but also fire, lights, lasers and projections of figures. It was really very good, but all in either Gujarati or Hindi, so it probably didn't do me any spiritual good. Afterwards, I was able to catch a bus nearby all the way to near my hotel in Ahmedabad, an hour trip.
I had thought about leaving for Patan the next day, but decided to spend another day in Ahmedabad, relaxing for the most part. I spent the morning reading the paper and watching television and the afternoon in an internet cafe catching up with the news, among other things. It really is quite wonderful to be able to read the New York Times while you travel. I did make a few forays out into the city. Crossing streets in an Indian city is always a challenge. There is so much traffic, so much more than when I was here in 1979, and it seems to come almost always in a steady stream. Red lights at intersections are often treated more as suggestions rather than commands. You have to gather your courage and carefully step out into the traffic and the cars and buses and autorickshaws and motorcycles and bikes and other vehicles do manage to avoid you. Just don't make any sudden, expected moves. I got my first haircut in more than two months, since I was in Bangkok. I have gone from quite long hair to quite short hair. It cost me a dollar and the barber asked me how much haircuts cost in the US.
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