Ahmedabad Musings

Like most long trips, ofcourse this series too gets over with the musings!!! Musings should begin with food, doesn’t it??? Food in Gujarat, by default reminds you of the Gujarati Thali! Thali is Hindi / Gujarati means Plate. A typical thali is a full meals, filled with atleast 10 -15 items.

I initially ventured to Vishalla Restaurant for a lunch. Sadly it had closed it lunch services and opens only at 3opm for evening snacks and functions through dinner too. But why we ventured there was for a different reason. The place houses something really unique, called Vishalla Utensils Museums also called Vechaar. It’s a private museum that houses traditional utensils of various places across various eras. Unfortunately I couldn’t visit the place.....

Can you make out what is it? I spotted this lamp outside Vishalla. Yup, its a lamp. Its a wrought iron frame which has more than 10 holders to hold transparent glasses. See those dual colored liquid that’s filled within? What do you think it is? Remember those primary school days when you learnt about the density of various liquids??? Remember that water is heavier than oil??? Well, that’s what they’ve used in this lamp. They’ve mixed one color with water, another color with oil, poured them into the same glass. Automatically oil stays above water, preventing the 2 colors from mixing.

Once this is done, this little trellis of sticks is placed atop with a cotton thread at this centre. The sticks are of ‘Bajra’, a local crop which is absolutely weightless, which easily floats atop the oil. That thread is lighted and that makes the natural chandelier!!!

Finally, where did we venture for the dinner??? It was at Gordhaan Thaal. The place has a traditional Gujarthi Thaali, with 16 items!!! All I took was a little of all those 16 things and my tummy was full!!! The price is Rs.250 for an adult, and Rs.130 for a child.

Guess what’s this??? That’s the wash bowl at the Gordhaan thaali! Unusual, isn’t it? Very traditionally Indian...

Talking about food, when I was at the airport lounge, suddenly I was reminded of the club sandwich of Hot Breads. While browsing the counter I did spot some nice, soft, veg sandwich and French fries!!! That’s my hungry friend’s hand who wouldn’t wait till I click a snap!!!

This board grabbed my attention at the Sabarmati Ashram. Isn’t that interesting...???

Finally our driver for the trip – Mr.Jhanak of Apple cabs. I was really astonished meeting him. He spoke very good English. That’s very comfortable if you don’t know Hindi or Gujarati. He knew whole of Ahmedabad very well and it was he who took me to Siddhi Sayid Masjid when I told him "all I have is half an hour, can you take me somewhere which I can finish seeing in half an hour". That’s called ‘brilliant’ isn’t it??? He can be contacted at +91 81550 03630. He will be available in this number from 7:00AM to 7:00PM IST.

And that wraps up the trip. Coming up soon with another place!!! :)

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