Me for first time
We flew from Cochin via Mumbai into Ahmedabad Airport .
We had booked in the Indian Medical Association guest room in Ahmedbad .
Though it wasnt very impressive like a hotel and was an old building it was in center of city and as no one else was staying there we had unlimited attention
Ahmedabad is actually a twin city an older more unkempt one and a more spacious and planned Gandhi nagar the capital .
Ahmedabad was our first stop for a holiday to Rajasthan .
In Gujarat our plan was only Ahmedabad and the Statue of unity which was far from the city .
I always heard about Gujarat riots and how unkempt the place was.
I was amazed to see a sprawling big city around a flowing river .
The central bus lanes were a novelty and they had bus stations too in middle of road covering almost most of the city .
The riversides had parks and were well kept.
There were plenty of food courts and eating places some iconic too .
The broad Sabarmati flows through the city with more than seven bridges across .
The serene ashram of our Mahatma is on its banks .
Gujarat has given many stalwarts to Indian politics .
Gandhijee of course
Sardar vallabhai patel
Morarjee Desai
And now
Narendra modi
I may have left out many .
Gujaratis are fun loving colourful devout and also known for thier astuteness in Business
Be it the Adanis or Ambanis you can greet them with a Kem chu .
Thier food too is different
From thier kaleidosopic thalis to healthy dhoklas or masala kevdias to theplas the Gujarati palate tickles a lot .
Manek Chowk in Ahmedabad we heard is like a chameleon market .
In day time its a silver gold jewellery market accounting for more than 3 million rupees annual sales ,by evening it turns into a textile market and by 9.30 the place becomes a street food center.
The favourites are dosa pau and pau baji several sandwiches samosas chinese food hundreds of varieties of mouth freshners and ice creams specially kulfis .
All from carts in a jumbled confusion .
Unlike food streets seen this one had no traffic restriction so it was full of autos bikes few cars .
Everything in this place was only vegetarian .
Its named after maneknath singh a saint who helped Ahmed founder of city build his fort .
Theres a temple dedicated to him nearby .
We had a chocolate ice cream sandwich,a very invigorating Gobi manchurian,a couple of strong hot masala tea .
The tea was excellent but in a very small glass .
We ended with icecream and kulfi .
Wish they create some order and bit neatness
Food streets intrest tourists but we need to market them too .
The people in general are busy reasonably honest and helpful .
Though they dont break into boisterous bhangra on every step they never fail to go round in traditional wear in gharbha dance during nine nights of navarathri .
On day one we went to the famous step well amongst many in those parts
Being dry plains one needed deep wells and best way was to walk down to a certain depth so they built traditional buildings around them .
Statues and memorials are considered as waste of money in a nation, where crores are spent on political rallies , fake religious congregrations,and wasteful expenditure for public servants .
Abroad museums and memorials are not only money spinners in tourism , they are a pride of the nation and a retrospective to thier past ,a gratitude to their great ,and an inspiration to their youth .
Sardar Vallabhai Patel has been wronged then and now too .
The man of action managed the supreme feat of uniting more than 580 princely states ruled by many eccentric and some wise kings, before we got our freedom
Each were dealt in different ways with both sticks and sweets but Sardar brought them all under India to sign instruments of acessions to join union of India
The decision to make a huge statue of the Sardar was naturally met with lot of opposition .
Many wanted to know why a country like India should spend crores for resurrecting a dead hero by erecting a statue out of proportion in size in a God forsaken tribal area difficult to even reach !
and it sounded true then .
But Modi as CM of Gujarat in 2013 was sure it would be a remarkable step forwards to the benifit of the nation and today we find he was not wrong .
It would not only correct the wrong done to a great Indian , it would also bring patriotic fervour .
The plan was to make it the biggest statue in the world and it would face the Sardar Ssrovar dam in Narmada river
The Sardar gazing at his dream fulfilled .
The dam too had been delayed for years thanks to the left oriented activists like Medha patkar and Arundathi Roy .
Today the dam has brought benifit to millions in 3 states and many tribals too .
The next decision was to find the sculptor
Ram Sutar had made a statue of Sardar in Ahmedabad airport .
It was decided to select that statue form for the statue but many fold huge in size .
Ram was 93 years old but with help of his son he took the responsibility .
The huge statue would be built with iron pillars as its skeleton embossed by copper platings and concrete .
Its structure needed great technical attention as it would stand in an earthqauke prone zone .
It needed to withstand huge winds considering its size of a hill .
Its base feet in sandals was smaller than its body and head hence its center of balance had to corrected .
It would rise to 182 meters ie 597 feet .
while most statues in world were smaller .
The number of seats in Gujarat assembly were 182 which was why it was selected .
An appeal was sent to farmers to donate used iron agricultural equipments to use it for foundation symbolic of getting the iron needed to make iron mans statue from those who toiled the earth from his land .
More than 130 metric tonnes were collected and 103 used to make the foundation
The world wide tender was won by an Indian company Larsen and Toubro to build execute and maintain the statue ,approach bridge ,surroundings for 15 years .
More than 4000 labourers 250 engineers toiled for years .
The copper smelting was done in China shipped in containers and by road to its remote site .
Slowly it grew .
A viewing gallery was planned in around 44 floor approximately in second button from top of sardars coat .
One went up in a high speed lift .
Hgher floors were for maintenance only.
One could go up by escalators or lift to reach Sardars foot .
Everything was disabled friendly
Even the km and half walkway had moving horizontal escalators .
There were many toilets in site something one hardly sees in such places in India .
There were free drinking water booths .
A big AC food court
The base had exhibits ,museums theater etc threre was a huge souvenuir shop .
Free shuttle took one to the dam butterfly park, cactus park ,childrens nutrition park which were surrounding attractions .
Hotels restaurants shopping malls were built .
Artificial illuminated trees on roadside neon lit wide roads transformed the remote place into a fairy land .
In one year more than 2.18 million people visited .
School children were welcomed with discounts so that they learnt our true history
They came in droves.
A laser show at 7pm free for all showed Sardars life and inculcated patriotic fervour .
It has been a huge sucess .
In time the edifice will be surrounded by water for boats to ply around like in statue of liberty .
The whole area is transformed now .
The tallest statue in world is a sucess story indeed .
Gujaratis have settled all over the world and in all parts of the country contributing thier skills charm and creativity .
the magnificient sandstone temple of Akshardham we visted one evening
No cameras or mobile allowed inside after a terrorist attack .
Thus we left Gujarat impressed by the place ,culture,roads,monuments ,temples,and food .
Our next journey was to exotic Rajasthan .
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