Old city heritage walk

Nihal has been in Hyderabad with Utpal for the past few days, and Gaurab is getting ready to go back to Nepal, so I decided the night before that today would be good to go on the Ahmedabad Heritage Walk tour. It started at 8 at Swaminarayan temple in Kalupur in the old city. Mom, Dad, and Sam called right as I woke up, so I was a little late, but still made the walk. I haven’t gotten up that early here, but it was a lot cooler and not bad to be walking around outside. The old city is on the east side of the river and used to be walled in, but it’s really dense and the roads are all narrow and crooked. There are these big houses called “Pols” which is like a group of houses around this little courtyard. They could be gated for protection and usually had a little back secret way out. When they built the place back in the 1500s I think, they cut down all the trees so they have all these big birdhouses for the birds they displaced from then. The architecture is really unique with all these ornate carvings. On the tour you stop through all these hindu and Jain temples and mosques as well. There’s a square called Manek Chowk where they trade gold and silver. We even saw a few elephants.

We wanted some coffee after that so they suggested we go to House of MG, this very nice, very colonial looking hotel and restaurant next to Sidi Saiyad Mosque. The interior was really nice, it reminded me of Kandalama hotel and hotel Citadel in Sri Lanka, and the bathrooms were really nice and even had toilet paper! There’s a nice outdoor eating area, too. It was expensive though, even for just cold coffee it was Rs. 90. But we all had a nice chat for awhile; I’m going to miss having them here when they go to Singapore!

So from there Karuna and I were going to this Shreyas Museum that Shwaran had suggested, but it was impossible to get this autowalla to where we wanted to go. We even called Shrawan and he talked to him, but still he couldn’t find. By the time we got there they were closed for another hour, so we decided to go to U.S. Pizza for lunch. This time we had the lunch buffet and didn’t order massive amounts of garlic bread like Caryn and I did before. Karuna was going to take me to this clothes store, Seasons, but it was closed, so I took her to Kapasi, a really nice government emporium that I happened upon near Income Tax place. We didn’t buy anything but there are definitely a lot of things I want to go back for. Beautiful handicraft pieces, boxes – carved, enamel, wood, brass. Mughal-style paintings, hanging lanterns, statues of all the gods, shawls, so many great things!

In the US when you go into a store, you just want the people to leave you alone while you shop, and we are so used to that. Gaurab was saying in India you have to have everyone else do things for you; there’s always a middle man, and you just have to let go. And I do already like this difference when shopping. It’s nice, everything is a social interaction. When buying new glasses, they were helping me pick which ones looked the best. Shopping for clothes is the best. I’ve gone the complete opposite; now I expect to be helped right away. I want them to start pulling out the dress material and showing me; it’s so fun. Even trying to find a place involved asking multiple people where to go. I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve realized I don’t like FabIndia. It’s this clothing chain that’s quite famous here. It’s nice quality, but it’s also expensive. But they don’t pull out all the clothes for you like other places, and it’s all stacked up so it’s hard to find something. Mainly though I’m finding that the clothes are just dull by comparison to other clothes you can get here.

Vishal, one of my friends from CEPT before, and his wife Richa invited me over to their flat for dinner. It was so much fun; they are so sweet. They’ve only been married since December. Richa’s dad is a professor so her family lived in Turkey for awhile and went to the American school there, so we spent a good while talking about different American movies we liked. They’ve decorated their flat so nice though; the curtains and furniture are so pretty and colorful. Their families are both from around Banaras and Allahbad, so she made paratha, bindi (okra), and paneer curry for dinner which was very nice. Vishal ended up giving me a brief history of the colonial settlement of India, but I think we spent the most time laughing at funny stories from his school days at CEPT, mostly about Harpreet causing trouble and then getting pranks pulled on him. We were laughing a lot! It was a very nice evening! And a very nice day as well!

Again I keep thinking about the difference between me moving to St. Louis for work and my moving here. I moved to St. Louis for work, in my own country, speaking my own language, and everything, and I know hardly anyone even after 2 years of trying and trying to meet people. No one ever has time for you there. It’s a rather sad reflection that I come back to a place where I was here for only a month four years ago, and feel so much more welcomed and already know more people here than I ever did in St. Louis. But it’s not just knowing people, most people here are just so sincere and welcoming. Even after not talking to some of the friends much at all for four years, they are still welcoming me. Harpreet has been so sweet and helping with everything or calling other people to get them to help me. They invite you to dinner and really mean it, and really don’t seem to mind helping you out at all. And this has always been the very best part of India for me. Despite all the frustrations that have been happening, I need to keep this in mind: that I won’t have to be lonely.