It’s crazy to think that I’m already closing in on having been here for a month now…and I still haven’t seen all that much of Ahmedabad. This must be rectified at once, but the past week or so has been a bit of a start. I had three main episodes of exploring different parts of the city that were all exciting in their own ways.
Farm House Party – A couple coworkers and I were invited to attend a party at a farm house a little bit away from the city. Riding a car for the first time in weeks (I was kind of getting used to the auto rickshaws!), we drove away from the city to find this farm house. In India, since almost everyone lives in a city, some of the more wealthier families will also have a “farm house” where they can go and spend the weekend to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life. It’s difficult to have a large house downtown given the sheer numbers of people in each city, so it makes a lot of sense to me that you would have a separate little getaway that’s close enough to get to pretty easily. I met a lot of interesting people at the party, a good number of whom were foreigners like myself. I found that I was expecting that everyone would be there for a short term gig like myself, but a good number of the people I met were there for real work. Probably shouldn’t have really blown my mind, but it did! I just wasn’t used to the idea of people following jobs to a different country, even though that’s exactly what countless immigrants do in the US. Much respect to immigrants! Of course there are some other exciting details from that night that will go unmentioned here (there may or may not have been a run in with the law…) that you can ask me about later haha
The Statue Slum –
While exploring the city a bit more over the weekend, we ended up driving through a particular slum where the streets were LINED with makeshift stalls, packed with statues of Ganesh, one of the Hindu gods that is in the form of an elephant. Next week is Ganesh Chaturthi, a festival where these statues will be thrown into bodies of water and will dissolve, symbolizing his return from the earth after removing the obstacles and unhappiness of his devotees. It was kind of amazing to see these huge statues that I would normally associate with being wealthy being mass produced by generational craftsmen in a rundown part of the city. It’s hard for me to capture the full effect with just this picture, but try to imagine blocks and blocks of dingy, narrow streets where there are nothing but huge Ganesh statues on either side of you.
Manek Chowk –
Manek chowk is huge outdoor late night street food spot located in old city (every major city in India has an “old city” and a “new city” built around it) that essentially is a conglomerate of various vendors working together to provide people with the full compliment of unhealthy, yet delicious food options. It was quite bustling last night, and I could understand why! The food was pretty amazing and is exactly what you would want in your late night food options. We ended up ordering a couple pav bhaji (which seems like Indian chilli served with spiced garlic bread); a crazy looking pizza; a dosa; and double decker sandwiches made of buttered bread filled with chocolate, cheese, and pineapple (pictured below). Dude….dude. Yeah, I’m totally going back.
