Ahmedabad : A Traveller's Delight

Ahmedabad, its a city I only wish to have good memories of, but have to be painfully reminded of one of my biggest failures this year (the MICA blunder). Neverthless, this post isn't about my failures or anything, its about the beautiful and serene city of Ahmedabad and why its one of the best places visited by me till now.

Now each city has some peculiar and unique features that sets it apart from others and some may argue that each deserves a post of its own. But then this post is not about other cities. Its only about what sets Ahmedabad apart from others - including my hometown. You already know how its the education hub of India - IIM-A, NID, MICA (no wonder it has an 80% literacy rate). Then there is an eventful history associated with its state - from the times of Indus Valley civilisation to the struggle for independence to the infamous riots - the state of Gujarat has seen it all. Lets start...



Fascination with the circle

I don't know if it was just me or there really is something but the architecture of Ahmedabad has a lot of circular shapes embedded into it. Ofcourse, my obsession with shapes might be playing tricks with me. Whatever. Lets move on to the more noticeable observations.

Peaceful and less congested

If you have ever been to Delhi, you know the word 'congested' too well. However, this is not the case with Ahmedabad. Even though its one of the most important cities of Gujarat and is nearly as modern as Delhi (but not with those goddamn flyovers everywhere), its not crowded, the people move around with a sense of purpose and they're peaceful. Unlike the drivers on Delhi's roads.

A sea of scooties and two-wheelers

Another peculiarity of Ahmedabad is that there are a lot of two-wheelers in there. And by 'a lot', I mean as many as cars you see on Delhi's road. Someone was telling me that the legal age limit for driving a two-wheeler is 16 years, making it the lowest in India (verification of this information required). Its then no wonder that a lot of students roam around on their scooties all throughout the day. But its not just the students using the scooties - I've seen an equal number of adults and even office-going people using it for their daily commute! This is one of the things I really loved about Ahmedabad - people don't indulge in show-off there. They're dead simple. In Delhi, people using scooties are looked down upon as 'poor' and the we all know how the bikers are involved in some accident or the other everyday. The high number of two-wheelers might be one of the reason Ahmedabad's roads are less congested than that of Delhi's.

..and an equal number of BMWs

Unusual it was, on one hand there were people from all walks of life on scooties, so were there people in BMWs and Mercedes. Gujarati people are known to be born businessmen, so it really shouldn't be a surprise that you get to see one such shiny car pass by you every minute.

No traffic signals

When in Ahmedabad, I used to have a feeling that we covered distances fairly quickly as compared to that in Delhi. And I realized why when someone pointed out that there are hardly any traffic signals in Ahmedabad! Our taxi never nearly stopped during our travel from the airport to our hotel or to any place we went to. During my 3-day stay there, I could spot only ONE traffic signal on the roads - and that too wasn't working :|

Food and Drinks

If you enjoy drinking or eating any kind of non-vegetarian food, Gujarat will a disappointment for you.
Fact 1 : Gujarat is a dry state. So alcoholic drinks are out of question.
Fact 2 : Gujarat consists of 90% Hindus, so its no surprise that non-veg is not promoted there. Of all the menus I checked, not one had any trace of non-veg of any kind. Not even egg! You'll have to dig hard to find a restaurant of your tastes if you don't like vegetarian food too much.

Safe for girls

From what I could make out during my 3-day visit, young girls used to roam around freely on their two-wheelers and on the roads even after 9 P.M. This is a huge indicator of how good Gujarat had become when it comes to protecting its citizens. Comparing it with Delhi, the female junta avoids venturing out after even 7 P.M if the way is isolated. Even traveling by car isn't safe enough here, let alone two-wheelers. All thanks to a section of Delhi rowdies, who give the men a bad name.

Well, that was it about the beautiful city of Ahmedabad. I would very well like to visit it again someday and hopefully, that'll be the day I get a call from IIM-A :D

So, what about you? Any place you can recommend to me? In the comments please!