Ahmedabad

On our way into Ahmedabad we got lost and ended up driving past a squatter's settlement (slum) under the flight path to the Ahmedabad airport. It was the first time I had seen up close the poverty that everyone had been preparing me to find. Families are living in 15 ft x 15 foot rooms made out of 8 ft brick walls and 250 sf of tin. This slum did not extend for miles like I expect Mumbai or Rio slums to reach, but even the 300 meters or so at the airport probably housed 1,000 people. A bigger slum in the flood plain of Ahmedabad's Sabarmati river may have housed 10,000 people. Living conditions in these slums looked as poor as slums are supposed to look, but I haven't walked through one yet to get a sense of how the people living in them feel about their situation. From afar, the people look like they are getting by. Its the people living in the streets that look miserable. Ahmedabad has homeless who are obviously sleeping in the streets and in the parks in the middle of traffic circles. We had homeless living right outside our haveli, and inside the 24 hours we were there we got to recognize them.

Our haveli/hotel was more like a palace, with rooms bigger and nicer than ones in Jodhpur. It had three restaurants serving 15 rooms. The locals come here to have the lunch served in the terrace, and we managed to have three lunches at this spot. On our second lunch here we even saw Bimal Patel also having lunch here - we had been a guest at Mr. Patel's planning practice the previous evening.

Between our three lunches at the MG, we took a walking tour of the Ahmedabad old town, and saw streets turn to paths turn to secret passages. The districts formally only connect to the main streets, but if you know your way around, you can find the passages that connect the districts at their most remote and confusing ends. The secret passages look like hallways in someone's house, and have doors that suggest private property, but thats how the residents get around.

Ahmedabad and Gujarat are also famous for their association with Gandhi. Gandhi was Gujerati, and stayed in Ahmedabad in an ashram for several years practicing what he preached to others - live simply, serve the state, develop cottage industries. He also further developed and refined his political philosophy here, and began his Salt March from here.