The changing face of Ahmedabad

By editor on Sunday, 24 February , 2008 - 12:27 am

Ahmedabad Mirror article by Pascal Chazot
October 1990
Arrival at a small airport in a city called Ahmedabad. I am greeted warmly by a young team of Alliance Francaise. This is my new post as the Director. Outside, the weather is warm, the roads are narrow with hardly any traffic lights. I stay at the evergreen Cama Hotel, the only known hotel at that time. In due course, I rent a bungalow in Vastrapur which is the countryside. Passionate about horses, I come to own Ali Baba who comes from the Royal stable in Udaipur. I go for rides around the Vastarpur area. Sometimes, I even go Alliance Francaise, that is opposite Gujarat College, on my horse, much to raised eyebrows and tolerant smiles at a Frenchman’s eccentricity. Otherwise, my mode of transport is an old fiat that later gives way to a jeep.
Ahmedabad is a city of plush bungalows, austere living, pol architecture, festivals, teeming city bazaars, jhoola, ghatia, and kadak chais. Ice-creams are to be had at Municipal market. If you want kulfi, Asharfi at Law garden is our destination. As a strict vegetarian, Ahmedabad is a haven. Life has a good slow pace. I worry about my next post after six years. How will I ever adjust to another city?

January 2008
The same Frenchman is now a person of Indian origin! Literally, because I am married to an Indian, settled in Ahmedabad where my younger daughter is born. I gave up my rented bungalow for an apartment. My horse has shifted to a friend’s farmhouse. The definition of horse power has changed. The snarling traffic jams have begun to ensare the Amdavadis. Bungalows have given way to plush malls. Traffic lights seem to have an effect only when traffic cops are around. Markets, shops and plazas abound and the city has expanded its waistline to ring roads with heavy belts of highways wrapped around it. I now can depart from a plush international airport.

Plus ca change et plus c’est la meme chose. The more it changes, the more it is the same. I ask my friends from Paris staying with me just now how they find Ahmedabad changed since they last visited it in 1993. They raise their eyebrows. Non, non, this is the Ahmedabad we visited years ago. We recognize it as the same. I am taken aback. Its in the atmosphere they say. Aha. Of course. Ahmedabad has a great capacity to carry with it a way of life that is special. On the traffic lights, there is the occasional Mercedes, the ubiquitous maruti with a motley of other cars, the camel cart, doodhwalas in their traditional gear changing gears with effortless ease, cycles, rickshaws and if we are lucky, an elephant. The pockets of villages continue nonchalantly with their way of life, living outside on charpais, with their cows, goats and camels. The small laaris are still there despite the malls. I get my groceries from the same kirana shop as 15 years ago. It’s a measure of prosperity, that the fellow who worked in the grocery is now the proud owner of his own store. The chai kitlis outside are still a favourite haunt as is the municipal market on CG road. The festivals are celebrated with greater gusto. The jalebi and jhoola coexist with pasta and pizza. Amul makes emmental. Ahmedabad has become Amdavad for me. In an educational seminar in Bhavnagar where my wife was born, a thousand teachers stood up to greet me as Gujarat no jamai! Now, its cheers to Apnu Amdavad.

Category: Blog

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