The Ahmedabad Diaries - Day 2 (Sabarmati ashram)

 Being a rest day we decided not to rest. We headed off to the Sabarmati riverfront at 7 and walked along the path below, right next to the river. Like I said, Jyo is maniacal about his 10000 steps which pushes me too. It was foggy as usual - can't make out if its fog or pollution.

The walk

Dog - reminded me of Akela

Crows - looking for the early worm

Ducks - in the drink

There was a park leading down to the Riverfront where people were doing some yoga and stuff, people on the river front walking, jogging, cycling and all sorts of exercises. We walked for an hour and then headed back. This place will be our main source of exercise for this trip. We spotted a dog on the walk, some crows and on the way back some ducks! Also there was some machine in the river cleaning up water hyacinth perhaps.

Entrance to the Sabarmati ashram -Jyo posing

 We set out at 1030 and headed straight to the Sabarmati ashram. Its on the river front too and perhaps if we walk down the path we took this morning we would have come across it.- there's some road laying going on so we were advised a detour. The auto driver apologised for the inconvenience. Crazy. We walked in and realised there would be a lot of tourists and visitors today by the looks of it.

Confirmation - and a map

 We soon found ourselves in the company of many visitors, a majority of them being school children on excursion - most of them seemed bored irrespective of their age.

The Maganlal residence - Mahatma Gandhi's cousin and manager of the ashram

Gandhiji lived in two ashrams mostly - Sabramati and Sevagram in Wardha, Maharashtra. Both places he had the company of his wife Kasturba and Vinoba Bhave. Both places had Gita recital everyday and prayers. The ashram is most known for being the place where Gandhiji launched his Dandi march in March 12, 1930 with 78 followers and walked to Dandi which was 241 miles away. The movement launched a massive non-cooperation movement and figures are that over 60k people were jailed.

Interestingly the British government seized the ashram and did not return it despite Gandhiji's request. He vowed not to return to Sabarmati until India achieves Independence. From what I know, he never did. His cousin and confidante Maganlal ran the ashram. It also had a school which taught labour, argiculture and literacy on the path to self sufficiency.

Hriday Kunj - House where Gandhiji and Kasturba lived

In 1963 renowned architect Charles Correa was asked to design the ashram - I remember him as being the architect who designed JNIDB, our training centre in IDBI, Hyderabad. As with JNIDB one can see how gentle Correa is with his designs not intruding or dominating the natural landscape - it just flows along with what is the soul of the place.

Another angle of Hriday Kunj - straight ahead is the Sabarmati river

 Save for one group which had an enthu teacher. Lots of  NRIs, tourists like us. We walked into the house where Gandhiji and Kasturba lived, the little place where Vinoba Bhave and Mira behn lived, the Nandini guest house where many leaders visited, the museum, the Maganlal residence where there are many pictures and charkhas and stuff. 

Gandhiji's charkha - his guest room where he received people

An idea of the crowds

I looked for this can of cold cream that one of my friends had said was there in that house which Gnadhiji had used but could not find it - found other stuff like a walking stick and so on. The museum had many wonderful pictures and Jyo and I had just seen them all in Rajkot so we breezed through.

Inside the house

No Ponds cold cream tin like my friend said

We sat down for a while in that tranquil space watching the kids go by holding on to one another. I realised that we cannot cut that line because they do not like to be interrupted - they kept going ahead of me without breaking the chain. For them, the chain broken must disorient them, they almost panicked when I asked to be let through. I became part of that chain for a moment before I crossed over.

House where Vinoba Bhave and Mira behn lived

Guest house - and famous guests

Gandhiji's handwriting - and his message

Charkha

Then there were the picture takers  - vloggers with their equipment, kids pulling and pushing at stuff, NRI Mom's admonishing the kids when they do something unacceptable, people busy on their phones the entire time. Once again no rules, no ropes and boundaries, no one yelling at you, just a nice free space one can explore to their heart's content. Gandhiji might have liked it like this - perhaps.

Tranquil - Charles Correa's architecture 

Apparently some 7 lakh people visit the ashram every year. I would like to come back here again before I go back - hopefully in more peaceful times. But super glad I could do it.