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Calico Museum: The textile haven

Set in Ahmedabad, Calico museum is one of the most acclaimed museums in Indian textiles. The collection is fantastic along with their preservation of artifacts. Ahmedabad in the early days was a booming textile hub, thanks to Mr. Sarabhai whose contributions to the city’s textile sector were huge. Built in 1880, the Calico Mills was one of the leading mills in the Ahmedabad city, industrialists Gautam Sarabhai and his sister Gira Sarabhai started the museum to house the history of Ahmedabad’s textile industry. The museum is the one of the premier textile museum of the country, and one of the most celebrated institutions of its kind in the world for its distinguished and comprehensive collection of textiles and artifacts attracting many visitors and art lovers and has become an icon for the city. The collection is fragile so the museum management limits the number of visitors and allows only a certain number of people – so it is not a ‘walk-in’ museum. Once we entered, we were q...
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Manek Chowk: The Mecca of street food

Ahmedabad is a Street food lovers delight! The city has variety of street food to offer in the day and night as well. If one is visiting Ahmedabad and does not taste the Street Food at the Manek Chowk, the visit cannot be considered complete. Manek Chowk is an open square situated at the heart of old Ahmedabad. The Market has three shades. It is a vegetable market in the mornings and in the day time they sell jewels, but at the night time you will see people swarming in to order and savor the street food delicacies. Slurpicious, I must say. From late night to early morning, this place is perfect place to satisfy one’s midnight cravings! Manek Chowk is named after Baba Maneknath. The history of Manek baug goes like this – King Ahmed Shah was voyaging and he recognized appropriate place for the development of another city. King's men would work amid the day for constructing a wall in one of the areas of the city. The wall kept on developing cracks. Badshah then looked for B...
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Sarkhej Roza: The mystical architectural marvel

There are many spots in Ahmedabad that reflect the true essence of the city. Sarkhej Roza is an exception. At 7 am we started from CEPT University to visit this magnificent place. It is in the town called Makraba which is around 12 km from CEPT University. The road that approaches the structures was bustling with shopkeepers who were about to open their shops. We reached the main entrance that looked small, with gardens on both the sides and intricate stone carving on it. The moment one enters inside, the magnificence of the structures can be sensed. It includes various structures: ghats, mosque, tombs, patio nurseries, etc addressing the fine Islamic architecture which is influenced by Persian, Hindu and Jain architecture. This place is used to be the home of Sufi Saint Shaikh Ganj Baksh Khattu who was an effective Muslim pioneer. He had proposed to Sultan Ahmed Shah to make his capital close to Sabarmati River. We learned about the history of the place through brochures and...
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Bapu’s Adobe

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Taking peace and harmony with us from the Mandala Farm , we proceeded for Gandhi Ashram. The moment one enters the ashram; there is a sense of tranquility. The view of the vast cityscape and the calmness of Sabarmati river combined gives the essence to this space. We entered and gathered at Prarthana Bhoomi, which acted as the vital backdrop for Gandhi’s movements and principles. He used this place for pondering upon many important decisions that he took. All the ashram members gather here every morning to pray. Next stop was at the souvenir shop to collect the brochure of the ashram. We also checked out some very creative products like diaries, books, postcards etc. based on the theme of Bapu’s life.  We proceeded for the heart of the Ashram - Hriday Kunj . It is where Gandhiji stayed for 12 years, from 1919 to 1930. It is a beautiful pitched roof house. As we entered there was an ‘otla’, and towards the left side of it was a meeting room where Gandhiji used to condu...
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From harmony of Moved by Love Mandala to tranquility of Gandhi Ashram

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It was 7 am in the morning and the journey started with a hot cup of coffee at Parikalp Café opposite to Gandhi Ashram. We were a group of 7 students who were about to leave for a visit to the ashram. While having coffee we met Mr. Madhusudan who is a part of 'moved by love' foundation. He shared with us the organic farming practices that he was cultivating on a 1000 sq. ft. farmland. He offered us a visit to it, to which we delightedly said yes. We walked through the lane which had beautiful traditional pitched roof houses and we entered the farm which was made on the geometrical pattern like Mandala behind his place. The Mandala pattern organic farming was first practiced by Ganga ma, in Madhya Pradesh. She was an old woman who had a vision of making all the people in her village independent at growing their own food. She knew that all the villagers had a small part of the land in which they can grow their own food and live a sustainable life. It also helped the v...
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