A walk through the city….

Ten months after landing at the city of Ahmedabad, I grabbed the ‘first opportunity’ to be part of a ‘heritage walk’ organized jointly by the IIMA Media Cell and AMA (Ahmedabad Management Association). We (fourteen) ‘WIMWI’ians joined another 6-7 candidates at the scheduled time of 9.30am near the ‘Roopalee Theatre’, just ahead of the ‘Nehru Bridge’.

The co-ordinator of the programme, Mr.Yatin Pandya – an Architect, Author and AMA Faculty by profession – started off with a small stint of history of Ahmedabad, “The city of Ahmedabad was named after its founder, Sultan Ahmed Shah, who reigned from 1411- 1442 and it has historical antiquity back to 5000 years…. The Mughals took over from the Sultanate dynasty in 1575 and ruled for two centuries….. Later it came under the Marathi occupation till 1818 when the British finally took over….. Ahmedabad played a pivotal role in the freedom movement of India…. The city has a lot to speak about the wonderful mixture and integration of Islamic, Hindu, Colonial and Modern Architecture……”

He continued, “In 1861, Ranchodlal Chotalal founded the first ever textile mill in the city (the second in India) fighting against all odds….. a city where the climate didn’t support the production of cotton or related materials….. a time when the city didn’t even had a proper transport system; neither a railway station nor a seaport (the nearest port was 60kms away)…. and finally when he imported his machinery from the U.K., the vessel did sunk a bit in the shallow water and the machinery was brought forward to the city using ‘bullock carts’…. the engineer who came from Britain (for installation and setup) had to fight both malaria and plague….. and so on… However, the sheer determination and hard-work paid off in little time… and in less the 20years numerous other entrepreneurs joined the industry and Ahmedabad was known as ‘The Manchester of the East’……. Gandhiji encouraged workers from Bengal to join the industry and the workers with also brought patriotism along with their skills and one of the first movements against British Raj was started from here….. It is noteworthy to mention that Gandhiji had started his ‘Ashram’ (which later became the central point of Indian freedom movement) not far away….”

“Also, the same person - Ranchodlal Chotalal – was instrumental in constructing the city’s underground drainage system way back in the 1880’s…. though initially people couldn’t succumb the idea of waste water moving under their territories and resisted to it, later the same people realised their mistake and ‘garlanded’ him with flowers after the project completion. It is remarkable to note that even now 40% of Indian cities don’t have a proper drainage system, let alone underground sewage disposal…”

After this small intro – which also covered the various architectural splendours and dimensions - we started our ‘walk’ to explore the (old) city’s life, culture, values and architecture. The first place we visited was Sidi Sayyid Jaali – the 15th century mosque renowned for its Islamic architecture of mesh work. The palm tree mesh (jaali) work of the mosque is widely accepted as a symbol of Ahmedabad itself, and little wonder this was selected as the ‘logo’ of the ‘Well-known Institute of Management in Western India’. The mosque is named after Sidi Sayyid, a slave of Ahmed Shah and there are some interesting folk-stories relating to the same. The uniqueness of the architecture is the mesh work, which allows the sunlight and air to pass through, and it is designed in such a way that insiders can see the outside world, whereas the outsiders can’t see what is happening inside. Later, we found out that this unique ‘mesh’ work can be found throughout the architectural splendours in the city. According to Mr.Pandya, this projected the smooth integration of architecture (whether being Hindu, Islamic or Colonial) in accordance to the climatic conditions of the ‘hot’ city. He later showed us two examples of Colonial architecture – Mangal Giridhar and Vijilighar which also had unique features in the design of balcony and without the front ‘verandha’s – the designs adopting to the climatic conditions. The features of the architecture contradicted the modern glass structures, which is clearly unsuitable for the climatic conditions of the city and consumes a lot of electric energy – a scarce resource in India.

We moved on to the nearby Bhadra Citadel, the first structure constructed at the founding of Ahmedabad city (1411); and very nearby to that, there was the palace of Azam Khan – one of the most efficient and industrious viceroy in Gujurat under the Mughal rule. Ahmedabad can also boast of a connection to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the ‘TAJ MAHAL’, as Mumtaz Beequm (in whose memory the monument was built) was the daughter of Azam Khan.

Further we went on to see a unique technology used to feed the birds known as Chabutaro (Bird Feeder). This street furniture was aesthetically designed for the birds to have food and water and at the same time protecting them from the heat of the sun and the fear of the cats (which were prevented to climb the structure, thanks to its anti-gravity design).

Then, we walked through the narrow streets of dhalgarwad (clothes market); followed by the flower market, spice market, vegetables/fruits market, utensils market etc… According to our guide, the design of the narrow streets should also be understood in its architectural sense as the tall buildings provided enough shades to protect from the inflaming heat of the sun….. We also spotted ‘Manek Chowk’, a unique trading street where the early morning hours were scheduled to feed the cattle, then from morning to dusk ‘jewellery’ businesses flourished, followed by the evening ‘eating chowk’ when small vendors put up their businesses. The same area was not only used for three multiple activities at three different times, but there also exists an unwritten rule/understanding that each beneficiary cleans up the area after their use and thus the ‘chowk’ is maintained clean and tidy without any external interference.

We moved ahead through some residential precincts (Hari Bakti ni Haveli, Devji Sariaya ni Pol, Lakha Patel ni Pol, Chandla Pol etc…) – where we found some unique constructional features in the narrow line, where even though the lengthier walls are share between the households, communication between the households was not extinct as in the modern ‘flat culture’. Another interesting feature was that the first and second floors of the houses projected ahead the ground floor so that it will provide a shade when the sun is overhead and during the inclined movement of sun the houses provided shade to each other (due to the narrowness of the streets). Thus the streets was literally protected from the direct heat of the sunlight, which also contributed to the continued motivation for our ‘walk’ along with other regular refreshments in ‘nariyal pani’, ‘chaas’, ‘milk shakes’, ‘ice creams’ etc…

One of the interesting features in a typical ‘Ahmedabad’ household construction was the ‘inner courtyard’ which provided light & ventilation in addition to being used as living area (especially for the ladies) and it is closely attached to the prayer room, kitchen, store room and reception on its four sides. Also, rain water harvesting system was an integral part of the households by which the roof top water is well stored in a corner well in this courtyard. A standard house with 600sq.ft in size can harvest rain water (average 60-70cms in Ahmedabad per year) that is enough for up to two-and-a-half month’s usage of the entire household.

Before we continued our journey, we rested for a while in the Mangoldas Heritage Hotel, which was indeed the rejuvenated house of well-known poet Mangoldas. Though the hotel is a nice place for architectural exploration, the value-for-money for the services provided is contestable. Although, we were not subjected to pay anything beyond the meagre two hundred bucks we paid for the trip, I speculate that the co-ordinator may think twice before entering this hotel again which typically charges you Rs.65 for a ‘Nimbu Pani’!

We went on to see the nearby tombs of Sultan Ahmed Shah and the Queen, which also had some distinctive architectural features. But the pick of the tour, in terms of architectural splendour, was the Jama Masjid (city mosque), built by Ahmed Shah in 1424. A magnificent 260 pillar structure accompanied by a wide courtyard area, it symbolizes the unification of the prominent decoration features of the prevailing Hindu & Islamic architectural features of that time. Shajahan might have widely used the features of this building in constructing the Jama Masjid at Delhi.

We walked back to our starting point, by crossing the ‘Tin Darwaza’ – the three gates – which was part of the enormous fort build by the Sultanate rulers to cover the city. And while crossing back, another interesting feature we observed in the city was a hotel where we found a lot of beggars and poor sitting in the front. Our co-ordinator explained that, the hotel is an excellent example of a wonderful management system, where the owner provides meals to the poor subject to the donations he receives. For e.g. if you pay him 50bucks, he’ll feed five among the waiting poor men (women & children). By this, the money we spent on poor is rightly utilized as well as the owner of the hotel earns a living from his small venture. Within a short while, a small collection amongst ourselves were enough to feed the entire poor people waiting outside (somewhere around 30-35 in number).

In short, the ‘walk’ was a memorable experience for all of us and the co-ordinator Mr.Pandya was more than committed to the cause of the trip as mentioned in the objective, ‘Know Your Ahmedabad – A Unique Learning Experience’.