,

Welcome to Ahmedabad!

We had a rough night on our way to Ahmedabad. We got to dive in the Indian culture in a very unique way – by experiencing the extraordinary Indian train ride in a sleeping coach which was offering moving beds not only to our colourful group, but to all kinds of locals. Although sleeping in a bunk bed in an Indian train was a once in a lifetime opportunity which you just cannot miss (especially if you get the highest bunk, very close to the dangerously spinning fan on the ceiling), many of us couldn’t fall asleep because of the noises of the fans or the shaking of the train. And that resulted in a massive lack of concentration at the station when we arrived and in the bus which led us to our hotel, so the first impressions of the city were the few things that we managed to see through our constantly closing eyelids – markets for fruits and vegetables on the streets, children going to school since it was around 6am (which justifies our sleepiness), beautiful buildings and a few camels. But this poor vision of Ahmedabad was soon to be changed by the wonderful hosts who met us at the hotel when we arrived. In order to welcome us to their city, they had prepared for us a full presentation on its history and culture including a photography workshop, fun games, learning a traditional dance and even sampling traditional food!

What I learned is that Ahmedabad is a city with a lot of diversity, rich in history, culture and traditions. The diversity of the city is caused by the many different nations who have conquered and ruled it throughout the centuries. A significant change have made the British – during their rule the language, culture, food and even education system have drastically changed forever. The Indian school system for example has consisted of a forest and a guru – yup, the parents sent their children to live in nature for a certain period of time and learn how to survive and be in peace with the world and themselves. That happens with the help of a guru who watches over the kids, and also written stories that the children read which bring the knowledge and wisdom locked within their meaning. The most entertaining part of the presentations was about the festivals and traditional foods. We learned about the festival of kites – Uttarayan, on which all the people of Ahmedabad fill the sky with millions of colours – beautiful handmade kites. We saw the process of crafting and got the chance to hold and see upclose original kites. An interesting tradition that they have on this festival is the “fighting with kites” in which two kites flying close by each other are bumped and interwined together, and their owners either pull or loosen the strings of their kites in order to tear up the kite of the other and win.

Another amazing festival that they have is Navratri – it is the biggest dance festival in the world which lasts 6 days with continuous dancing in beautiful traditional dresses and kurtas! We were shown part of the dance Garba, which is a complex combination of turns and spins with claps. We weren’t very good at mastering the elegant steps, but the girl who was teaching us the dance turned out to be a local champion at it and she showed us some of her best moves. In our turn, we demonstrated some “masterful dance steps” from our countries.

Next we learned about the food – they told us how some traditional festival treats were made and (my favourite part) gave us unlimited samples of each! What I liked the most was the seasame and peanut Chikki (imagine it as a hard bar made of seasame/peanuts and brown sugar).

And with that, the wonderful presentations and our first day in Ahmedabad came to an end – we learned a lot about the city without even going outside of the hotel. I am thankful to the warmhearted people who introduced us so willingly to the culture of their community and made us feel welcome to join in as a part of it.

Can’t wait for tomorrow when we will actually go out into Ahmedabad and experience for ourselves the astonishing places we saw in the presentations!

27 replies
  1. Refugia Kovalovsky
    Refugia Kovalovsky says:

    I’m extremely pleased to find this great site. I need to to thank you for your time for this fantastic read!! I definitely appreciated every part of it and I have you saved to fav to see new things on your website.

    Reply
  2. Tag
    Tag says:

    hi!,I really like your writing very much! percentage we communicate more approximately your article on AOL? I need a specialist in this space to resolve my problem. Maybe that is you! Taking a look forward to peer you.

    Reply
  3. Karol Rams
    Karol Rams says:

    I really love your site.. Very nice colors & theme. Did you build this web site yourself? Please reply back as I’m hoping to create my very own blog and would love to learn where you got this from or exactly what the theme is named. Thank you!

    Reply
  4. Barry Shone
    Barry Shone says:

    Oh my goodness! Amazing article dude! Thanks, However I am experiencing problems with your RSS. I don’t know the reason why I cannot subscribe to it. Is there anybody else having similar RSS issues? Anybody who knows the solution can you kindly respond? Thanx!!

    Reply
  5. Lonny Crowdis
    Lonny Crowdis says:

    Howdy, I do believe your site might be having browser compatibility issues. Whenever I look at your blog in Safari, it looks fine however, if opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping issues. I merely wanted to provide you with a quick heads up! Aside from that, wonderful blog!

    Reply
  6. Glinda Alekna
    Glinda Alekna says:

    Aw, this was an extremely nice post. Finding the time and actual effort to create a top notch article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a whole lot and don’t manage to get nearly anything done.

    Reply
  7. Kiana Dobrzykowski
    Kiana Dobrzykowski says:

    This is the perfect website for anybody who wishes to find out about this topic. You know a whole lot its almost tough to argue with you (not that I actually will need to…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic that’s been written about for years. Excellent stuff, just great!

    Reply
  8. Nella Jossund
    Nella Jossund says:

    After checking out a handful of the blog articles on your web site, I truly appreciate your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark site list and will be checking back soon. Please check out my web site as well and let me know what you think.

    Reply
  9. 출장안마
    출장안마 says:

    Can I simply just say what a relief to discover somebody that truly understands what they are discussing on the net. You definitely understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important. A lot more people ought to check this out and understand this side of your story. I can’t believe you aren’t more popular because you surely have the gift.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply to Nella Jossund Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *