First week in Ahmedabad, and trip to Udaipur

Ahmedabad was quite unlike the other cities we visited. Nick’s use of the phrase “less sinister” seems to fit well: unlike Bangalore, Mysore, and Mumbai, Ahmedabad has relatively few beggars or aggressive street vendors. The East side of the city, or the Old City, has a strong Muslim influence. There you can find meat and eggs, but also beautiful mosques. The west side of the city is far more industrialized, and predominantly Hindu.
Our neighborhood, Satellite, is quite “posh” as the locals/real estate agents call it. We live across the street from a cinema and mall, and there is a McDonalds, Subway, and Dominos, all within walking distance. We are a fair distance from the old city and my office, each about 30 minutes away. In my commute, I pass through the more built up areas, but also enter into the northern part of the city. There is hardly any English in these neighborhoods, and I usually pass several camels on my way to work.
During our first week in Ahmedabad, we spent a fair amount of time dealing with real estate negotiations, getting settled, finding our way around, and eating. With regards to the latter: a fancy, multiple course meal in Ahmedabad costs all of a few dollars. In turn, we have eaten out almost every night. There are several main types of restaurants: a thali venue involves one all you can eat meal. Many different dishes are served in small round tins, all placed on a larger tin with dressings, snacks, and breads in the middle. Fortunately there is an excellent thali restaurant located across the street. The first time we visited, we were the only customers in the restaurant, and in turn had about fifteen waiters hovering to fill our dishes as soon as we finished. In typical fashion, they insisted on serving us even after we claimed to be full. Afterward they gave us a tour of their kitchen and asked us to sign their guest book (picture below).
Typical Punjabi food is what is mostly found in the states: vegetable (and sometimes chicken!) curries served with rice and roti or nann. Southern food (my favorite) includes dosas and idlis: dosas are giant fried pancakes filled with potatoes and spices, served with a coconut chutney and soup. Idlis are cakey/grainy patties served also with chutney and spices.
I visited Gramshree, where I would be working, for the first time on Tuesday. Gramshree is a women’s empowerment organization, working locally with women in Ahmedabad but also in surrounding rural areas such as Kutch. The clients are taught embroidery techniques, and organized into working groups. Understanding the many responsibilities that women hold in the house, Gramshree’s model allows the women to start and finish the pieces on their own time, working from the home. Group leaders meet regularly in the office for quality and design checks. Each client is outfitted with an ATM card, and instructed how to use it. This keeps their earnings in their control, instead of cash, which could be spent at the husband’s discretion.
The office is an incredibly busy place; there are women working it seems in every corner, and the members of the office take on tasks such as giving the women advice on embroidery, dealing with finances, advertising, marketing, helping lost volunteers such as myself, and working also with the partner organizations of Manav Sadhna and Seva Café. They are all incredibly kind and helpful, particularly because of the language barrier (though as Jayeshbhai always reminds us, there can be no language barrier if everyone is speaking the language of love).
On Thursday night we headed to Udaipur, a night train away in Rajasthan (few of Chris’s friends from UNC were working there for the summer). We arrived quite early in the morning. After breakfast and some shopping, we headed to the old palace in the city.


Unfortunately Udaipur’s famous lakes were mostly dried up, and there was much talk of the impending monsoon (a trend for the next several weeks). After a big thali lunch and some more shopping, we headed back to the hotel.



That night they hosted a big party on the roof of their hotel. Many of their local friends came, and we enjoyed good food and a great dance party. Among others, there was a recent Duke grad, and several other university students from the United States.
The following day the Udaipur group needed time for some work related things, so the four of us headed out to explore. Unfortunately we were told that the Floating Palace (the main tourist attraction in Udaipur) was inaccessible because there was in fact no lake, and in turn, no boats.

(so we found elephants instead!)

We found a lovely hang out in the city and spent much of the afternoon there; after a quick dinner we headed to the train station back to Ahmedabad.