Finding our way

April 9, 2016

Today we hired a local tour guide but told him we were not interested in seeing tourist sites. We wanted an orientation to Ahmedabad: high end grocery stores, bookstores, pharmacies, etc. He started us off with a tour of old town Manek Chowk, a traditional open air market that was hot, crowded and pure India. We got to drop in on a small class at a government school with about six young children, sitting on the floor of a dingy room. Walls desperate for paint. No decor no furniture. But the kids were delightful reciting a lesson for us. We also stepped into a metal working shop with men sitting on the floor constantly hammering copper vessels. The noise was deafening and I do wonder about hearing loss from such a trade. 

Each street in the market had a focus: antique textiles, bookstores, kitchen wares, decorative objects made of brass, copper or silver, etc. As Nirav lead us out of this maze of commerce, he pointed out two or three ‘kitchens’. He told us if we wanted to help poor people it was best to not give them money but to contribute to these kitchens that existed to feed the poor. I handed him a 500 rupee note and he carried it over to one of the kitchens and they immediately started calling (yelling) and about 20 people ran over to the kitchen to eat. It was unsettling. They can feed each person for 25 rupees.

Have I mentioned cows? They are everywhere on the streets and sidewalks. Nirav said most do not belong to anyone but they are fed by the citizens. In the market one of them kept trying to charge us and Nirav guided us away from the animal.

We saw a workshop where men were making hammered copper pots.... what a racket it made with all the tap tap tapping!  Too much noise for all day

We also visited a local pubic school where small children were learning the local language.  They sang for us and ofered us a prayer.  Very sweet faces.

After the market we ate our first traditional Gujarati thali. A thali is a meal served on a stainless steel platter that has five or six small bowls. A series of men with one to four serving dishes came by to fill a bowl or to drop some chutney on the platter or bread on the platter.  We had mango juice, thick and pulpy, mung beans, chili paneer (cottage cheese), three kinds of bread, rice, dal (lentils), curried potatoes, a mystery dish that some had a delicious blend of finely chopped unknown, tartlets filled with veggies, sugar glazed fried crunchy pretzel thingy. Moving around the restaurant was a man whose job it was to be mindful when a customer’s plate was lacking. He would snap his fingers and with a hand signal he would alert the appropriate server what item was lacking and what table to go to with the item. Given how noisy India is, it was refreshing that instead of yelling to the server, he snapped his fingers.

After lunch we went to a high end mall: the newest and biggest one here. We were sad to discover the grocery did not have any good chocolate and no decent coffee. These are two items that are important to us. There is one more store here than sells imported foods that appeals to expats so I have my fingers crossed. Otherwise I will go online and see what I can find. I saw an ad today for Amazon India. By 3:00 we were tired and came home. We rested and soon fell fast asleep until 5:00.