Ahmedabad.

Photo :Birds eye view of Ahmedabad city

After living in Delhi for a decade and then in Chennai for several decades, there after i find any other city that i happen to visit ,including Mumbai not up to mark.Delhi definitely takes the cake.

Hence i didnt find any thing to gawk about in Ahmadabad the city i had to touch on our way to Dwaraka from Chennai.The Sabharmathi river that bisects the city is remarkably clear and clean ,so are the road sides .That's about it .It is definitely a few notches above other major cities like Hyderabad or Bangalore.It has a lot of high rises towering over the road sides.A sort of mini Mumbai.There are the miserable shanties of the poor ,but negligible when compared to those at Chennai.They appear to be the temporary shelters of migratory workers.

I found more scooters than motorcycles on the streets and several women driving them .Those that are young wrap themselves with chunni's tightly over their head and face leaving only a slit for the eyes ,and though slight in frame look quite menacing.Was this a local version of the burkha?The cab driver explained that this was the current fashion of all young women ,to protect themselves from heat dust and smoke and didn't add, to stave of unwanted stares and unwelcome advances in a primarily a patriarchal society, which i am deducing.

Sardar Vallabahi Patel's statues greets one at various intersections.

Buses at 'first look' didn't seem as plenty as they are in Chennai ,nor that glamorous looking.And they all look half empty.No over crowding or foot board travels .But the bus drivers follow the traffic rules like signalling to other motorists, that is totally absent in our metro.

A huge tap gushing out water in torrents in a intersection did make my head turn as it appeared to be suspended in mid air as did the famous golden or jade shiv lingam of Somnath suspended in mid air did to devotees and marauders alike, in days gone by.

No, no, Sri Modi was not stalking ,up and down .In fact there wasn't a single poster or a cut out or a hoarding any where in the city ,unlike those of his counterparts in here.The city, from my hotel window