To Dwaraka.

Left Ahmadabad at 8 in the morning by tourist cab skimming over gleaming roads ,hoping to cover 470 kms by evening.Yes the roads in the city are not potholed and are as smooth as the National highways .It is true of the state highways as well.
The density of buses at the time we travelled was quite thin, in the suburbs .Share autos bulging with commuters rule the roads.

For several kms nearly 50 kms or so industrial houses and factories crowd road sides.There after for nearly 300 kms it is cotton plants with white pods ,waving in the wind ,that dominate the entire breadth of land visible from the car window

Phatphati's or motorbikes fixed with a small wagon at the rear is the most favoured mode of transport by the rustics, who pack themselves in and also hang out at the back!It also doubles as cargo carriers.Bullock carts like in Tamilnadu have also gone missing . Phatphati's have replaced them .

When we broke journey for a late breakfast on a road side inn i was disappointed by the fare--idli dosa .Did i come all the way from Tnadu ,the land of geniune idli dosas to eat the same in Gujarat?I was looking forward to breakfasting on Dhoklas .No hope. Didn't get it any where.[i finally did in Dwaraka]

The same goes for authentic Gujarathi food .It was simply not available .Be it at Ahmedabad or at Jamnagar in the restaurants we stopped .All we got was paneer masala, chapathi's and fried rice!
Have the original cuisine distinctive of each region in India have given way to a standardisation of food across its length and breadth?Idli dosas the ready mix variety are served for breakfast, lunches and dinner are invariably Punjabi dishes in local flavour and desserts are almost always gulab jamuns.This is the same case down south at Trichi or Thirunellveli or up north in Gujarat.There is no denying that the cuisine of Punjab and Tamilnadu are tasty and acceptable ..yet..

Those who are trying to find strands of unity running through current India can add this latest standardisation of food across Bharat as a important find!

From Jamnagar the land is full of thorny bushes that was reminiscent of the landscape near Madurai.And became more and more arid as we travelled on .

The flower beds in the medians of the NH were all withered with want of care .Barring one small stretch bordered by Reliance industries ,which was in full blaze of colours.How ever tolls are collected promptly at an interval of 40 kms!

As we neared Dwaraka around 4 pm ,huge wind turbines with rotating blades greeted us on a land that was dry, thorny and arid.

Photo: The wind turbines near Dwaraka.