I have 60 pictures from the last couple of days. These are just a few of them... lots of fun so far!
Heading out to the market
Sabarmati Ashram (Gandhi's school in Ahmadabad)
The library
One of the residents
The Sarbarmati for which it is named.
Dhruv inside the Vavs (Adalaj)
5 stories tall!
The whole gang in there (Left to Right: Top:Nishit, Rutul, Bottom: Ethan, Tuhin Ankit, Dhruv taking photo)
Dhruv was kind enough to lift the gate to one of the wells so that you can see into it. There is probably a reason that the well has a gate over the top... maybe they should consider a lock also.
The next day we went to the Sidi Sayed Mosque, known for its stone lattice windows. It is from the 16th century, so in the old part of the city. It isn't overwhelmingly big, but the windows are beautiful. To be respectful, we did not enter the mosque without head-covering (although Rutul and Dhruv offered to provide head covering). Instead, we stayed by the pools in the courtyard after going behind the mosque to take these photos.
This is the view from inside of the window above
From there, we walked to the nearby Jami Masjid
The entrance (below) doesn't give a good indication of the beauty inside. Outside is a crowded market and coming into the mosque is entering a sanctuary. Not just that it is religious, but the noise and the grit of the market give way to something more ethereal. The horns of the auto-rickshaws are gone as are the crowds. It is the pools, the people cooling themselves or praying, and the stone.
To the left when I entered. This is a quarter of the courtyard. The Mosque itself is the opposite side.
I made some new friends outside the mosque in front of this carved stone art.
There are other images of the inside of the mosque, but needless to say it is beautiful. The above image gives some sense of the scale (and the lack of crowd). The engraving below (again, better images are available) is also famous and I guess settles the argument over Ahmadabad and Ahmedabad.
So, it was a great weekend. I need to start taking more pictures of food, because there has been so much of it and it has been so good.
On Sunday, India beat Pakistan in cricket, setting up a re-match on Thursday. That should create a nice buzz all week. Sunday night, there were fire works and other celebrations.
Alright, I'm off for now. I know this isn't very literary, but at least it is something, right?
Heading out to the market
Sabarmati Ashram (Gandhi's school in Ahmadabad)
One of the residents
This is the view from inside of the window above
From there, we walked to the nearby Jami Masjid
The entrance (below) doesn't give a good indication of the beauty inside. Outside is a crowded market and coming into the mosque is entering a sanctuary. Not just that it is religious, but the noise and the grit of the market give way to something more ethereal. The horns of the auto-rickshaws are gone as are the crowds. It is the pools, the people cooling themselves or praying, and the stone.
To the left when I entered. This is a quarter of the courtyard. The Mosque itself is the opposite side.
I made some new friends outside the mosque in front of this carved stone art.
There are other images of the inside of the mosque, but needless to say it is beautiful. The above image gives some sense of the scale (and the lack of crowd). The engraving below (again, better images are available) is also famous and I guess settles the argument over Ahmadabad and Ahmedabad.
So, it was a great weekend. I need to start taking more pictures of food, because there has been so much of it and it has been so good.
On Sunday, India beat Pakistan in cricket, setting up a re-match on Thursday. That should create a nice buzz all week. Sunday night, there were fire works and other celebrations.
Alright, I'm off for now. I know this isn't very literary, but at least it is something, right?
