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Thursday, January 1, 2015

Random reflections on Gujarat...

After a long while, i was in Gujarat again last week, and besides Baroda and Ahmedabad, i also went to Patan and Mount Abu. As my train came into Ahmedabad, i saw the familiar landmarks outside major India cities: large piles of garbage, kilometres of it, from my train window. Looks like an area untouched by Swacch Bharat, I mused....
I left from Baroda railway station, and it seemed cleaner than most Indian railway stations. However, what struck me was the extent to which all signboards were in Gujarati.
On the one hand, the state wants to promote itself as major tourist destination, and on the other hand, even numerals were in Gujarati in all the signboards/milestones!
Wherever I went, posters of Modi and Amit Shah dominated the roads, and everywhere I was asked, eagerly, whether I could see an improvement in the functioning of the central government after Modi took over as PM.
The dhokla was as good as ever, and the sculptures at the Sun Temple at Modhera, Rani Ki Vav, and Dilwara temple were mindblowing : only the sculptures at the Chennakesava temple at Halebedu are more exquisite than this...!!