The Saunterers
Waking up at 10, having a bath at 12 and then lying on your bed screaming back to your mom. Is that your lazy Sunday morning routine? Well, that’s not the case with us. Waking up at 4 on a Sunday morning is a difficult task. Especially when you have to wake up the other two sleepyheads. But, somehow we were all ready by 5.30 and had reached the best place ever known. The place is called Ahmedabad’s City area of Jamalpur. Awake, alert and excited, we stepped into the ‘phool bazaar’ or the flower market. The aura of the place had captivated us and we were not ready to go any further. Marigolds and Wild bassils and roses fought their ways to our noses. It was all under the tinted clouds and the sun throwing his rays in a gentle manner.
The people there are different from us. They looked at us in an appealing way. They thought we were foreigners and they asked us all kinds of questions. We had a camera with us, hence some of them thought we are news reporters. The innocence with which they talked to us was perfect for selling 45000kg of flowers daily. ‘Humari bhi photo lo na please’ they said. They wanted to be captured in our camera, but we captured them in our hearts instead.
We were walking down the same road we had come from and there, we saw two little girls sitting and talking to each other in whispers. ‘Can we take your picture please?’ ‘Umm…. yes!’ One of them replied somewhat hesitating. ‘Are you best friends?’ ‘Yes! We are always together.’ ‘And so are we!’
Now is the most exciting part of the whole offbeat walk! We reach the Jamalpur Darwaza and we first see the three raths or chariots which are probably 50 years old, these raths walk the roads of Ahmedabad that involves transporting deities on a chariot. The view of this festival is breathtaking. We would be sharing you the glimpse of this festival. Stay tuned! so from then we move on to ‘Hathikhana’, the Elephant grounds.
