Walk to Know Your City - A morning full of wonders in Ahmedabad

All old cities pride themselves on their cultural heritage. If Delhi has its walled city and Chandni Chowk with its havelies, the special feature of Ahmedabad is its old city, comprising of exquisite Jain and Hindu temples, along with numerous 'pols' (neighbourhood gate).

A walk through the old city area, it is claimed by many, can expose visitors to its interesting urban fabric- its architecture, art, religious places, culture and traditions.  A poster in the waiting room of Ahmedabad railway station recommends exactly that – a heritage walk with the purpose of unveiling the city to the tourists and the citizens themselves.

Some time back, with couple of hours to spare in Ahmedabad, I along with my colleagues took a guided tour through the old city of Ahmedabad. Our walk commenced at Swaminarayan Mandir (temple) at an early morning hour and after weaving our way through Haja patel ni pol, chaumukji ni pol, doshi vada ni pol, Har kunvar shethani ni haveli, Chandla pol, muharat pol, we finally dispersed few hours later at Jumma Masjid, touching base at Hindu, Jain and Muslim religious places.

Picture an old pol housing many families. A young girl sitting on an osri (verandah) of one of the houses, smiling and looking nowhere in particular, suddenly starts laughing when she notices a street dog troubling a passerby.  Her mother is doing laundry in a smallish courtyard of their house while chatting, rather loudly, with her neighbour who peeps out every now and then from the window of her third floor room. While I tried picturing all this, my focus was more on the details of the wooden chaukhat (door frame), underground rain water harvesting tanks, a mouse peeping out from a bird feeder (believe me!), vegetable colours used for decorating Jain temples and fine art on wooden brackets supporting balconies.

Evidently, everyone in the group experienced the old city differently and carried home a different perspective. While most in the group preferred taking photographs to look at later and maybe as proof of their stories to be shared with friends, a few of us were walking for the simple experiences of it all. As the group walked through the narrow lanes, our guide pointed towards interesting features, explaining patterns in the built and living environment.

The focus of our walk was really towards exploring pols as a micro neighbourhood, each of which is characterized by its entrance gate, a guard room, a bird feeder, a religious place (a temple) and an open square with a raised platform.  In fact, the term ‘pol’ is derived from a Sanskrit word ‘proatoli’ which means a gate on entry.

Three hours of walk through the narrow lanes of the old city, illustrated a great deal about the traditional life in Ahmedabad, leading my thoughts from its disintegrating traditional micro neighbourhoods, to the structural safety of such structures in the event of a disaster, to issues of family privacy in overcrowded residential areas like these, to the strong sense of belonging and comfort that the residents of these pols expressed.

A walk might not be the most comfortable way to understand the dynamics of a city, but it certainly shows more than a ride in a car or rickshaw. Walks, even better with a right guide, are the best way to see, hear, smell and feel the spaces that were. So next time you are visiting a new city, try walking to know the city better.    q

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