Visit to Ahmedabad

On Tuesday, January 31st, we flew to Ahmedabad, where we were to spend the next three days staying with my brother and niece. My brother, Prof. Jacob Mathews, Director of the Academy of Human Potentials in Ahmedabad, is a popular speaker and trainer. He and his daughter, Annie, are wonderful hosts and are so much fun to be with. 

The first thing we did in Ahmedabad was to visit Mahatma Gandhi's Ashram, on the banks of Sabarmati River, right in the heart of the city.  Like Gandhi, in real life, his Ashram is also simple.  No bigger-than-life statues of him were found anywhere unlike the ones we see of some of political leaders and war heroes of yesteryears.  Here in this Ashram one could see and read the history of India's independent movement coinciding with the life and death of this great soul.  Among the many exhibits were some of his letters to the leaders of the world. One was a letter he wrote to Hitler, pleading him to not take the world into another world war for the sake of humanity.  It is hard to believe Gandhi, a man of peace and love, and Hitler, a man who was full of hatred and caused millions to die, were contemporaries.  Gandhi lived a simple life, which he characterized as a journey into truth.  He challenged people to constantly examine their life and question their integrity.  Though Gandhi’s efforts brought freedom to India from the abuse of foreign occupiers, today’s India suffers abuse from its own people - corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.  Huge amounts of funds, allocated by the government, to help the poor and raise their living conditions are not reaching them due to inefficiency and benign neglect by party leaders and officials. It is sad to see that Gandhi’s exemplary life is not followed in his own country, today.

Another place we visited was a temple built in 1985 in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat State, a city not too far from Ahmedabad. This temple, Swaminarayan Akshardham, is a glowing testimony to what volunteerism, talent and spiritual faith can accomplish.  It was completed in six years with 8 million man-hours to carve out 6,000 metric tons of pink sandstones, this temple is indeed an impressive and magnificent sight to come and experience. I wish they had allowed us to take pictures of this incredible beauty and architecture.

The next place we visited was a step-well on our way from Gandhinagar to Ahmedabad in a village called Adalaj.  It is a Hindu ‘water building’, one of many such structures built between the 5^th and 19^th centuries in the semi arid western region of India.  The step-well we saw in Adalaj, built by a Muslim King in 1499 for the wife of the village ruler, was five stories in depth and was intricately carved.  This step-well, once served to provide water for the basic needs of drinking, washing, and bathing, for village folks, travelers on caravans, now attracts a large number of tourists.  As we went down the steps story by story, we felt the coolness it provided.  The ample space it has on each level, intended for people to socialize and catch up on the latest news while quenching their thirst, reminds us of our modern-day water coolers and office gossip.

One evening my brother invited his close friends from church for a barbecue. It was pleasant and cool to sit outside his house at a makeshift fireplace enjoying the company of friends talking about the current news from India and around the world.  Another evening we were invited to a friend’s house where we talked about church and its needs to address the ills of the society in which it operates. 

On the fourth, early in the morning we flew out of Ahmedabad to Jaipur. My next blog will be about our visit in Jaipur.