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Wife making chapati at Sikh Temple in India. Largest Sikh temple in India has a kitchen making food for the less fortunate. We helped out and had a lesson on sikhism. Humbling.
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Two street vendors making Chapati in Theni, small city in Tamil Nadu halfway between Maduari and Munnar.
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Enjoying home made chappatis, pulao and sabzi at our Rannikot hut thanks to ever-gracious Abdul Haq Gabol. He is now an old man but every bit agile like a Markhor.
Inaugaration Festival of a new bridge - village near Patiala
Although they had some tool to press the chapatti, she used her full weight, the old style.
2008-03-06
Canon EOS 5D, EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM,
An Indian lady in traditional dress and cooking in an open kitchen. This is a common scene in rural India. The Rotis (Indian wheat bread) she made were served to the visitors and pilgrims from Vrindavan Temples. The food was delicious and healthy.
Wednesday 27 April 2016
Thame (3800m): Day hike to Thengpo (4350m)
An unforgettable day, acclimatising to the altitude with a day hike up to Thengpo for lunch and returning via Pasang Nuru's in Thame Teng.
After fond farewells to Lubko, Mykola and Jack who were heading up to Lungden/Arye with a view to crossing the Renjo La tomorrow, it was back up onto the gompa ridge for us and along the sandy juniper-lined path towards the summer yak pastures and stone homes at Khurkekharka. Gob smacking views back towards Thamserku and Kangtega, but no one in residence - with heavy snowfall last October/November and next to no rainfall since, there's no grazing for the animals.
Unbelievably the views got even better as we went further up the Thame Khola valley towards Thengpo: Ama Dablam - Makalu (मकालु) - Ombigaichan - Mingbo La - Malanphulan - Kangtega. Avalanches rolled down the slopes of the Lumding Himal on our left, the crystal clear river winding its way from one side of the wide open valley to the other. Yaks munching on what they can find.
At Thengpo we tucked into our packed lunch of spicy noodle soup, cheese and chapati, drinking in the stunning views of Bigphera Go Shar and Pacchermo further up the valley. Chhiring checked the didi's LED solar lights - still fearful of tremors she sleeps in a German Red Cross tent in the shadows of Tengkangboche and Paniyo Tippa.
Three more avalanches, lots of photos - and paracetamol - then back down the valley, veering off into Thame Teng to visit Pasang Nuru, the Tibetan refugee painter who lost all of his fingers and toes in an avalanche many years ago. Tea, boiled potatoes and painting perusal and purchasing, then back to a busy lodge - Kiwis (4), Japanese (4), Brits (2) and Ladies (3).
Washing water, diary, tea and biscuits, dice and my first win this trip!
Dinner.
Bed.
Read more on SparklyTrainers: Val Pitkethly's On and Off the Beaten Track through Solukhumbu.
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. . . you must see it to believe it!
By the way: I have been there now five times . . .
The Golden Temple in Amritsar runs one of the largest free kitchens in the world, serving 100,000! people on average daily.
No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what you believe in, no matter if you are rich or poor: just take off your shoes, wash your feet, cover your head, walk in and you are warmly welcomed!
You get free meals three times a day and free accomodation. They also have separate rooms for foreigners. Officially you can stay for three days - this year I stood there for five days . . .
. . . all this is based on donations.
_____________________
The Harmandir Sahib (Punjabi: ਹਰਿਮੰਦਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ), also Darbar Sahib (Punjabi: ਦਰਬਾਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ, Punjabi pronunciation: [dəɾbɑɾ sɑhɪb]) and informally referred to as the "Golden Temple", is a prominent Sikh gurdwara located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab, India. It was built by the fourth Sikh guru, Guru Ramdaas Sahib Ji, in the 16th century. In 1604, Guru Arjun completed the Adi Granth, the holy scripture of Sikhism, and installed it in the Gurudwara.
There are four doors to get into the Harmandir Sahib, which symbolize the openness of the Sikhs towards all people and religions. The present-day gurdwara was rebuilt in 1764 by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia with the help of other Sikh Misls. In the early nineteenth century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh secured the Punjab region from outside attack and covered the upper floors of the gurdwara with gold, which gives it its distinctive appearance and its English name.
The Harimandir Sahib is considered holy by Sikhs. The holiest text of Sikhism, the Guru Granth Sahib, is always present inside the gurdwara. Its construction was mainly intended to build a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religions to come and worship God equally. Over 100,000 people visit the holy shrine daily for worship.
HISTORY
The Harmandir Sahib literally means The Temple of God. The fourth guru of Sikhs, Guru Ram Das, excavated a tank in 1577 CE which subsequently became known as Amritsar (meaning "Pool of the Nectar of Immortality"), giving its name to the city that grew around it. In due course, a Sikh edifice, Sri Harmandir Sahib (meaning "the abode of God") rose in the middle of this tank and became the supreme centre of Sikhism. Its sanctum came to house the Adi Granth comprising compositions of Sikh Gurus and other saints considered to have Sikh values and philosophies, e.g., Baba Farid, and Kabir. The compilation of The Adi Granth was started by the fifth guru of Sikhism, Guru Arjan Dev Ji.
CONSTRUCTION
Sri Guru Arjan Sahib, the Fifth Sikh Guru, conceived the idea of creating a central place of worship for the Sikhs and he himself designed the architecture of Sri Harmandir Sahib. Earlier the planning to excavate the holy tank (Amritsar or Amrit Sarovar ) was chalked out by Guru Amar Das Ji, the Third Sikh Guru, but it was executed by Guru Ramdas Sahib under the supervision of Baba Budha ji. The land for the site was acquired by the earlier Guru Sahibs on payment or free of cost from the Zamindars (landlords) of native villages. The plan to establish a town settlement was also made. Therefore, the construction work on the Sarovar (the tank) and the town started simultaneously in 1570. The work on both projects completed in 1577 A.D. During the leadership of the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan (1581–1606), the full-fledged gurdwara was built. In December 1588, Guru Arjan initiated the construction of the gurdwara. The foundation stone was laid by none other than Guru Arjan Sahib himself in December 1588. It is a common misconception that the foundation stone was laid by the Sufi saint Mian Mir of Lahore.
Some of the architectural features of the Harmandir Sahib were intended to be symbolic of the Sikh worldview. Instead of the normal custom of building a gurdwara on high land, it was built at a lower level than the surrounding land so that devotees would have to go down steps to enter it. In addition, instead of one entrance, Sri Harmandir Sahib has four entrances.
The gurdwara was completed in 1604. Guru Arjan, installed the Guru Granth Sahib in it and appointed Baba Buddha as the first Granthi (reader) of it on August 1604. In the mid-18th century it was attacked by the Afghans, by one of Ahmed Shah Abdali's generals, Jahan Khan, and had to be substantially rebuilt in the 1760s. However, in response a Sikh Army was sent to hunt down the Afghan force. Both forces met each other five miles outside Amritsar; Jahan Khan's army was destroyed.
The gurdwara is surrounded by a large lake or holy tank, known as the Sarovar, which consists of Amrit ("holy water" or "immortal nectar") and is fed by the Ravi River. There are four entrances to the gurdwara, signifying the importance of acceptance and openness. Inside the gurdwara complex there are many shrines to past Sikh Gurus, saints and martyrs (see map). There are three holy trees (bers), each signifying a historical event or Sikh saint. Inside the gurdwara there are many memorial plaques that commemorate past Sikh historical events, saints, martyrs and includes commemorative inscriptions of all the Sikh soldiers who died fighting in World Wars I and II.
In keeping with the rule observed at all Sikh gurdwaras worldwide, the Harmandir Sahib is open to all persons regardless of their religion, colour, creed, or sex. The only restrictions on the Harmandir Sahib's visitors concern their behavior when entering and while visiting:
Maintaining the purity of the sacred space and of one's body while in it:
- Upon entering the premises, removing one's shoes and washing one's feet in the small pool of water provided;
- Not drinking alcohol, eating meat, or smoking cigarettes or other drugs while in the shrine
- Dressing appropriately:
- Wearing a head covering (a sign of respect) (the gurdwara provides head scarves for visitors who have not brought a suitable covering);
- Not wearing shoes.
How to act:
If you choose to listen to Gurbani, one must also sit on the ground while in the Darbar Sahib as a sign of deference to both the Guru Granth Sahib and God.
First-time visitors are advised to begin their visit at the information office and then proceed to the Central Sikh Museum near the main entrance and clock tower.
The Harimandir Sahib runs one of the largest free kitchens in the world, serving 100,000 people on average daily. The meal consists of flat bread and lentil soup.
ARTWORK & MONUMENT SCULPTURES
Much of the present decorative gilding and marblework dates from the early 19th century. All the gold and exquisite marble work were conducted under the patronage of Hukam Singh Chimni and Emperor Ranjit Singh, Maharaja of the Sikh Empire of the Punjab. The Darshani Deorhi Arch stands at the beginning of the causeway to the Harmandir Sahib; it is 62 metres high and 6 metres in width. The gold plating on the Harmandir Sahib was begun by Ranjit Singh and was finished in 1830. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was a major donor of wealth and materials for the shrine and is remembered with much affection by the Punjabi people in general and the Sikh community in particular.
CELEBRATIONS
One of the most important festivals is Vaisakhi, which is celebrated in the second week of April (usually the 13th). Sikhs celebrate the founding of the Khalsa on this day and it is celebrated with fervour in the Harmandir Sahib. Other important Sikh religious days such as the birth of Guru Raamdas ji, martyrdom day of Guru Teg Bahadur, the birthday of Guru Nanak, etc., are also celebrated with religious piety. Similarly Bandi Chhor Divas is one of the festivals which sees the Harmandir Sahib beautifully illuminated with Divas (lamps); lights and fireworks are discharged. Most Sikhs visit Amritsar and the Harmandir Sahib at least once during their lifetime, particularly and mostly during special occasions in their life such as birthdays, marriages, childbirth, etc.
BLUE STAR
Blue Star was a military operation undertaken on 3 June 1984 and ended on 6 June 1984. The Indian Army, led by General Kuldip Singh Brar, brought infantry, artillery, and tanks into the Harmandir Sahib to put a stop to self-styled Dharam Yudh Morcha led by Bhindrawala. During these "Morchay" thousands of Sikhs courted arrest. Indira Gandhi ordered the army to launch Operation Blue Star. Within six months, Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards killed her (31 October 1984) for the perceived sacrilege.
Fierce fighting ensued between Sikhs and the soldiers, in which many of the Sikhs were killed along with many soldiers. The Harmandir Sahib complex also suffered much damage due to the attack, especially the holy Akal Takhat Sahib.
This attack is regarded by Sikhs as a desecration of Sikhism's holiest shrine and discrimination against a minority in India. In 1986, the repairs performed on the Akal Takhat Sahib after the attack, which the Rajiv Gandhi Government had undertaken without consultation, were removed. A new Akal Takhat Sahib was completed in 1999 by Kar Sevaks (volunteer labor and funding)
WIKIPEDIA
Chapati Its Always Favorite For Me. Never & Ever Mom Fed Up By Preparing It.
Never A Wife Will Be Like This
Ahmedabad; also known as Amdavad Gujarati pronunciation: [ˈəmdɑːvɑːd]) is the largest city and former capital of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. With a population of more than 6.3 million and an extended population of 7.2 million, it is the sixth largest city and seventh largest metropolitan area of India. Ahmedabad is located on the banks of the Sabarmati River, 30 km from the state capital Gandhinagar.
Ahmedabad has emerged as an important economic and industrial hub in India. It is the second largest producer of cotton in India, and its stock exchange is the country's second oldest. Cricket is a popular sport in Ahmedabad, which houses the 54,000-seat Sardar Patel Stadium. The effects of liberalisation of the Indian economy have energised the city's economy towards tertiary sector activities like commerce, communication and construction. Ahmedabad's increasing population has resulted in an increase in the construction and housing industries resulting in recent development of skyscrapers.
In 2010, it was ranked third in Forbes's list of fastest growing cities of the decade. In 2012, The Times of India chose Ahmedabad as the best city to live in in India. As of 2014, Ahmedabad's estimated gross domestic product was $119 billion.
HISTORY
The area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as Ashaval (or Ashapalli). At that time, Karandev I, the Solanki ruler of Anhilwara (modern Patan), waged a successful war against the Bhil king of Ashaval, and established a city called Karnavati on the banks of the Sabarmati. Solanki rule lasted until the 13th century, when Gujarat came under the control of the Vaghela dynasty of Dholka. Gujarat subsequently came under the control of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century. However, by the earlier 15th century, the local governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar established his independence from the Delhi Sultanate and crowned himself Sultan of Gujarat as Muzaffar Shah I, thereby founding the Muzaffarid dynasty. This area finally came under the control of his grandson Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1411 A.D. who while at the banks of Sabarmati liked the forested area for a new capital city and laid the foundation of a new walled city near Karnavati and named it Ahmedabad after the four saints in the area by the name Ahmed. According to other sources, he named it after himself. It is said that the birthday of Ahmedabad city is February 26, 1412.
In 1487, Mahmud Begada, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, fortified the city with an outer wall 10 km in circumference and consisting of twelve gates, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements. In 1535 Humayun briefly occupied Ahmedabad after capturing Champaner when the ruler of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, fled to Diu. Ahmedabad was then reoccupied by the Muzaffarid dynasty until 1573 when Gujarat was conquered by the Mughal emperor Akbar. During the Mughal reign, Ahmedabad became one of the Empire's thriving centres of trade, mainly in textiles, which were exported as far as Europe. The Mughal ruler Shahjahan spent the prime of his life in the city, sponsoring the construction of the Moti Shahi Mahal in Shahibaug. The Deccan Famine of 1630–32 affected the city, as did famines in 1650 and 1686. Ahmedabad remained the provincial headquarters of the Mughals until 1758, when they surrendered the city to the Marathas.
During the period of Maratha Empire governance, the city became the centre of a conflict between two Maratha clans; the Peshwa of Poona and the Gaekwad of Baroda. In 1780, during the First Anglo-Maratha War, a British force under James Hartley stormed and captured Ahmedabad, but it was handed back to the Marathas at the end of the war. The British East India Company took over the city in 1818 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War. A military cantonment was established in 1824 and a municipal government in 1858.[16] Incorporated into the Bombay Presidency during British rule, Ahmedabad became one of the most important cities in the Gujarat region. In 1864, a railway link between Ahmedabad and Mumbai (then Bombay) was established by the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI), enabling traffic and trade between northern and southern India via the city. Over time, the city established itself as the home of a developing textile industry, which earned it the nickname "Manchester of the East".
The Indian independence movement developed roots in the city when Mahatma Gandhi established two ashrams – the Kochrab Ashram near Paldi in 1915 and the Satyagraha Ashram (now Sabarmati Ashram) on the banks of the Sabarmati in 1917 – which would become centres of nationalist activities. During the mass protests against the Rowlatt Act in 1919, textile workers burned down 51 government buildings across the city in protest at a British attempt to extend wartime regulations after the First World War. In the 1920s, textile workers and teachers went on strike, demanding civil rights and better pay and working conditions. In 1930, Gandhi initiated the Salt Satyagraha from Ahmedabad by embarking from his ashram on the Dandi Salt March. The city's administration and economic institutions were rendered inoperative in the early 1930s by the large numbers of people who took to the streets in peaceful protests, and again in 1942 during the Quit India Movement. Following independence and the partition of India in 1947, the city was scarred by the intense communal violence that broke out between Hindus and Muslims in 1947, Ahmedabad was the focus for settlement by Hindu migrants from Pakistan, who expanded the city's population and transformed its demographics and economy.
By 1960, Ahmedabad had become a metropolis with a population of slightly under half a million people, with classical and colonial European-style buildings lining the city's thoroughfares. It was chosen as the capital of Gujarat state after the partition of the State of Bombay on 1 May 1960. During this period, a large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city, making it a centre for higher education, science and technology. Ahmedabad's economic base became more diverse with the establishment of heavy and chemical industry during the same period. Many countries sought to emulate India's economic planning strategy and one of them, South Korea, copied the city's second "Five-Year Plan".
In the late 1970s, the capital shifted to the newly built, well planned city of Gandhinagar. This marked the start of a long period of decline in the city, marked by a lack of development. The 1974 Nav Nirman agitation – a protest against a 20% hike in the hostel food fees at the L.D. College of Engineering in Ahmedabad – snowballed into a movement to remove Chimanbhai Patel, then chief minister of Gujarat. In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes. The city suffered some of the impact of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake; up to 50 multi-storey buildings collapsed, killing 752 people and causing much damage. The following year, a three-day period of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian state of Gujarat, known as the 2002 Gujarat riots, spread to Ahmedabad; refugee camps were set up around the city.
The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings, a series of seventeen bomb blasts, killed and injured several people.[34] Militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks.
CITYSCAPE
Early in Ahmedabad's history, under Ahmed Shah, builders fused Hindu craftsmanship with Persian architecture, giving rise to the Indo-Saracenic style. Many mosques in the city were built in this fashion. Sidi Saiyyed Mosque was built in the last year of the Sultanate of Gujarat. It is entirely arched and has ten stone latticework windows or jali on the side and rear arches. Private mansions or haveli from this era have carvings. A Pol is a typical housing cluster of Old Ahmedabad.
After independence, modern buildings appeared in Ahmedabad. Architects given commissions in the city included Louis Kahn, who designed the IIM-A; Le Corbusier, who designed the Shodhan and Sarabhai Villas, the Sanskar Kendra and the Mill Owner's Association Building, and Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the administrative building of Calico Mills and the Calico Dome. B. V. Doshi came to the city from Paris to supervise Le Corbusier's works and later set up the School of Architecture. His local works include Sangath, Amdavad ni Gufa and the School of Architecture. Charles Correa, who became a partner of Doshi's, designed the Gandhi Ashram and Achyut Kanvinde, and the Indian Textile Industries Research Association. Christopher Charles Benninger's first work, the Alliance Française, is located in the Ellis Bridge area. Anant Raje designed major additions to Louis Kahn's IIM-A campus, namely the Ravi Mathai Auditorium and KLMD.
Some of the most visited gardens in the city include Law Garden, Victoria Garden and Bal Vatika. Law Garden was named after the College of Law situated close to it. Victoria Garden is located at the southern edge of the Bhadra Fort and contains a statue of Queen Victoria. Bal Vatika is a children's park situated on the grounds of Kankaria Lake and also houses an amusement park. Other gardens in the city include Parimal Garden, Usmanpura Garden, Prahlad Nagar Garden and Lal Darwaja Garden. Ahmedabad's Kamla Nehru Zoological Park houses a number of endangered species including flamingoes, caracals, Asiatic wolves and chinkara.
The Kankaria Lake, built in 1451 AD, is one of the biggest lakes in Ahmedabad. In earlier days, it was known by the name Qutub Hoj or Hauj-e-Kutub. Vastrapur Lake is located in the western part of Ahmedabad. Lal Bahadur Shastri lake in Bapunagar is almost 136,000 square metres. In 2010, another 34 lakes were planned in and around Ahmedabad of which five lakes will be developed by AMC; the other 29 will be developed by the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). Chandola Lake covers an area of 1200 hectares. It is home for cormorants, painted storks and spoonbills. During the evening time, many people visit this place and take a leisurely stroll. There is a recently developed Naroda lake and the world's largest collection of antique cars in KathWada at IB farm (Dastan Farm). AMC has also developed the Sabarmati Riverfront.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Ahmedabad is the fifth largest city and seventh largest metropolitan area in India. According to the 2014 census the population of Ahmedabad metropolitan was 7,250,000. Ahmedabad has a literacy rate of 89.62%; 93.96% of the men and 84.81% of the women are literate. Ahmedabad's sex ratio in 2011 was 897 women per 1000 men. According to the census for the Ninth Plan, there are 30,737 rural families living in Ahmedabad. Of those, 5.41% (1663 families) live below the poverty line. Approximately 440,000 people live in slums within the city. Ahmedabad is home to a large population of Vanias (i.e., traders), belonging to the Vaishnava sect of Hinduism and various sects of Jainism. Most of the residents of Ahmedabad are native Gujaratis. Over 18% of the population is Muslim, numbering over 300,000 in the 2001 census. In addition, the city is home to some 2000 Parsis and some 125 members of the Bene Israel Jewish community. There is also one synagogue in the city. In 2008, there were 2273 registered non-resident Indians living in Ahmedabad.In 2010, Forbes magazine rated Ahmedabad as the fastest-growing city in India, and listed it as third fastest-growing in the world after the Chinese cities of Chengdu and Chongqing. In 2011, it was rated India's best megacity to live in by leading market research firm IMRB. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of 2003, Ahmedabad has the lowest crime rate of the 35 Indian cities with a population of more than one million. In December 2011 market research firm IMRB declared Ahmedabad the best megacity to live in, when compared to India's other megacities. Slightly less than half of all real estate in Ahmedabad is owned by "community organisations" (i.e. cooperatives), and according to Prof. Vrajlal Sapovadia of the B.K. School of Business Management, "the spatial growth of the city is to [an] extent [a] contribution of these organisations". Ahmedabad Cantonment provides residential zones for Indian Army officials.
CULTURE
Ahmedabad observes a wide range of festivals. Popular celebrations and observances include Uttarayan, an annual kite-flying day on 14 and 15 January. Nine nights of Navratri are celebrated with people performing Garba, the most popular folk dance of Gujarat, at venues across the city. The festival of lights, Deepavali, is celebrated with the lighting of lamps in every house, decorating the floors with rangoli, and the lighting of firecrackers. The annual Rath Yatra procession on the Ashadh-sud-bij date of the Hindu calendar at the Jagannath Temple and the procession of Tajia during the Muslim holy month of Muharram are important events.
One of the most popular forms of meal in Ahmedabad is a typical Gujarati thali which was first served commercially by Chandvilas Hotel in 1900. It consists of roti (Chapati), dal, rice and shaak (cooked vegetables, sometimes with curry), with accompaniments of pickles and roasted papads. Beverages include buttermilk and tea; sweet dishes include laddoo, mango, and vedhmi. Dhoklas, theplas and dhebras are also very popular dishes in Ahmedabad.
There are many restaurants, which serve a wide array of Indian and international cuisines. Most of the food outlets serve only vegetarian food, as a strong tradition of vegetarianism is maintained by the city's Jain and Hindu communities. The first all-vegetarian Pizza Hut in the world opened in Ahmedabad. KFC has a separate staff uniform for serving vegetarian items and prepares vegetarian food in a separate kitchen, as does McDonald's. Ahmedabad has a quite a few restaurants serving typical Mughlai non-vegetarian food in older areas like Bhatiyar Gali, Kalupur and Jamalpur.
Manek Chowk is an open square near the centre of the city that functions as a vegetable market in the morning and a jewellery market in the afternoon. However, it is better known for its food stalls in the evening, which sell local street food. It is named after the Hindu saint Baba Maneknath. Parts of Ahmedabad are known for their folk art. The artisans of Rangeela pol make tie-dyed bandhinis, while the cobbler shops of Madhupura sell traditional mojdi (also known as mojri) footwear. Idols of Ganesha and other religious icons are made in huge numbers in the Gulbai Tekra area. The shops at the Law Garden sell mirror work handicraft.
Three main literary institutions were established in Ahmedabad for the promotion of Gujarati literature: Gujarat Vidhya Sabha, Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and Gujarat Sahitya Sabha. Saptak School of Music festival is held in the first week of the new year. This event was inaugurated by Ravi Shankar.
The Sanskar Kendra, one of the several buildings in Ahmedabad designed by Le Corbusier, is a city museum depicting its history, art, culture and architecture. The Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial have permanent displays of photographs, documents and other articles relating to Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. The Calico Museum of Textiles has a large collection of Indian and international fabrics, garments and textiles. The Hazrat Pir Mohammad Shah Library has a collection of rare original manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi and Turkish. There is Vechaar Utensils Museum which has of stainless steel, glass, brass, copper, bronze, zinc and German silver tools.
Shreyas Foundation has four museums on the same campus. Shreyas Folk Museum (Lokayatan Museum) has art forms and artefacts from communities of Gujarat. Kalpana Mangaldas Children's Museum has a collection of toys, puppets, dance and drama costumes, coins and a repository of recorded music from traditional shows from all over the world. Kahani houses photographs of fairs and festivals of Gujarat. Sangeeta Vadyakhand is a gallery of musical instruments from India and other countries.
L D Institute of Indology houses about 76,000 hand-written Jain manuscripts with 500 illustrated versions and 45,000 printed books, making it the largest collection of Jain scripts, Indian sculptures, terracottas, miniature paintings, cloth paintings, painted scrolls, bronzes, woodwork, Indian coins, textiles and decorative art, paintings of Rabindranath Tagore and art of Nepal and Tibet. N C Mehta Gallery of Miniature Paintings has a collection of ornate miniature paintings and manuscripts from all over India.
TRANSPORT
Ahmedabad is one of six operating divisions in the Western Railway zone. Railway lines connect the city to towns in Gujarat and major Indian cities. Ahmedabad railway station, locally known as Kalupur station is the main terminus with 11 others. The Government of Gujarat and Ahmedabad Mahanagar Sevasadan had initiated a feasibility study into the possibility of a mass-transit metro system for the cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The state government set up a ₹2 billion company for the execution of the project.
National Highway 8, linking Delhi to Mumbai, passes though Ahmedabad and connects it with Gandhinagar, Delhi and Mumbai. The National Highway 8C also links Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar. It is connected to Vadodara through National Expressway 1, a 94 km long expressway with two exits. This expressway is part of the Golden Quadrilateral project.
In 2001, Ahmedabad was ranked as the most polluted city in India, out of 85 cities, by the Central Pollution Control Board. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board gave auto rickshaw drivers an incentive of ₹10,000 to convert all 37,733 auto rickshaws in Ahmedabad to cleaner burning compressed natural gas to reduce pollution. As a result, in 2008, Ahmedabad was ranked as 50th most polluted city in India.
Ahmedabad has a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), maintained by the Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL). Ahmedabad BRTS was given the Sustainable Transport Award in 2010 by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy for reducing carbon emissions and improving residents' access. The first phase connecting RTO to Pirana was inaugurated by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on 14 October 2009 and the second half of the first phase connecting Chandranagar to Pushpa Kunj gate at Kankaria
was inaugurated on 25 December 2009. It is extended from Shivranjani to Iskcon Temple on 15 September 2012. On 28 September 2012 it also include the sketch from Soni ni Chali to Odhav. Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (also known as AMTS), maintained by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, runs the public bus service in the city of Ahmedabad. At present, AMTS has 750 buses serving the city.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, 15 km from the city centre, provides domestic and international flights. It is the busiest airport in Gujarat and the eighth busiest in India with an average of 250 aircraft movements a day. The Dholera International Airport is proposed near Fedara. It will be the largest airport in India with a total area of 7,500 hectares.
EDUCATION
Ahmedabad had a literacy rate of 79.89% in 2001 which rose to 89.62 percent in 2011. As of 2011, literacy rate among male and female were 93.96 and 84.81 percent respectively. Schools in Ahmedabad are run either by the municipal corporation, or privately by entities, trusts and corporations. The majority of schools are affiliated with the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, although some are affiliated with the Central Board for Secondary Education, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, International Baccalaureate and National Institute of Open School. A large number of colleges in the city are affiliated with Gujarat University; Gujarat Technological University and other deemed universities in Ahmedabad include the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University, Nirma University of Science & Technology, Centre for Heritage Management Ganpat university and the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University. The Gujarat Vidyapith was established in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi without a charter from the British Raj and became a deemed university in 1963.
Other educational institutions in Ahmedabad include the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the Gujarat National Law University, the Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management, the National Institute of Design, the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, the Mudra Institute of Communications, the Ahmedabad University, the Center for environmental planning and technology, the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, the B.J. Medical College, the NHL Medical College, the Ahmedabad Management Association, the L.D. College of Engineering and the Vishwakarma Government Engineering College. Many national academic and scientific institutions, such as the Physical Research Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organisation are also based in the city.
WIKIPEDIA
Ahmedabad; also known as Amdavad Gujarati pronunciation: [ˈəmdɑːvɑːd]) is the largest city and former capital of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. With a population of more than 6.3 million and an extended population of 7.2 million, it is the sixth largest city and seventh largest metropolitan area of India. Ahmedabad is located on the banks of the Sabarmati River, 30 km from the state capital Gandhinagar.
Ahmedabad has emerged as an important economic and industrial hub in India. It is the second largest producer of cotton in India, and its stock exchange is the country's second oldest. Cricket is a popular sport in Ahmedabad, which houses the 54,000-seat Sardar Patel Stadium. The effects of liberalisation of the Indian economy have energised the city's economy towards tertiary sector activities like commerce, communication and construction. Ahmedabad's increasing population has resulted in an increase in the construction and housing industries resulting in recent development of skyscrapers.
In 2010, it was ranked third in Forbes's list of fastest growing cities of the decade. In 2012, The Times of India chose Ahmedabad as the best city to live in in India. As of 2014, Ahmedabad's estimated gross domestic product was $119 billion.
HISTORY
The area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as Ashaval (or Ashapalli). At that time, Karandev I, the Solanki ruler of Anhilwara (modern Patan), waged a successful war against the Bhil king of Ashaval, and established a city called Karnavati on the banks of the Sabarmati. Solanki rule lasted until the 13th century, when Gujarat came under the control of the Vaghela dynasty of Dholka. Gujarat subsequently came under the control of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century. However, by the earlier 15th century, the local governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar established his independence from the Delhi Sultanate and crowned himself Sultan of Gujarat as Muzaffar Shah I, thereby founding the Muzaffarid dynasty. This area finally came under the control of his grandson Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1411 A.D. who while at the banks of Sabarmati liked the forested area for a new capital city and laid the foundation of a new walled city near Karnavati and named it Ahmedabad after the four saints in the area by the name Ahmed. According to other sources, he named it after himself. It is said that the birthday of Ahmedabad city is February 26, 1412.
In 1487, Mahmud Begada, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, fortified the city with an outer wall 10 km in circumference and consisting of twelve gates, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements. In 1535 Humayun briefly occupied Ahmedabad after capturing Champaner when the ruler of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, fled to Diu. Ahmedabad was then reoccupied by the Muzaffarid dynasty until 1573 when Gujarat was conquered by the Mughal emperor Akbar. During the Mughal reign, Ahmedabad became one of the Empire's thriving centres of trade, mainly in textiles, which were exported as far as Europe. The Mughal ruler Shahjahan spent the prime of his life in the city, sponsoring the construction of the Moti Shahi Mahal in Shahibaug. The Deccan Famine of 1630–32 affected the city, as did famines in 1650 and 1686. Ahmedabad remained the provincial headquarters of the Mughals until 1758, when they surrendered the city to the Marathas.
During the period of Maratha Empire governance, the city became the centre of a conflict between two Maratha clans; the Peshwa of Poona and the Gaekwad of Baroda. In 1780, during the First Anglo-Maratha War, a British force under James Hartley stormed and captured Ahmedabad, but it was handed back to the Marathas at the end of the war. The British East India Company took over the city in 1818 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War. A military cantonment was established in 1824 and a municipal government in 1858.[16] Incorporated into the Bombay Presidency during British rule, Ahmedabad became one of the most important cities in the Gujarat region. In 1864, a railway link between Ahmedabad and Mumbai (then Bombay) was established by the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI), enabling traffic and trade between northern and southern India via the city. Over time, the city established itself as the home of a developing textile industry, which earned it the nickname "Manchester of the East".
The Indian independence movement developed roots in the city when Mahatma Gandhi established two ashrams – the Kochrab Ashram near Paldi in 1915 and the Satyagraha Ashram (now Sabarmati Ashram) on the banks of the Sabarmati in 1917 – which would become centres of nationalist activities. During the mass protests against the Rowlatt Act in 1919, textile workers burned down 51 government buildings across the city in protest at a British attempt to extend wartime regulations after the First World War. In the 1920s, textile workers and teachers went on strike, demanding civil rights and better pay and working conditions. In 1930, Gandhi initiated the Salt Satyagraha from Ahmedabad by embarking from his ashram on the Dandi Salt March. The city's administration and economic institutions were rendered inoperative in the early 1930s by the large numbers of people who took to the streets in peaceful protests, and again in 1942 during the Quit India Movement. Following independence and the partition of India in 1947, the city was scarred by the intense communal violence that broke out between Hindus and Muslims in 1947, Ahmedabad was the focus for settlement by Hindu migrants from Pakistan, who expanded the city's population and transformed its demographics and economy.
By 1960, Ahmedabad had become a metropolis with a population of slightly under half a million people, with classical and colonial European-style buildings lining the city's thoroughfares. It was chosen as the capital of Gujarat state after the partition of the State of Bombay on 1 May 1960. During this period, a large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city, making it a centre for higher education, science and technology. Ahmedabad's economic base became more diverse with the establishment of heavy and chemical industry during the same period. Many countries sought to emulate India's economic planning strategy and one of them, South Korea, copied the city's second "Five-Year Plan".
In the late 1970s, the capital shifted to the newly built, well planned city of Gandhinagar. This marked the start of a long period of decline in the city, marked by a lack of development. The 1974 Nav Nirman agitation – a protest against a 20% hike in the hostel food fees at the L.D. College of Engineering in Ahmedabad – snowballed into a movement to remove Chimanbhai Patel, then chief minister of Gujarat. In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes. The city suffered some of the impact of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake; up to 50 multi-storey buildings collapsed, killing 752 people and causing much damage. The following year, a three-day period of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian state of Gujarat, known as the 2002 Gujarat riots, spread to Ahmedabad; refugee camps were set up around the city.
The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings, a series of seventeen bomb blasts, killed and injured several people.[34] Militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks.
CITYSCAPE
Early in Ahmedabad's history, under Ahmed Shah, builders fused Hindu craftsmanship with Persian architecture, giving rise to the Indo-Saracenic style. Many mosques in the city were built in this fashion. Sidi Saiyyed Mosque was built in the last year of the Sultanate of Gujarat. It is entirely arched and has ten stone latticework windows or jali on the side and rear arches. Private mansions or haveli from this era have carvings. A Pol is a typical housing cluster of Old Ahmedabad.
After independence, modern buildings appeared in Ahmedabad. Architects given commissions in the city included Louis Kahn, who designed the IIM-A; Le Corbusier, who designed the Shodhan and Sarabhai Villas, the Sanskar Kendra and the Mill Owner's Association Building, and Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the administrative building of Calico Mills and the Calico Dome. B. V. Doshi came to the city from Paris to supervise Le Corbusier's works and later set up the School of Architecture. His local works include Sangath, Amdavad ni Gufa and the School of Architecture. Charles Correa, who became a partner of Doshi's, designed the Gandhi Ashram and Achyut Kanvinde, and the Indian Textile Industries Research Association. Christopher Charles Benninger's first work, the Alliance Française, is located in the Ellis Bridge area. Anant Raje designed major additions to Louis Kahn's IIM-A campus, namely the Ravi Mathai Auditorium and KLMD.
Some of the most visited gardens in the city include Law Garden, Victoria Garden and Bal Vatika. Law Garden was named after the College of Law situated close to it. Victoria Garden is located at the southern edge of the Bhadra Fort and contains a statue of Queen Victoria. Bal Vatika is a children's park situated on the grounds of Kankaria Lake and also houses an amusement park. Other gardens in the city include Parimal Garden, Usmanpura Garden, Prahlad Nagar Garden and Lal Darwaja Garden. Ahmedabad's Kamla Nehru Zoological Park houses a number of endangered species including flamingoes, caracals, Asiatic wolves and chinkara.
The Kankaria Lake, built in 1451 AD, is one of the biggest lakes in Ahmedabad. In earlier days, it was known by the name Qutub Hoj or Hauj-e-Kutub. Vastrapur Lake is located in the western part of Ahmedabad. Lal Bahadur Shastri lake in Bapunagar is almost 136,000 square metres. In 2010, another 34 lakes were planned in and around Ahmedabad of which five lakes will be developed by AMC; the other 29 will be developed by the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). Chandola Lake covers an area of 1200 hectares. It is home for cormorants, painted storks and spoonbills. During the evening time, many people visit this place and take a leisurely stroll. There is a recently developed Naroda lake and the world's largest collection of antique cars in KathWada at IB farm (Dastan Farm). AMC has also developed the Sabarmati Riverfront.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Ahmedabad is the fifth largest city and seventh largest metropolitan area in India. According to the 2014 census the population of Ahmedabad metropolitan was 7,250,000. Ahmedabad has a literacy rate of 89.62%; 93.96% of the men and 84.81% of the women are literate. Ahmedabad's sex ratio in 2011 was 897 women per 1000 men. According to the census for the Ninth Plan, there are 30,737 rural families living in Ahmedabad. Of those, 5.41% (1663 families) live below the poverty line. Approximately 440,000 people live in slums within the city. Ahmedabad is home to a large population of Vanias (i.e., traders), belonging to the Vaishnava sect of Hinduism and various sects of Jainism. Most of the residents of Ahmedabad are native Gujaratis. Over 18% of the population is Muslim, numbering over 300,000 in the 2001 census. In addition, the city is home to some 2000 Parsis and some 125 members of the Bene Israel Jewish community. There is also one synagogue in the city. In 2008, there were 2273 registered non-resident Indians living in Ahmedabad.In 2010, Forbes magazine rated Ahmedabad as the fastest-growing city in India, and listed it as third fastest-growing in the world after the Chinese cities of Chengdu and Chongqing. In 2011, it was rated India's best megacity to live in by leading market research firm IMRB. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of 2003, Ahmedabad has the lowest crime rate of the 35 Indian cities with a population of more than one million. In December 2011 market research firm IMRB declared Ahmedabad the best megacity to live in, when compared to India's other megacities. Slightly less than half of all real estate in Ahmedabad is owned by "community organisations" (i.e. cooperatives), and according to Prof. Vrajlal Sapovadia of the B.K. School of Business Management, "the spatial growth of the city is to [an] extent [a] contribution of these organisations". Ahmedabad Cantonment provides residential zones for Indian Army officials.
CULTURE
Ahmedabad observes a wide range of festivals. Popular celebrations and observances include Uttarayan, an annual kite-flying day on 14 and 15 January. Nine nights of Navratri are celebrated with people performing Garba, the most popular folk dance of Gujarat, at venues across the city. The festival of lights, Deepavali, is celebrated with the lighting of lamps in every house, decorating the floors with rangoli, and the lighting of firecrackers. The annual Rath Yatra procession on the Ashadh-sud-bij date of the Hindu calendar at the Jagannath Temple and the procession of Tajia during the Muslim holy month of Muharram are important events.
One of the most popular forms of meal in Ahmedabad is a typical Gujarati thali which was first served commercially by Chandvilas Hotel in 1900. It consists of roti (Chapati), dal, rice and shaak (cooked vegetables, sometimes with curry), with accompaniments of pickles and roasted papads. Beverages include buttermilk and tea; sweet dishes include laddoo, mango, and vedhmi. Dhoklas, theplas and dhebras are also very popular dishes in Ahmedabad.
There are many restaurants, which serve a wide array of Indian and international cuisines. Most of the food outlets serve only vegetarian food, as a strong tradition of vegetarianism is maintained by the city's Jain and Hindu communities. The first all-vegetarian Pizza Hut in the world opened in Ahmedabad. KFC has a separate staff uniform for serving vegetarian items and prepares vegetarian food in a separate kitchen, as does McDonald's. Ahmedabad has a quite a few restaurants serving typical Mughlai non-vegetarian food in older areas like Bhatiyar Gali, Kalupur and Jamalpur.
Manek Chowk is an open square near the centre of the city that functions as a vegetable market in the morning and a jewellery market in the afternoon. However, it is better known for its food stalls in the evening, which sell local street food. It is named after the Hindu saint Baba Maneknath. Parts of Ahmedabad are known for their folk art. The artisans of Rangeela pol make tie-dyed bandhinis, while the cobbler shops of Madhupura sell traditional mojdi (also known as mojri) footwear. Idols of Ganesha and other religious icons are made in huge numbers in the Gulbai Tekra area. The shops at the Law Garden sell mirror work handicraft.
Three main literary institutions were established in Ahmedabad for the promotion of Gujarati literature: Gujarat Vidhya Sabha, Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and Gujarat Sahitya Sabha. Saptak School of Music festival is held in the first week of the new year. This event was inaugurated by Ravi Shankar.
The Sanskar Kendra, one of the several buildings in Ahmedabad designed by Le Corbusier, is a city museum depicting its history, art, culture and architecture. The Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial have permanent displays of photographs, documents and other articles relating to Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. The Calico Museum of Textiles has a large collection of Indian and international fabrics, garments and textiles. The Hazrat Pir Mohammad Shah Library has a collection of rare original manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi and Turkish. There is Vechaar Utensils Museum which has of stainless steel, glass, brass, copper, bronze, zinc and German silver tools.
Shreyas Foundation has four museums on the same campus. Shreyas Folk Museum (Lokayatan Museum) has art forms and artefacts from communities of Gujarat. Kalpana Mangaldas Children's Museum has a collection of toys, puppets, dance and drama costumes, coins and a repository of recorded music from traditional shows from all over the world. Kahani houses photographs of fairs and festivals of Gujarat. Sangeeta Vadyakhand is a gallery of musical instruments from India and other countries.
L D Institute of Indology houses about 76,000 hand-written Jain manuscripts with 500 illustrated versions and 45,000 printed books, making it the largest collection of Jain scripts, Indian sculptures, terracottas, miniature paintings, cloth paintings, painted scrolls, bronzes, woodwork, Indian coins, textiles and decorative art, paintings of Rabindranath Tagore and art of Nepal and Tibet. N C Mehta Gallery of Miniature Paintings has a collection of ornate miniature paintings and manuscripts from all over India.
TRANSPORT
Ahmedabad is one of six operating divisions in the Western Railway zone. Railway lines connect the city to towns in Gujarat and major Indian cities. Ahmedabad railway station, locally known as Kalupur station is the main terminus with 11 others. The Government of Gujarat and Ahmedabad Mahanagar Sevasadan had initiated a feasibility study into the possibility of a mass-transit metro system for the cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The state government set up a ₹2 billion company for the execution of the project.
National Highway 8, linking Delhi to Mumbai, passes though Ahmedabad and connects it with Gandhinagar, Delhi and Mumbai. The National Highway 8C also links Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar. It is connected to Vadodara through National Expressway 1, a 94 km long expressway with two exits. This expressway is part of the Golden Quadrilateral project.
In 2001, Ahmedabad was ranked as the most polluted city in India, out of 85 cities, by the Central Pollution Control Board. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board gave auto rickshaw drivers an incentive of ₹10,000 to convert all 37,733 auto rickshaws in Ahmedabad to cleaner burning compressed natural gas to reduce pollution. As a result, in 2008, Ahmedabad was ranked as 50th most polluted city in India.
Ahmedabad has a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), maintained by the Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL). Ahmedabad BRTS was given the Sustainable Transport Award in 2010 by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy for reducing carbon emissions and improving residents' access. The first phase connecting RTO to Pirana was inaugurated by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on 14 October 2009 and the second half of the first phase connecting Chandranagar to Pushpa Kunj gate at Kankaria
was inaugurated on 25 December 2009. It is extended from Shivranjani to Iskcon Temple on 15 September 2012. On 28 September 2012 it also include the sketch from Soni ni Chali to Odhav. Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (also known as AMTS), maintained by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, runs the public bus service in the city of Ahmedabad. At present, AMTS has 750 buses serving the city.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, 15 km from the city centre, provides domestic and international flights. It is the busiest airport in Gujarat and the eighth busiest in India with an average of 250 aircraft movements a day. The Dholera International Airport is proposed near Fedara. It will be the largest airport in India with a total area of 7,500 hectares.
EDUCATION
Ahmedabad had a literacy rate of 79.89% in 2001 which rose to 89.62 percent in 2011. As of 2011, literacy rate among male and female were 93.96 and 84.81 percent respectively. Schools in Ahmedabad are run either by the municipal corporation, or privately by entities, trusts and corporations. The majority of schools are affiliated with the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, although some are affiliated with the Central Board for Secondary Education, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, International Baccalaureate and National Institute of Open School. A large number of colleges in the city are affiliated with Gujarat University; Gujarat Technological University and other deemed universities in Ahmedabad include the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University, Nirma University of Science & Technology, Centre for Heritage Management Ganpat university and the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University. The Gujarat Vidyapith was established in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi without a charter from the British Raj and became a deemed university in 1963.
Other educational institutions in Ahmedabad include the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the Gujarat National Law University, the Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management, the National Institute of Design, the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, the Mudra Institute of Communications, the Ahmedabad University, the Center for environmental planning and technology, the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, the B.J. Medical College, the NHL Medical College, the Ahmedabad Management Association, the L.D. College of Engineering and the Vishwakarma Government Engineering College. Many national academic and scientific institutions, such as the Physical Research Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organisation are also based in the city.
WIKIPEDIA
Ahmedabad; also known as Amdavad Gujarati pronunciation: [ˈəmdɑːvɑːd]) is the largest city and former capital of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. With a population of more than 6.3 million and an extended population of 7.2 million, it is the sixth largest city and seventh largest metropolitan area of India. Ahmedabad is located on the banks of the Sabarmati River, 30 km from the state capital Gandhinagar.
Ahmedabad has emerged as an important economic and industrial hub in India. It is the second largest producer of cotton in India, and its stock exchange is the country's second oldest. Cricket is a popular sport in Ahmedabad, which houses the 54,000-seat Sardar Patel Stadium. The effects of liberalisation of the Indian economy have energised the city's economy towards tertiary sector activities like commerce, communication and construction. Ahmedabad's increasing population has resulted in an increase in the construction and housing industries resulting in recent development of skyscrapers.
In 2010, it was ranked third in Forbes's list of fastest growing cities of the decade. In 2012, The Times of India chose Ahmedabad as the best city to live in in India. As of 2014, Ahmedabad's estimated gross domestic product was $119 billion.
HISTORY
The area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as Ashaval (or Ashapalli). At that time, Karandev I, the Solanki ruler of Anhilwara (modern Patan), waged a successful war against the Bhil king of Ashaval, and established a city called Karnavati on the banks of the Sabarmati. Solanki rule lasted until the 13th century, when Gujarat came under the control of the Vaghela dynasty of Dholka. Gujarat subsequently came under the control of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century. However, by the earlier 15th century, the local governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar established his independence from the Delhi Sultanate and crowned himself Sultan of Gujarat as Muzaffar Shah I, thereby founding the Muzaffarid dynasty. This area finally came under the control of his grandson Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1411 A.D. who while at the banks of Sabarmati liked the forested area for a new capital city and laid the foundation of a new walled city near Karnavati and named it Ahmedabad after the four saints in the area by the name Ahmed. According to other sources, he named it after himself. It is said that the birthday of Ahmedabad city is February 26, 1412.
In 1487, Mahmud Begada, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, fortified the city with an outer wall 10 km in circumference and consisting of twelve gates, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements. In 1535 Humayun briefly occupied Ahmedabad after capturing Champaner when the ruler of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, fled to Diu. Ahmedabad was then reoccupied by the Muzaffarid dynasty until 1573 when Gujarat was conquered by the Mughal emperor Akbar. During the Mughal reign, Ahmedabad became one of the Empire's thriving centres of trade, mainly in textiles, which were exported as far as Europe. The Mughal ruler Shahjahan spent the prime of his life in the city, sponsoring the construction of the Moti Shahi Mahal in Shahibaug. The Deccan Famine of 1630–32 affected the city, as did famines in 1650 and 1686. Ahmedabad remained the provincial headquarters of the Mughals until 1758, when they surrendered the city to the Marathas.
During the period of Maratha Empire governance, the city became the centre of a conflict between two Maratha clans; the Peshwa of Poona and the Gaekwad of Baroda. In 1780, during the First Anglo-Maratha War, a British force under James Hartley stormed and captured Ahmedabad, but it was handed back to the Marathas at the end of the war. The British East India Company took over the city in 1818 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War. A military cantonment was established in 1824 and a municipal government in 1858.[16] Incorporated into the Bombay Presidency during British rule, Ahmedabad became one of the most important cities in the Gujarat region. In 1864, a railway link between Ahmedabad and Mumbai (then Bombay) was established by the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI), enabling traffic and trade between northern and southern India via the city. Over time, the city established itself as the home of a developing textile industry, which earned it the nickname "Manchester of the East".
The Indian independence movement developed roots in the city when Mahatma Gandhi established two ashrams – the Kochrab Ashram near Paldi in 1915 and the Satyagraha Ashram (now Sabarmati Ashram) on the banks of the Sabarmati in 1917 – which would become centres of nationalist activities. During the mass protests against the Rowlatt Act in 1919, textile workers burned down 51 government buildings across the city in protest at a British attempt to extend wartime regulations after the First World War. In the 1920s, textile workers and teachers went on strike, demanding civil rights and better pay and working conditions. In 1930, Gandhi initiated the Salt Satyagraha from Ahmedabad by embarking from his ashram on the Dandi Salt March. The city's administration and economic institutions were rendered inoperative in the early 1930s by the large numbers of people who took to the streets in peaceful protests, and again in 1942 during the Quit India Movement. Following independence and the partition of India in 1947, the city was scarred by the intense communal violence that broke out between Hindus and Muslims in 1947, Ahmedabad was the focus for settlement by Hindu migrants from Pakistan, who expanded the city's population and transformed its demographics and economy.
By 1960, Ahmedabad had become a metropolis with a population of slightly under half a million people, with classical and colonial European-style buildings lining the city's thoroughfares. It was chosen as the capital of Gujarat state after the partition of the State of Bombay on 1 May 1960. During this period, a large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city, making it a centre for higher education, science and technology. Ahmedabad's economic base became more diverse with the establishment of heavy and chemical industry during the same period. Many countries sought to emulate India's economic planning strategy and one of them, South Korea, copied the city's second "Five-Year Plan".
In the late 1970s, the capital shifted to the newly built, well planned city of Gandhinagar. This marked the start of a long period of decline in the city, marked by a lack of development. The 1974 Nav Nirman agitation – a protest against a 20% hike in the hostel food fees at the L.D. College of Engineering in Ahmedabad – snowballed into a movement to remove Chimanbhai Patel, then chief minister of Gujarat. In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes. The city suffered some of the impact of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake; up to 50 multi-storey buildings collapsed, killing 752 people and causing much damage. The following year, a three-day period of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian state of Gujarat, known as the 2002 Gujarat riots, spread to Ahmedabad; refugee camps were set up around the city.
The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings, a series of seventeen bomb blasts, killed and injured several people.[34] Militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks.
CITYSCAPE
Early in Ahmedabad's history, under Ahmed Shah, builders fused Hindu craftsmanship with Persian architecture, giving rise to the Indo-Saracenic style. Many mosques in the city were built in this fashion. Sidi Saiyyed Mosque was built in the last year of the Sultanate of Gujarat. It is entirely arched and has ten stone latticework windows or jali on the side and rear arches. Private mansions or haveli from this era have carvings. A Pol is a typical housing cluster of Old Ahmedabad.
After independence, modern buildings appeared in Ahmedabad. Architects given commissions in the city included Louis Kahn, who designed the IIM-A; Le Corbusier, who designed the Shodhan and Sarabhai Villas, the Sanskar Kendra and the Mill Owner's Association Building, and Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the administrative building of Calico Mills and the Calico Dome. B. V. Doshi came to the city from Paris to supervise Le Corbusier's works and later set up the School of Architecture. His local works include Sangath, Amdavad ni Gufa and the School of Architecture. Charles Correa, who became a partner of Doshi's, designed the Gandhi Ashram and Achyut Kanvinde, and the Indian Textile Industries Research Association. Christopher Charles Benninger's first work, the Alliance Française, is located in the Ellis Bridge area. Anant Raje designed major additions to Louis Kahn's IIM-A campus, namely the Ravi Mathai Auditorium and KLMD.
Some of the most visited gardens in the city include Law Garden, Victoria Garden and Bal Vatika. Law Garden was named after the College of Law situated close to it. Victoria Garden is located at the southern edge of the Bhadra Fort and contains a statue of Queen Victoria. Bal Vatika is a children's park situated on the grounds of Kankaria Lake and also houses an amusement park. Other gardens in the city include Parimal Garden, Usmanpura Garden, Prahlad Nagar Garden and Lal Darwaja Garden. Ahmedabad's Kamla Nehru Zoological Park houses a number of endangered species including flamingoes, caracals, Asiatic wolves and chinkara.
The Kankaria Lake, built in 1451 AD, is one of the biggest lakes in Ahmedabad. In earlier days, it was known by the name Qutub Hoj or Hauj-e-Kutub. Vastrapur Lake is located in the western part of Ahmedabad. Lal Bahadur Shastri lake in Bapunagar is almost 136,000 square metres. In 2010, another 34 lakes were planned in and around Ahmedabad of which five lakes will be developed by AMC; the other 29 will be developed by the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). Chandola Lake covers an area of 1200 hectares. It is home for cormorants, painted storks and spoonbills. During the evening time, many people visit this place and take a leisurely stroll. There is a recently developed Naroda lake and the world's largest collection of antique cars in KathWada at IB farm (Dastan Farm). AMC has also developed the Sabarmati Riverfront.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Ahmedabad is the fifth largest city and seventh largest metropolitan area in India. According to the 2014 census the population of Ahmedabad metropolitan was 7,250,000. Ahmedabad has a literacy rate of 89.62%; 93.96% of the men and 84.81% of the women are literate. Ahmedabad's sex ratio in 2011 was 897 women per 1000 men. According to the census for the Ninth Plan, there are 30,737 rural families living in Ahmedabad. Of those, 5.41% (1663 families) live below the poverty line. Approximately 440,000 people live in slums within the city. Ahmedabad is home to a large population of Vanias (i.e., traders), belonging to the Vaishnava sect of Hinduism and various sects of Jainism. Most of the residents of Ahmedabad are native Gujaratis. Over 18% of the population is Muslim, numbering over 300,000 in the 2001 census. In addition, the city is home to some 2000 Parsis and some 125 members of the Bene Israel Jewish community. There is also one synagogue in the city. In 2008, there were 2273 registered non-resident Indians living in Ahmedabad.In 2010, Forbes magazine rated Ahmedabad as the fastest-growing city in India, and listed it as third fastest-growing in the world after the Chinese cities of Chengdu and Chongqing. In 2011, it was rated India's best megacity to live in by leading market research firm IMRB. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of 2003, Ahmedabad has the lowest crime rate of the 35 Indian cities with a population of more than one million. In December 2011 market research firm IMRB declared Ahmedabad the best megacity to live in, when compared to India's other megacities. Slightly less than half of all real estate in Ahmedabad is owned by "community organisations" (i.e. cooperatives), and according to Prof. Vrajlal Sapovadia of the B.K. School of Business Management, "the spatial growth of the city is to [an] extent [a] contribution of these organisations". Ahmedabad Cantonment provides residential zones for Indian Army officials.
CULTURE
Ahmedabad observes a wide range of festivals. Popular celebrations and observances include Uttarayan, an annual kite-flying day on 14 and 15 January. Nine nights of Navratri are celebrated with people performing Garba, the most popular folk dance of Gujarat, at venues across the city. The festival of lights, Deepavali, is celebrated with the lighting of lamps in every house, decorating the floors with rangoli, and the lighting of firecrackers. The annual Rath Yatra procession on the Ashadh-sud-bij date of the Hindu calendar at the Jagannath Temple and the procession of Tajia during the Muslim holy month of Muharram are important events.
One of the most popular forms of meal in Ahmedabad is a typical Gujarati thali which was first served commercially by Chandvilas Hotel in 1900. It consists of roti (Chapati), dal, rice and shaak (cooked vegetables, sometimes with curry), with accompaniments of pickles and roasted papads. Beverages include buttermilk and tea; sweet dishes include laddoo, mango, and vedhmi. Dhoklas, theplas and dhebras are also very popular dishes in Ahmedabad.
There are many restaurants, which serve a wide array of Indian and international cuisines. Most of the food outlets serve only vegetarian food, as a strong tradition of vegetarianism is maintained by the city's Jain and Hindu communities. The first all-vegetarian Pizza Hut in the world opened in Ahmedabad. KFC has a separate staff uniform for serving vegetarian items and prepares vegetarian food in a separate kitchen, as does McDonald's. Ahmedabad has a quite a few restaurants serving typical Mughlai non-vegetarian food in older areas like Bhatiyar Gali, Kalupur and Jamalpur.
Manek Chowk is an open square near the centre of the city that functions as a vegetable market in the morning and a jewellery market in the afternoon. However, it is better known for its food stalls in the evening, which sell local street food. It is named after the Hindu saint Baba Maneknath. Parts of Ahmedabad are known for their folk art. The artisans of Rangeela pol make tie-dyed bandhinis, while the cobbler shops of Madhupura sell traditional mojdi (also known as mojri) footwear. Idols of Ganesha and other religious icons are made in huge numbers in the Gulbai Tekra area. The shops at the Law Garden sell mirror work handicraft.
Three main literary institutions were established in Ahmedabad for the promotion of Gujarati literature: Gujarat Vidhya Sabha, Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and Gujarat Sahitya Sabha. Saptak School of Music festival is held in the first week of the new year. This event was inaugurated by Ravi Shankar.
The Sanskar Kendra, one of the several buildings in Ahmedabad designed by Le Corbusier, is a city museum depicting its history, art, culture and architecture. The Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial have permanent displays of photographs, documents and other articles relating to Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. The Calico Museum of Textiles has a large collection of Indian and international fabrics, garments and textiles. The Hazrat Pir Mohammad Shah Library has a collection of rare original manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi and Turkish. There is Vechaar Utensils Museum which has of stainless steel, glass, brass, copper, bronze, zinc and German silver tools.
Shreyas Foundation has four museums on the same campus. Shreyas Folk Museum (Lokayatan Museum) has art forms and artefacts from communities of Gujarat. Kalpana Mangaldas Children's Museum has a collection of toys, puppets, dance and drama costumes, coins and a repository of recorded music from traditional shows from all over the world. Kahani houses photographs of fairs and festivals of Gujarat. Sangeeta Vadyakhand is a gallery of musical instruments from India and other countries.
L D Institute of Indology houses about 76,000 hand-written Jain manuscripts with 500 illustrated versions and 45,000 printed books, making it the largest collection of Jain scripts, Indian sculptures, terracottas, miniature paintings, cloth paintings, painted scrolls, bronzes, woodwork, Indian coins, textiles and decorative art, paintings of Rabindranath Tagore and art of Nepal and Tibet. N C Mehta Gallery of Miniature Paintings has a collection of ornate miniature paintings and manuscripts from all over India.
TRANSPORT
Ahmedabad is one of six operating divisions in the Western Railway zone. Railway lines connect the city to towns in Gujarat and major Indian cities. Ahmedabad railway station, locally known as Kalupur station is the main terminus with 11 others. The Government of Gujarat and Ahmedabad Mahanagar Sevasadan had initiated a feasibility study into the possibility of a mass-transit metro system for the cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The state government set up a ₹2 billion company for the execution of the project.
National Highway 8, linking Delhi to Mumbai, passes though Ahmedabad and connects it with Gandhinagar, Delhi and Mumbai. The National Highway 8C also links Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar. It is connected to Vadodara through National Expressway 1, a 94 km long expressway with two exits. This expressway is part of the Golden Quadrilateral project.
In 2001, Ahmedabad was ranked as the most polluted city in India, out of 85 cities, by the Central Pollution Control Board. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board gave auto rickshaw drivers an incentive of ₹10,000 to convert all 37,733 auto rickshaws in Ahmedabad to cleaner burning compressed natural gas to reduce pollution. As a result, in 2008, Ahmedabad was ranked as 50th most polluted city in India.
Ahmedabad has a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), maintained by the Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL). Ahmedabad BRTS was given the Sustainable Transport Award in 2010 by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy for reducing carbon emissions and improving residents' access. The first phase connecting RTO to Pirana was inaugurated by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on 14 October 2009 and the second half of the first phase connecting Chandranagar to Pushpa Kunj gate at Kankaria
was inaugurated on 25 December 2009. It is extended from Shivranjani to Iskcon Temple on 15 September 2012. On 28 September 2012 it also include the sketch from Soni ni Chali to Odhav. Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (also known as AMTS), maintained by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, runs the public bus service in the city of Ahmedabad. At present, AMTS has 750 buses serving the city.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, 15 km from the city centre, provides domestic and international flights. It is the busiest airport in Gujarat and the eighth busiest in India with an average of 250 aircraft movements a day. The Dholera International Airport is proposed near Fedara. It will be the largest airport in India with a total area of 7,500 hectares.
EDUCATION
Ahmedabad had a literacy rate of 79.89% in 2001 which rose to 89.62 percent in 2011. As of 2011, literacy rate among male and female were 93.96 and 84.81 percent respectively. Schools in Ahmedabad are run either by the municipal corporation, or privately by entities, trusts and corporations. The majority of schools are affiliated with the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, although some are affiliated with the Central Board for Secondary Education, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, International Baccalaureate and National Institute of Open School. A large number of colleges in the city are affiliated with Gujarat University; Gujarat Technological University and other deemed universities in Ahmedabad include the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University, Nirma University of Science & Technology, Centre for Heritage Management Ganpat university and the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University. The Gujarat Vidyapith was established in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi without a charter from the British Raj and became a deemed university in 1963.
Other educational institutions in Ahmedabad include the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the Gujarat National Law University, the Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management, the National Institute of Design, the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, the Mudra Institute of Communications, the Ahmedabad University, the Center for environmental planning and technology, the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, the B.J. Medical College, the NHL Medical College, the Ahmedabad Management Association, the L.D. College of Engineering and the Vishwakarma Government Engineering College. Many national academic and scientific institutions, such as the Physical Research Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organisation are also based in the city.
WIKIPEDIA
Once the summer capital of the Raj in Burma, Pyin U Lwin retains some of the 'hill station' look that cities like Darjeeling and Simla in India used to have in the 1960s and 1970s. Because of its history as a summer capital and a military centre of the Indian Army during British times, it has both a large Indian population and strong Anglo-Burmese and Anglo-Indian communitues. As a town near the border of China, many Chinese people are also settling down in this pleasant hill town. It is also an important market centre for goods from the Shan State and Kachin territories and an important military base. At an elevation of 1070 metres above sea level, there is an abundance of flowers, strawberries, and coffee beans, that will make you find a curiously diverse place on your visit. The city and its surrondings are very green and, together with the comforting climate, make a pleasant atmosphere for some days to chill out.
HISTORY
The British 'discovered' Pyin U Lwin after the capture of Mandalay at the end of the Third Burmese War. An early Englishman described it thus: "Pyin-u-lwin, a charmingly situated village of some five and twenty houses, with a market-place and a gambling ring, won our hearts. ... I inspected a curious magnetic rock in the neighbouring jungle. Some years afterwards it was described as a new discovery by a geologist of note. It has been lost again, but will doubtless be found some day." (Herbert White, "A Civil Servant in Burma"). The British soon established a military post there and the village was renamed Maymyo (May Town) after the commander of the post, Colonel May, a veteran of the Indian Mutiny. Within a few years, after it was connected to Mandalay by rail, it became the summer residence of the British Government in Burma (the civil service would move, almost to the man, from Rangoon to Maymyo). A little later, it was made the headquarters of the Burma Division, a largely Gurkha and Indian division, and the remanents of that division forms the core of the 'Nepali' population of Pyin U Lwin. White goes on to describe it as "Without pretension to the picturesque, it is a place of great charm and quiet beauty, with no palm trees and few pagodas, conspicuously un-Oriental, more like a corner of Surrey than of Burma." While the Surrey analogy will seem a stretch to anyone who has visited Surrey, Pyin U Lwin still seems less like Burma than almost anywhere else in the country.
CLIMATE
Cooler, relatively speaking, than the plains and the temperature rarely goes over 30°C in summer. Winter temperatures often fall below 10°C at night, so be prepared.
GET IN
BY TRAIN
The train station is North of the city and there are services to and from Mandalay, Hsipaw, and Lashio. Trains from Mandalay (ordinary class US$2, upper class US$4) leave at 4:00 am arriving at 8:09 am. Numerous hairpin bends and a steep ascent make this an interesting, if rather long, ride. You can get out and walk at various points while the train switches direction or makes its slow way up a steep ascent. There are two trains daily to Hsipaw and Lashio (5:30am, 8:34am) the journey is about 6 hours and 10 hours respectively and goes over the famous Gokteik Viaduct. Trains from Hsipaw and Lashio arrive at 3:40pm and 6:40pm. The Pyin U Lwin train station is a bit far from the town centre and most accommodation but horse-carriages and taxis are there to meet the trains.
BY BUS
There are scheduled night bus services to Pyin U Lwin from Yangon and return. Buses to and from Hsipaw will drop you off but you have to pay the fare for the entire trip. The buses tend to be full so it is unlikely that you'll get a seat on them when leaving Pyin U Lwin. There is also a night bus leaving Nyuang Shwe (Inle Lake) at 7 pm. It stops at the main bus station in Mandalay, but you stay on and it continues to Pyin U Lwin. Cost is 18,000 kyat.
BY PICK-UP
There are two pick-up stations in Pyin U Lwin. Frequent pick-ups to/from Mandalay on the corner 27th/82nd (1,500 kyat-Dec 2014) arrive/depart from opposite the clock tower and train station area (more cars available). You can try going on the seats beside the driver, they are popular though and might cost you 500-1000ks more. Hsipaw and Lashio bound pick-ups leave early in the morning from the Shan Market west of the town.
BY TAXI
Shared taxis to/from Mandalay (6000/5500 kyat (14 Dec 2014)) and to/from Hsipaw (10000 kyat) will drop or collect you at your hotel. The Mandalay bound shared taxi stand is across the clock tower while the Hsipaw/Lashio shared taxi stand is across from the Shan Market if you want to arrange the trip yourself. It is best to arrange a shared taxi the previous evening.
Private taxis between Pyin U Lwin and Mandalay should be about 30,000 kyat (downtown Mandalay) or 35,000 kyat (Mandalay airport). Negotiate.
There are also private taxis from Pyin U Lwin to downtown Mandalay for 15,000ks.
GET AROUND
It is easy to get around on foot or on bicycles (1,200-2,000 kyat per day from your hotel) or even on foot in the city centre. Or hire a gharry, old garishly painted horse-drawn Victorian carriages that seem to live on in Pyin U Lwin. For far-flung places, frequent pick-ups ply the Mandalay road, motorcycle taxis (you ride on the pillion) are available in the market, as are taxis. You can also rent a motorcycle to get around from a shop near the mosque. Ask at your hotel.
SEE
Unique horse carriages and British colonial houses make Pyin U Lwin stand out!
Pyin U Lwin is relatively free of the ubiquitous pagodas. Some colonial Tudor style houses still stand (mostly around the National Kandawgyi Gardens), albeit in poor condition, and walking around is an interesting way to see how the Raj lived. There are many churches as well, the oldest dating back to about 1910.
National Kandawgyi Gardens established in 1915 by Alex Rodger as the Maymyo Botanical Gardens, the garden has a rich and diverse collection of flora, including many English plant varieties, and is without a doubt among the most beautiful botanical gardens in the world. A rose garden, a stupa in the middle of a pond, an aviary, and an orchid garden are amongst the highlights. The park includes a bird area with an impressive collection of exotic species.
Seeds are available if you want to carry them back to your home country. A popular spot for the locals, the gardens are about 1.5 km south of the city and you'll need your own transport (walk, bike, carriage, taxi) to get there and back.
Garden opening time and fee: 10am 6 pm, foreigners pay 5USD/5000kyat, 200 kyats locals, however some attractions close at 5pm (butterfly museum) and it takes at least 3 good hours to walk around the park.
Purcell Tower - the clock in this tower is reported to copy the chimes of Big Ben (or so says Lonely Planet). The tower is on the main intersection in Pyin U Lwin, across from the Mandalay pickup and share taxi stand. You can't miss it.
English Cemetery - way across town, beyond the tracks and the train station lies the old English cemetery. The cemetery is in very poor condition having been 'nationalized' by the junta and most of the headstones are in disrepair with unreadable inscriptions. Still, a few survive and will be worth the time spent if you are a history buff. St. James church, once Anglican but now catholic, lies across the road. Drop in and see the plaques to the various British lives lost in various wars. The friendly chaplain will show you around. Take a bike or a horse carriage since the cemetery is quite far.
Shiva Temple - Hindu temple to the god Shiva, on the road behind the clock tower.
Chinese Temple - South of the town (close to Candacraig) is a large and colourful Chinese temple built by the many Yunanese immigrants to the town.
The Candacraig (now the Thiri Myaing Hotel) - colonial mansion built as a guest house of The Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation in 1904. Made famous by Paul Theroux in The Great Railway Bazaar, it is a good place to stop and see how the colonials lived. For the last couple of years the property has been abandoned and the mansion is falling into disrepair. As of April 2015, the mansion is under renovation. While it is possible to enter the property, the access into the house itself is forbidden. From the outside, it is possible to see an old table tennis plate that was used back in the colonial days.
Other colonial houses remade into government run hotels include The Croxton and Craddock Court.
DO
Anisakan Falls - nestled in a rugged gorge and framed at the base by a Buddhist temple, Anisaken Falls make a good half day hike from Pyin U Lwin. Mandalay bound pick-ups (300kyat) drop you at the village of Anisakan (tell the driver you're going to the falls and he'll drop you at the road to the falls rather than in the village itself). From there, follow a long road (about 2 km) through the village, across a railway line, by a monastery, and through fields to the start of the trail. Alternatively, take a taxi from Pyin U Lwin to the trail-head and back (about US$15) (March 2014: We managed to bargain a tuk-tuk down to 5000 kt from Pyin U Lwin to the trailhead one way or 10000 both ways with him waiting for us. We took it only one way and to get back we got a ride with some monks in a pickup truck from the trailhead to the village and then on a pickup truck on the main road for 500 kt per person to get back to Pyin U Lwin). Stalls at the trailhead and at the falls sell water, soft drinks, and snacks at high prices. There will be many people trying to show you the way but there is no need as the road down the hill is very clear and even a vehicle can go. The trail is steep but short, 35-45 minutes from the trail-head to the bottom of the falls. You can then return the way you came or hike up to the top of the falls on a steep trail that runs along the falls itself (starts near the broken down bridge on the same side of the stream you came in on). If you hike up the falls, you'll notice (with heart pounding from the steep climb) that the falls are actually three falls and the view of the lowest level becomes increasingly delightful as you head up. Once on the top, it is a short walk back to the trailhead. You can also take this trail on the way down. Start by walking down the road and then when you see two stacked power lines, look to the right and you will see a trail going up the hill. This is the trail. There are several offshoots to view the falls, but the main trail stays to your left. If you came by pickup, walk back to the main road and flag a Pyin U Lwin bound pickup, there are plenty. Some local village girls selling beverages will likely tag along with you from the shop at the trail head if you come without your own guide. You don't need them on your way to the falls but they will come to great help if you choose to return by the steep foot trail as it easy to lose right direction on the offshoots and you might end after a long climb to a dead end. They do not sell guide services (as it probably would require official permit) but they expect you to buy a drink or two on a higher price (1500 kyat piece) if you rely on their help. Please pay for their effort in that case. Unfortunately swimming is forbidden at the main fall.
Pwe Kauk Falls - known as Hampshire Falls in British times. Not much to look at by the standards of falls elsewhere but they are a popular picnic spot and seeing Burmese families picnicking and enjoying themselves is the main reason to go. A precarious bridge crosses the stream and disappears into a fig tree. The falls are on the way to Lashio so you'll need to hire a taxi but, if you want to save money, hang around long enough at the Lashio taxi stand and you'll find a share (share taxis to the falls wait for you and bring you back). A one hour hike from the falls (take a guide, it is easy to get lost) gets you to the natural caves of U Naung Gu where you'll find several Buddhas.
Pyeik Chin Miang - further along the road to Lashio are these deep caves full of Buddhas. Almost everything is new so don't get carried away! A huge pool a little way down is a popular swimming hole. Share taxis to Pwe Kauk Falls often make the trip here as well.
Shan villages - if you're not planning to go on to Hsipaw or Kyaukme, you can stop by at the Shan villages of Mogyopit, Yechando and Ye Negye on your way to Pwe Kauk Falls.
BUY
Pyin U Lwin is famous, in Myanmar that is, for strawberries, coffee, flowers and sweaters and the market is full of shops selling these products. In Spring (late February, early March), flower stalls line the road to Mandalay. Strawberry jam is readily available (it'll show up in your breakfast). And, many stores around the clock tower sell sweaters the specialty of all old British hill stations everywhere.
EAT
Pyin U Lwin has quite a few Indian sweet shops with the usual complement of Indian sweets (barfi, laddoo, gulab jamun, etc.). If you have a sweet tooth, this is the place to indulge it. There are several shops close to the Mandalay pick-up stand (on Lashio Road by the Clock Tower), and at least one near the Central Market.
Aung Padamya Restaurant: A bit of a distance from the clock tower (behind the Shan Market) and in a residential neighborhood (in what looks like a converted garage) this is possibly the best Indian restaurant in all of Myanmar. However they have no menu and as a result, you pay high tourist prices. They only have one curry which has coriander in it. So if that is not your thing avoid.
Golden Triangle Cafe and Bakery: Update April 2016: Although it's still mentioned in all guide-books, since the end of 2014 this place DOES NOT exist anymore! (It's been an American run cafe and bakery on the Mandalay - Lashio road (across from Grace Hotel II), this was the one place in Myanmar where you could get a decent espresso (it has to be good, as it is twice as expensive as in your own Country). Pizzas, Burgers (mutton and veggie, beef is rare in Myanmar), sandwiches. Try their milk shakes and fresh fruit juices.)
Krishna Restaurant: An unmarked South Indian restaurant in a lane behind Grace Hotel II (House 50, Block 5, Gorakha Road - parallel to the Mandalay-Lashio Road), Krishna serves Indian curries with lentils, chapatis, and rice. Well priced and good home cooked food. Try their unsweetened lassis! Another alternative for those into South Indian food might be the "South Indian Food Centre" (walk the main road east of clock tower and take the first lane to the right, just follow the signs). As of may 2014, they do serve chapatis.
The Club Terrace: A slightly more expensive, nicer restaurant near the golf course with a English translations on the menu which serves good Malay and Thai food.
The Night Market : Every day around 5PM there is a night market with a lot of street food, behind the clock tower, which replaces the day market. You can find a lot of fried stuff also suitable for vegetarians, as well as traditional tea, amazing Myanmar salads as well as Indian food.
If you are vegetarian or simply feel like having a tasty salad, try one of the Myanmar traditional salads (Tomato salad, ginger, cabbage, lemon, pickled tea leaf, etc. ). They are very tasty and can be found in every city. You can find them in Pyin Oo Lwin at the night market, or during the day in several local eateries. One of these is on the main road, on the turn to the Hindu temple on the right, next to a big tree. If you are in doubt, just ask for it!
Vegetarian Restaurant at Chinese Temple, Chinese temple close to Candacraig. You can choose buffet (rice, soup, salads and veggies: 1500ks) or order from menu. Make sure you try their samosas for 50ks, they are delicious.
GET OUT
Gokteik Viaduct - this famous bridge, a marvel of British ingenuity and American engineering is a couple of hours away by train. Most tourists stay on the train and head for Hsipaw and/or Lashio, but it is also possible (and well worth the time) to make the trip there and back in a day. The train leaves Pyin U Lwin at 8:22am (if it is much later it is written on a board in english near the ticket booth). They ask you to arrive at 8:00am. A 1st class soft seat costs 1600 kyat each way.
Hsipaw - laid back Shan town a few hours to the north-east, and a good place for trips to Shan and Palaung villages.
Mandalay - A fast and cheap way is to take a shared Taxi. They run very often during the day, you probably wont wait more than one Hour. Price was 1500Kyat without barganing. Just follow the mainroad(Mandalay-Lashio Rd) to the west / in Direction Mandalay, after you pass a circle you will see them waiting.
Bagan - There are two minivans leaving at 10am and 2pm, better book a day in advance(e.g. at Grace Hotel II), takes about 5 hours, 13000 kyat
WIKITRAVEL
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name. The card, which has a divided back, was published before June 1918.
The Siege of Cawnpore
The Siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The besieged Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were unprepared for an extended siege, and surrendered to rebel forces under Nana Sahib, in return for a safe passage to Allahabad.
However, their evacuation from Cawnpore turned into a massacre, and most of the men were killed. As an East India Company rescue force from Allahabad approached Cawnpore, 120 British women and children captured by the Sepoy forces were killed in what came to be known as the Bibighar Massacre. Their remains were thrown down a nearby well in an attempt to hide the evidence.
Following the recapture of Cawnpore and the discovery of the massacre, the angry Company forces engaged in widespread retaliation against captured rebel soldiers and local civilians. The murders greatly embittered the British rank-and-file against the Sepoy rebels, and inspired the war cry "Remember Cawnpore!".
Background to The Massacre
Cawnpore was an important garrison town for the East India Company forces. Located on the Grand Trunk Road, it lay on the approaches to Sindh (Sind), Punjab and Awadh (Oudh).
By June 1857, the Indian rebellion had spread to several areas near Cawnpore, namely Meerut, Agra, Mathura, and Lucknow. However, the Indian sepoys at Cawnpore initially remained loyal.
The British General at Cawnpore, Hugh Wheeler, knew the local language, had adopted local customs, and was married to an Indian woman. He was confident that the sepoys at Cawnpore would remain loyal to him, and sent two British companies to besieged Lucknow.
The British contingent in Cawnpore consisted of around nine hundred people, including around three hundred military men, around three hundred women and children, and about one hundred and fifty merchants, business owners, salesmen, engineers and others. The rest were the native servants, who left soon after the commencement of the siege.
In the case of a rebellion by the sepoys in Cawnpore, the most suitable defensive location for the British was the magazine located in the north of the city. It had thick walls, ample ammunition and stores, and also hosted the local treasury.
However, General Wheeler decided to take refuge in the south of the city, in an entrenchment composed of two barracks surrounded by a mud wall. There was a military building site to the south of Cawnpore, where nine barracks were being constructed at the dragoon barracks. The British soldiers found it difficult to dig deep trenches, as it was the hot summer season.
The area also lacked good sanitary facilities, and there was only one well, which would be exposed to enemy fire in the event of an attack. Also, there were several buildings overlooking the entrenchment that would provide cover for the attackers, allowing them to easily shoot down on the defenders.
General Wheeler's choice of this location to make a stand remains controversial, given the availability of safer and more defensible places in Cawnpore. It is believed that he was expecting reinforcements to come from the southern part of the city. He also assumed that, in case of a rebellion, the Indian troops would probably collect their arms, ammunition and money, and would head to Delhi and therefore, he did not expect a long siege.
The Rebellion at Fatehgarh
The first sign of the rebellion at Cawnpore came in the form of a rebellion at Fatehgarh, a military station on the banks of the Ganges. To disperse the Indian troops away from Cawnpore, and lessen the chances of a rebellion, General Wheeler decided to send them on various "missions". On one such mission, he sent the 2nd Oudh Irregulars to Fatehgarh. On the way to Fatehgarh, General Wheeler's forces under the command of Fletcher Hayes and Lieutenant Barbour met two more Englishmen, Fayrer and Carey.
On the night of the 31st. May 1857, Hayes and Carey departed to a nearby town to confer with the local magistrate. After their departure, the Indian troops rebelled and decapitated Fayrer. Barbour was also killed, as he tried to escape.
When Hayes and Carey came back the next morning, an older Indian officer galloped towards them and advised them to run away. However, as the Indian officer explained the situation to them, the rebel Indian cavalry troopers raced towards them. Hayes was killed as he tried to ride away, while Carey escaped to safety.
The Outbreak of Rebellion at Cawnpore
There were four Indian regiments in Cawnpore: the 1st., 53rd. and 56th. Native Infantry, and the 2nd. Bengal Cavalry. Although the sepoys in Cawnpore had not rebelled, the European families began to drift into the entrenchment as the news of rebellion in the nearby areas reached them. The entrenchment was fortified, and the Indian sepoys were asked to collect their pay one by one, so as to avoid an armed mob.
The Indian soldiers considered the fortification, and the artillery being primed, as a threat. On the night of the 2nd. June 1857, a British officer named Lieutenant Cox fired on his Indian guard while drunk. Cox missed his target, and was thrown into jail for a night.
The very next day, a hastily convened court acquitted him, which led to discontent among the Indian soldiers. There were also rumours that the Indian troops were to be summoned to a parade, where they were to be massacred. All these factors influenced them to rebel against the East India Company rule.
The rebellion began at 1:30 am on the 5th. June 1857, with three pistol shots from the rebel soldiers of the 2nd. Bengal Cavalry. Elderly Risaldar-Major Bhowani Singh, who chose not to hand over the regimental colours and join the rebel sepoys, was subsequently cut down by his subordinates.
The 53rd. and 56th. Native Infantry, which were apparently the most loyal units in the area, were awoken by the shootings. Some soldiers of the 56th. attempted to leave. The European artillery assumed that they were also rebelling, and opened fire on them. The soldiers of the 53rd. were also caught in the crossfire.
The 1st Native Infantry rebelled and left in the early morning of the 6th. June 1857. On the same day, the 53rd. Native Infantry also went off, taking with them the regimental treasure and as much ammunition as they could carry. Around 150 sepoys remained loyal to General Wheeler.
After obtaining arms, ammunition and money, the rebel troops started marching towards Delhi to seek further orders from Bahadur Shah II, who had been proclaimed the Badshah-e-Hind ("Emperor of India"). The British officers were relieved, thinking that they would not face a long siege.
Nana Sahib's Involvement
Nana Sahib was the adopted heir to Baji Rao II, the former peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy. The East India Company had decided that the pension and honours of the lineage would not be passed on to Nana Sahib, as he was not a natural born heir.
Nana Sahib had sent his envoy Dewan Azimullah Khan to London, to petition the Queen against the Company's decision, but failed to evoke a favourable response. In May 1857, Nana Sahib arrived in Cawnpore with 300 soldiers, stating that he intended to support the British: Wheeler asked him to take charge of the government treasury in the Nawabganj area.
Amid the chaos in Cawnpore in 1857, Nana Sahib entered the British magazine with his contingent. The soldiers of the 53rd. Native Infantry, who were guarding the magazine, were not fully aware of the situation in the rest of the city.
They assumed that Nana Sahib had come to guard the magazine on behalf of the British, as he had earlier declared his loyalty to the British, and had even sent some volunteers to be at the disposal of General Wheeler. However, Nana Sahib had joined the rebels.
After taking possession of the treasury, Nana Sahib advanced up the Grand Trunk Road. His aim was to restore the Maratha Confederacy under Peshwa tradition, and he decided to capture Cawnpore. On his way, Nana Sahib met with rebel soldiers at Kalyanpur. The soldiers were on their way to Delhi, to meet Bahadur Shah II.
Nana Sahib initially decided to march to Delhi and fight the British as a Mughal subordinate, but Azimullah Khan advised him that leading the rebels in Kanpur would increase his prestige more than serving a weak Muslim king.
Nana Sahib asked the rebel soldiers to go back to Cawnpore, and help him in defeating the British. The rebels were reluctant at first, but decided to join Nana Sahib, when he promised to double their pay and reward them with gold, if they were to destroy the British entrenchment.
The Attack on Wheeler's Entrenchment
On the 5th. June 1857, Nana Sahib sent a polite note to General Wheeler, informing him that he intended to attack on the following morning, at 10 am.
On the 6th. June, Nana Sahib's forces (including the rebel soldiers) attacked the British entrenchment at 10:30 am. The British were not adequately prepared for the attack, but managed to defend themselves for a long time, as the attacking forces were reluctant to enter the entrenchment.
Nana Sahib's forces had been led to falsely believe that the entrenchment had gunpowder-filled trenches that would explode if they got closer.
As the news of Nana Sahib's advances against the British garrison spread, several of the rebel sepoys joined him. By the 10th. June, he was believed to be leading around twelve thousand to fifteen thousand Indian soldiers.
Up to 1,000 British troops, their families and loyal sepoys were holed up in General Wheeler's entrenchment in Kanpur for three weeks in June 1857 where they were constantly bombarded by Nana Sahib's army.
The British held out in their makeshift fort for three weeks with little water and food supplies. Many died as a result of sunstroke and lack of water. As the ground was too hard to dig graves, the British would pile the dead bodies outside the buildings, and dump them inside a dried well during the night.
The lack of sanitation facilities led to spread of diseases such as dysentery and cholera, further weakening the defenders. There was also a small outbreak of smallpox, although this was relatively confined.
During the first week of the siege, Nana Sahib's forces encircled the entrenchment, created loopholes and established firing positions in the surrounding buildings. Captain John Moore of the 32nd. (Cornwall) Light Infantry countered this by launching night-time sorties.
Nana Sahib withdrew his headquarters to Savada House, situated about two miles away. In response to Moore's sorties, Nana Sahib decided to attempt a direct assault on the British entrenchment, but the rebel soldiers displayed a lack of enthusiasm.
On the 11th. June, Nana Sahib's forces changed their tactics. They started concentrated firing on specific buildings, firing endless salvos of round shot into the entrenchment. They successfully damaged some of the smaller barrack buildings, and also tried to set fire to the buildings.
The first major assault by Nana Sahib's side took place on the evening of the 12th. June. However, the attacking soldiers were still convinced that the British had laid out gunpowder-filled trenches, and did not enter the area.
On the 13th. June, the British lost their hospital building to a fire, which destroyed most of their medical supplies and caused the deaths of a number of wounded and sick artillerymen who burned alive in the inferno. The loss of the hospital was a major blow to the defenders.
Nana Sahib's forces gathered for an attack, but were repulsed by the canister shots from artillery under the command of Lieutenant George Ashe. By the 21st. June, the British had lost around a third of their numbers.
Wheeler's repeated messages to Henry Lawrence, the commanding officer in Lucknow, could not be answered as that garrison was itself under siege.
The Attack on the 23rd. June 1857
The sniper fire and the bombardment continued until the 23rd. June 1857, the 100th. anniversary of the Battle of Plassey, which took place on the 23rd. June 1757 and was one of the pivotal battles leading to the expansion of British rule in India.
One of the driving forces of the sepoy rebellion was a prophecy which predicted the downfall of East India Company rule in India exactly one hundred years after the Battle of Plassey. This prompted the rebel soldiers under Nana Sahib to launch a major attack on the British entrenchment on the 23rd. June 1857.
The rebel soldiers of the 2nd. Bengal Cavalry led the charge, but were repulsed with canister shot when they approached within 50 yards of the British entrenchment. After the cavalry assault, the soldiers of the 1st. Native Infantry launched an attack on the British, advancing behind cotton bales and parapets.
They lost their commanding officer, Radhay Singh, to the opening volley from the British. They had hoped to get protection from cotton bales; however, the bales caught fire from the canister shot, and became a hazard to them.
On the other side of the entrenchment, some of the rebel soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat against 17 British men led by Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson. By the end of the day, the attackers were unable to gain an entry into the entrenchment. The attack left over 25 rebel soldiers dead, with very few casualties on the British side.
Surrender of the British Forces
The British garrison had taken heavy losses as a result of successive bombardments, sniper fire, and assaults. It was also suffering from disease and low supplies of food, water and medicine.
General Wheeler's personal morale had been low, after his son Lieutenant Gordon Wheeler was decapitated by a roundshot. With the approval of General Wheeler, a Eurasian civil servant called Jonah Shepherd slipped out of the entrenchment in disguise to ascertain the condition of Nana Sahib's forces, but he was quickly imprisoned by the rebel soldiers.
At the same time, Nana Sahib's forces were wary of entering the entrenchment, as they believed that it had gunpowder-filled trenches. Nana Sahib and his advisers came up with a plan to end the deadlock. On the 24th. June, they sent a female European prisoner, Mrs Rose Greenway, to the entrenchment with their message.
In return for surrender, Nana Sahib promised the safe passage of the British to the Satichaura Ghat, a landing on the Ganges from which they could depart for Allahabad. General Wheeler rejected the offer, because it had not been signed, and there was no guarantee that the offer was made by Nana Sahib himself.
The next day, the 25th. June, Nana Sahib sent a second note, signed by himself, through another elderly female prisoner, Mrs Jacobi. The British camp divided into two groups – one in favour of continuing the defence, while the second group was willing to trust Nana Sahib.
During the next 24 hours, there was no bombardment by Nana Sahib's forces. Finally, General Wheeler decided to surrender, in return for a safe passage to Allahabad. After a day of preparation, and burying their dead, the British decided to leave for Allahabad on the morning of the 27th. June 1857.
The Satichaura Ghat Massacre
On the morning of the 27th. June, a large British column led by General Wheeler emerged from the entrenchment. Nana Sahib sent a number of carts and elephants to enable the women, the children and the sick to proceed to the river banks.
The British officers and military men were allowed to take their arms and ammunition with them, and were escorted by nearly the whole of the rebel army. The British reached the Satichaura Ghat by 8 am. Nana Sahib had arranged around forty boats, belonging to a boatman called Hardev Mallah, for their departure to Allahabad.
The Ganges river was unusually dry at the Satichaura Ghat, and the British found it difficult to drift the boats away. General Wheeler and his party were the first aboard, and the first to manage to set their boat off.
There was some confusion, as the Indian boatmen jumped overboard after hearing bugles from the banks, and started swimming towards the shore. As they jumped, some fires on the boats were knocked over, setting a few of the boats ablaze.
Though controversy surrounds what exactly happened next at the Satichaura Ghat, and who fired the first shot, soon afterwards, the departing British were attacked by the rebel sepoys, and were either killed or captured.
The British boats were stuck on mudbanks preventing departure and, amid much confusion, the soldiers were subsequently captured or massacred by Nana Sahib's rebel army.
On the 27th. June 1857 many British men lost their lives, and the surviving women and children were taken prisoner by the rebels. To see a photograph of the Satichaura Ghat, also known as the Massacre Ghat, please search for the tag 88CMG66
Some of the British officers later claimed that the rebels had placed the boats as high in the mud as possible, on purpose to cause delay. They also claimed that Nana Sahib's camp had previously arranged for the rebels to fire upon and kill all the British.
However although the East India Company later accused Nana Sahib of the betrayal and murder of innocent people, no evidence has ever been found to prove that Nana Sahib had pre-planned or ordered the massacre.
Some historians believe that the Satichaura Ghat massacre was the result of confusion, and not of any plan implemented by Nana Sahib and his associates. Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson, one of the four male survivors of the massacre, believed that the rank-and-file sepoys who spoke to him did not know of the killing to come.
After the fighting began, Nana Sahib's general Tatya Tope allegedly ordered the 2nd. Bengal Cavalry unit and some artillery units to open fire on the British. The rebel cavalry moved into the water, to kill the remaining British soldiers with swords and pistols.
The surviving men were killed, while the women and children were taken into captivity, as Nana Sahib did not approve of their killing. Around 120 women and children were taken prisoner and escorted to Savada House, Nana Sahib's headquarters during the siege.
By this time, two of the boats had been able to drift away: General Wheeler's boat, and a second boat which was holed beneath the waterline by a roundshot fired from the bank. The British people in the second boat panicked and attempted to make it to General Wheeler's boat, which was slowly drifting to safer waters.
General Wheeler's boat had around sixty people aboard, and was being pursued down the riverbanks by the rebel soldiers. The boat frequently grounded on the sandbanks. On one such sandbank, Lieutenant Thomson led a charge against the rebel soldiers, and was able to capture some ammunition.
Next morning, the boat again stuck on a sandbank, resulting in another charge by Thomson and eleven British soldiers. After a fierce fight on shore, Thomson and his men decided to return to the boat, but it was not where they expected it to be.
Meanwhile, the rebels had launched an attack on the boat from the opposite bank. After some firing, the British men on the boat decided to fly the white flag. They were escorted off the boat and taken back to Savada house. The surviving British men were made to sit on the ground, and Nana Sahib's soldiers got ready to fire on them. Their wives insisted that they would die with their husbands, but were pulled away.
Nana Sahib granted the British chaplain Moncrieff's request to read prayers before they died. The British were initially wounded by the guns, and then killed with swords. The women and children were confined to Savada House, to be reunited later with their remaining colleagues, who had been captured earlier, at Bibighar.
Being unable to find the boat, Thomson's party decided to run barefoot to evade the rebel soldiers. The party took refuge in a small shrine, where Thomson led a last charge. Six of the British soldiers were killed, while the rest managed to escape to the riverbank, where they tried to escape by jumping into the river and swimming to safety.
However, a group of rebels started clubbing them as they reached the bank. One of the soldiers was killed, while the other four, including Thomson, swam back to the centre of the river. After swimming downstream for a few hours, they reached shore, where they were discovered by some Rajput matchlockmen, who worked for Raja Dirigibijah Singh, a British loyalist.
These carried the British soldiers to the Raja's palace. These four British soldiers were the only male survivors from the British side, apart from Jonah Shepherd (who had been captured by Nana Sahib before the surrender). The four men included two privates named Murphey and Sullivan, Lieutenant Delafosse, and Lieutenant (later Captain) Mowbray Thomson.
The men spent several weeks recuperating, eventually making their way back to Cawnpore which was, by that time, back under British control. Murphey and Sullivan both died shortly after from cholera, Delafosse went on to join the defending garrison during the Siege of Lucknow, and Thomson took part in rebuilding and defending the entrenchment a second time under General Windham, eventually writing a first-hand account of his experiences entitled The Story of Cawnpore (London, 1859).
Another survivor of the Satichaura Ghat massacre was Amy Horne, a 17-year-old Anglo-Indian girl. She had fallen from her boat and had been swept downstream during the riverside massacre. Soon after scrambling ashore she met up with Wheeler's youngest daughter, Margaret.
The two girls hid in the undergrowth for a number of hours until they were discovered by a group of rebels. Margaret was taken away on horseback, never to be seen again (it was later rumoured that she survived and was married to a Muslim soldier) and Amy was led to a nearby village where she was taken under the protection of a Muslim rebel leader in exchange for converting to Islam. Just over six months later, she was rescued by Highlanders from Sir Colin Campbell's column on their way to relieve Lucknow.
The Bibighar Massacre
The surviving British women and children were moved from the Savada House to Bibighar ("The House of the Ladies"), a villa-type house in Cawnpore. Initially, around 120 women and children were confined to Bibighar. They were later joined by some other women and children, the survivors from General Wheeler's boat. Another group of British women and children from Fatehgarh, and some other captive European women were also confined to Bibighar. In total, there were around 200 women and children in Bibighar.
Nana Sahib placed the care of these survivors under a sex worker called Hussaini Khanum. She put the captives to grinding corn for chapatis. Poor sanitary conditions at Bibighar led to deaths from cholera and dysentery.
Nana Sahib decided to use these prisoners for bargaining with the East India Company. The Company forces, consisting of around 1,000 British, 150 Sikh soldiers and 30 irregular cavalry, had set out from Allahabad, under the command of General Henry Havelock, to retake Cawnpore and Lucknow.
The first relief force assembled under Havelock included the 64th. Regiment of Foot and the 78th. Highlanders, the 5th. Fusiliers, part of the 90th. Light Infantry, the 84th. (York and Lancaster), and EIC Madras European Fusiliers, brought up to Calcutta from Madras.
Havelock's initial forces were later joined by the forces under the command of Major Renaud and Colonel James Neill, which had arrived from Calcutta to Allahabad on the 11th. June. Nana Sahib demanded that the East India Company forces under General Havelock and Colonel Neill retreat to Allahabad. However, the Company forces advanced relentlessly towards Cawnpore. Nana Sahib sent an army to check their advance. The two armies met at Fatehpur on the 12th. July, where General Havelock's forces emerged victorious and captured the town.
Nana Sahib then sent another force under the command of his brother, Bala Rao. On the 15th. July, the British forces under General Havelock defeated Bala Rao's army in the Battle of Aong, just outside the Aong village.
On the 16th. July, Havelock's forces started advancing towards Cawnpore. During the Battle of Aong, Havelock was able to capture some of the rebel soldiers, who informed him that there was an army of 5,000 rebel soldiers with 8 artillery pieces further up the road. Havelock decided to launch a flank attack on this army, but the rebel soldiers spotted the flanking manoeuvre and opened fire. The battle resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, but cleared the road to Cawnpore for the British.
By this time, it became clear that Sahib's bargaining attempts had failed and the Company forces were approaching Cawnpore. Nana Sahib was informed that the British troops led by Havelock and Neill were indulging in violence against the Indian villagers. Pramod Nayar believes that the ensuing Bibighar massacre was a reaction to the news of violence being perpetrated by the advancing British troops. Other suggestions are that there was a fear of future identification of key ring leaders if the prisoners were liberated.
Nana Sahib and his associates, including Tatya Tope and Azimullah Khan, debated about what to do with the captives at Bibighar. Some of Nana Sahib's advisors had already decided to kill the captives at Bibighar, as revenge for the executions of Indians by the advancing British forces. The women of Nana Sahib's household opposed the decision and went on a hunger strike, but their efforts were in vain.
On the 15th. July, an order was given to murder the women and children imprisoned at Bibighar. The details of the incident, such as who ordered the massacre, are not clear.
The rebel sepoys executed the four surviving male hostages from Fatehghar, one of them a 14-year-old boy. But they refused to obey the order to kill women and the other children. Some of the sepoys agreed to remove the women and children from the courtyard, when Tatya Tope threatened to execute them for dereliction of duty. Nana Sahib left the building because he didn't want to be a witness to the unfolding massacre.
The British women and children were ordered to come out of the assembly rooms, but they refused to do so and clung to each other. They barricaded themselves in, tying the door handles with clothing. At first, around twenty rebel soldiers opened fire from the outside of the Bibighar, firing through holes in the boarded windows. The soldiers of the squad that was supposed to fire the next round were disturbed by the scene, and discharged their shots into the air. Soon after, upon hearing the screams and groans inside, the rebel soldiers threw down their weapons and declared that they were not going to kill any more women and children.
An angry Begum Hussaini Khanum denounced the sepoys' act as cowardice, and asked her aide to finish the job of killing the captives. Her lover hired butchers, who murdered the captives with cleavers; the butchers left when it seemed that all the captives had been killed.
However, a few women and children had managed to survive by hiding under the other dead bodies. It was agreed that the bodies of the victims would be thrown down a dry well by some sweepers. The next morning the rebels arrived to dispose of the bodies. and they found three women who were still alive, and also three children aged between four and seven years of age.
The surviving women were cast into the well by the sweepers, who had also been told to strip the corpses. The sweepers then threw the three little boys into the well one at a time, the youngest first. Some victims, among them small children, were therefore buried alive in a heap of butchered corpses. None survived.
Recapture and Retribution by the British
The Company forces reached Cawnpore on the 16th. July, and captured the city. A group of British officers and soldiers set out to the Bibighar, to rescue the captives, assuming that they were still alive. However, when they reached the site, they found it empty and blood-splattered, with the bodies of most of the 200 women and children having already been dismembered and thrown down the courtyard well or into the Ganges river.
Piles of children's clothing and women's severed hair blew in the wind and lodged in tree branches around the compound; the tree in the courtyard nearest the well was smeared with the brains of numerous children and infants who had been dashed headfirst against the trunk and thrown down the well.
The British troops were horrified and enraged. Upon learning of the massacre, the infuriated British garrison engaged in a surge of violence against the local population of Cawnpore, including looting and burning of houses, with the justification that none of the local non-combatants had done anything to stop the massacre.
Brigadier General Neill, who took command at Cawnpore, immediately began a program of swift and vicious drumhead military justice (culminating in summary execution) for any sepoy rebel captured from the city who was unable to prove he was not involved in the massacre.
Rebels confessing to or believed to be involved in the massacre were forced to lick the floor of the Bibighar compound, after it had been wetted with water by low caste people, while being whipped.
The sepoys were then religiously disgraced by being forced to eat (or force fed) beef (if Hindu) or pork (if Muslim). The Muslim sepoys were sewn into pig skins before being hanged, and low-caste Hindu street sweepers were employed to execute the high-caste Brahmin rebels to add additional religious disgrace to their punishment.
Some were also forced by the British to lick clean buildings stained with the blood of the recently deceased, before being publicly hanged.
Most of the prisoners had been hanged within direct view of the Bibighar well and buried in shallow ditches by the roadside. Others were shot or bayonetted, while some were also tied across cannons that were then fired, an execution method initially used by the rebels, and the earlier Indian powers, such as the Marathas and the Mughals.
It is unclear whether this method of execution was reserved for special prisoners, or whether it was merely done in the retributive spirit of the moment.
The massacre disgusted and embittered the British troops in India, with "Remember Cawnpore!" becoming a war cry for the British soldiers for the rest of the conflict. Acts of summary violence against towns and cities believed to harbour or support the rebellion also increased.
In one of the villages, the Highlanders caught around 140 men, women and children. Ten men were hanged without any evidence or trial. Another sixty men were forced to build the gallows of wooden logs, while others were flogged and beaten. In another village, when around 2,000 villagers came out in protest brandishing lathis, the British troops surrounded them and set the village on fire. Villagers trying to escape were shot dead.
Drunk British soldiers, enraged at the reports of atrocities committed against British civilians, committed mass rapes against the native women of Cawnpore.
Aftermath of The Massacre
On the 19th. July, General Havelock resumed operations at Bithoor. Major Stevenson led a group of Madras Fusiliers and Sikh soldiers to Bithoor and occupied Nana Sahib's palace without any resistance. The British troops seized guns, elephants and camels, and set Nana Sahib's palace on fire.
In November 1857, Tatya Tope gathered an army, mainly consisting of the rebel soldiers from the Gwalior contingent, to recapture Cawnpore. By the 19th. November, his 6,000-strong force had taken control of all the routes west and north-west of Cawnpore. However, his forces were defeated by the Company forces under Colin Campbell in the Second Battle of Cawnpore, marking the end of the rebellion in the Cawnpore area.
Nana Sahib disappeared and, by 1859, he had reportedly fled to Nepal. His ultimate fate was never determined. Up until 1888, there were rumours and reports that he had been captured and a number of individuals turned themselves in to the British claiming to be the aged Nana. As the majority of these reports turned out to be untrue, further attempts at apprehending him were abandoned.
British civil servant Jonah Shepherd, who had been rescued by Havelock's army, spent the next few years after the rebellion attempting to put together a list of those killed in the entrenchment. He had lost his entire family during the siege. He eventually retired to a small estate north of Cawnpore in the late 1860's.
Memorials
After the revolt was suppressed, the British dismantled Bibighar. They raised a memorial railing and cross at the site of the well in which the bodies of the British women and children had been dumped. Meanwhile, the British forces conducted a punitive action under the lead of General Autrum by blowing down Nana Sahib's palace in Bithoor with cannons, in which Indian women and children including Nana Sahib's young daughter Mainavati were burned alive.
Also, the inhabitants of Cawnpore were forced to pay £30,000 for the creation of the memorial as a 'punishment' for not coming to the aid of the British women and children in Bibighar.
The Angel of the Resurrection was created by Baron Carlo Marochetti and completed in 1865. It became the most visited statue in British India. The chief proponent and private funder was Charlotte, Countess Canning, wife of the first Viceroy of India, Earl Canning.
She approached her childhood friend, Marochetti, for suggestions for the statue. In turn, Marochetti proposed that other sculptors be invited. Following the Countess's death, Earl Canning took over the commission. Canning rejected a number of designs accepting, in the end, a version of Marochetti's Crimean War memorial at Scutari, Turkey. The understated figure is an angel holding two branches of palm fronds across her chest.
Despite assurances, 'The Angel' was damaged during the Independence celebrations of 1947, and she was later moved from her original site over the Bibighar well to a garden at the side of All Soul's Church, Cawnpore (Kanpur Memorial Church).
The remains of the circular ridge of the well can still be seen at the Nana Rao Park, built after Indian independence. The British also erected the All Souls Memorial Church in memory of the victims. An enclosed pavement outside the church marks the graves of over 70 British men captured and executed on the 1st. July 1857, four days after the Satichaura Ghat massacre. The marble Gothic screen with "mournful seraph" was transferred to the churchyard of the All Souls Church after Indian independence in 1947. The memorial to the British victims was replaced with a bust of Tatya Tope.
There is a plaque to Capt. W. Morphy and Lieut. Thomas Mackinnon who were killed on the 28th. November 1857 in Lichfield Cathedral.
An additional memorial detailing the losses suffered by the 32nd. Cornwall Regiment Light Infantry is located inside the west entrance to Exeter Cathedral.
Literary References
Many references to the event were made in later novels and films. Julian Rathbone describes the brutality of both British and Indian forces during the siege of Cawnpore in his novel 'The Mutiny'. In the novel, the Indian nurse Lavanya rescues an English child, Stephen, during the Satichaura Ghat massacre.
In 'Massacre at Cawnpore', V. A. Stuart describes the siege and the British defence through the eyes of the characters Sheridan, and his wife Emmy.
George MacDonald Fraser's 'Flashman in the Great Game' also contains lengthy scenes set in the entrenchment during the siege, and also during the ensuing escape.
Tom Williams' novel, 'Cawnpore', is also set against the background of the siege and massacre, which is seen from both the European and the Indian perspective.
The British press used the massacre to describe the brutality involved in the public feeding of reptiles at the London Zoological Garden. In 1876, the Editor of the Animal World drew Dr. P. L. Sclater's attention to this, and the press accused the Zoological Society of London of encouraging cruelty, and pandering to public brutality. One writer in the Whitehall Review of the 27th. April 1878 protested against "the Cawnpore Massacre enacted diurnally," and headed his article, "Sepoyism at the Zoo."
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In storage of kitchen appliance the place of automatic roti maker is default because its need is compulsory in all kitchen. Its process is so easy that’s why child can also use of it who are mature. To get free from rushed and busy life ,we have find out it. It is an opportunity for both of you and us as respectively to use and grow and chance to improve our functionality. Now it is not hard to live a good life by the use of This one. Its like as an order for chapati in hotel.
My next door neighbor Auntie Tima cooks the most delicious Swahili food, served with love & a smile!
At Bandra Bazar there is an East Indian guy who sells snacks chapatis fish fry etc. I have known him for several years a very humble guy ..Gilroy Nunes he sells his stuff in the evenings on the road ..
So I bought 3 fried bombils Bombay duck and home cooked Ojdi from him he was a in a generous mood he gave all t his to me for Rs 200 ..though he normally charges Rs 200 only for the ojdis and bombils 20 bucks a piece .
Wife was grumbling as she had made roasted tongue for me ..and cribs when I buy stuff outside it hits her culinary ego lol .
Chapati egg roll
Gaoxin Lu
Xian China
© Any unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited...
saif.ece@gmail.com
Thali is a selection of different dishes, usually served in small bowls on a round tray. The round tray is generally made with steel with multiple compartments. ypical dishes include rice, dhal, vegetables, chapati, papad, curd (yoghurt), small amounts of chutney or pickle, and a sweet dish to top it. This one was simply D E L I C I O U S
Wheat flour
A drop of USA-issue vegetable oil
Water ("amaze" in Kinyarwanda)
White flour to prevent sticking
Anestes, our beloved house worker, rolls a dozen whole wheat chapati every night.
He's getting married October 7, so he's really happy. His bride-to-be is a tall, lithe seamstress down the hill from us, about a 10 minute drive away though they rarely see each other. Outside the small kitchen is a sink ledge on which sits a little black radio tuned to gospel music in Kinyarwanda. Anestes' humility can be seen in every little thing he does, especially in his graceful rolling out of each single chapati. He does so as if it is the first of the night's dozen.
When I first arrived in Kigali and met Anastes, I asked him about his family. In his unmeasured steady way, he gestured with a balletic sweep of his thin hands, "Genocide...all gone..."
Every night as I trudge down the steep hill to our house, I can see the silhoeuttes of
boys such as Anestes, steadily and skillfully working beneath the flouresent flicker in small kitchens. I imagine them each to be like Anestes, quiet, controlled, working endlessly, putting food on other people;s tables, washing other people's clothes, making other people's beds. And in their hearts lives a recent past that has stripped them of land and family--but not of humanity. Anestes' humility is a part of a larger Rwandese humanity that I swear I can taste in every little, perfectly round chapati.
At home in our kitchen.
Kigali, Rwanda. Afrika.
August 4, 2006.
Aubergine recipe here : www.flickr.com/photos/rovingi/506336160/in/set-7215760003...
For the chapati:
Mix warm water and salt with whole wheat flour and knead into a soft dough. Let it stand for 30 minutes. Make small balls out of the dough and roll it into a flat circular shape with a rolling pin. Sprinkle a little flour so that the dough does not stick. Roll only on one side without turning over.
Place the flattened dough on a hot pan. Small blisters appear after ~20 seconds. Now turn it over and heat for another 10 seconds. Turn it over again and press down on the blisters with a spatula. The chapati will begin to puff up. Press the puffed parts such that they connect and the chapati blows up like a balloon. Remove from heat. Place on a plate and cover immediately with a cloth / kitchen towel so that the chapati remains soft
Roti is generally an Indian bread, made from stoneground wholemeal flour, traditionally known as atta flour, that originated and is consumed in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is also consumed in parts of South Africa, the southern Caribbean, particularly in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname, and Fiji. Its defining characteristic is that it is unleavened. Indian naan bread, by contrast, is a yeast-leavened bread. A kulcha in Indian and Pakistani cuisine is a bread-like accompaniment, made of processed flour ("Maida") leavened with yeast.
Various types of roti are integral to South Asian cuisine.[2][3]
Etymology[edit]
The word roti is derived from the Sanskrit word रोटिका (roṭikā), meaning "bread".[4] Names in other languages are Hindi: रोटी; Assamese: ৰুটী; Nepali : रोटी; Bengali: রুটি; Sinhala: රොටි; Marathi: पोळी; Oriya: ରୁଟି; Malayalam: റൊട്ടി; Kannada: ರೊಟ್ಟಿ; Telugu: రొట్టి; Tamil: ரொட்டி; Urdu: روٹی; Dhivehi: ރޮށި; Punjabi: ਰੋਟੀ,ਫੂਲਕਾ; Thai: โรตี. It is also known as rotli in Gujarati, maani in Sindhi and phulka in Punjabi and Saraiki.
South Asia[edit]
See also: Indian breads, Naan, Paratha, Chapati and Makki di roti
Many different variations of flat breads are found in many cultures across the globe, from South Asia to the Americas. The traditional flat bread originating from South Asia is known as roti; pronounced "rho tee". It is normally eaten with cooked vegetables or curries; it can be called a carrier for curries or cooked vegetables. It is made most often from wheat flour, cooked on a flat or slightly concave iron griddle called a tawa. Like breads around the world, roti is a staple accompaniment to other foods. In Iran, the two variants of this bread are: khaboos[5] and lavash. These two breads (the former of which is almost exactly prepared like Indian roti) are quite similar to other South Asian rotis.
In Sri Lanka, probably the most popular type of roti is pol roti (coconut roti), made of wheat flour, kurakkan flour or a mixture of both, and scraped coconut. Sometimes, chopped green chillies and onion are added to the mixture before cooking. These are usually thicker and harder than other roti types. They are usually eaten with curries, or some types of sambol or lunu miris and considered a main meal rather than a supplement.
In Indonesia and Malaysia the term encompasses all forms of bread, including western-style bread, as well as the traditional Indian breads.
In Thailand, "โรตี" refers to the maida paratha—known in Indonesia as roti maryam, roti cane or roti konde, Malaysia as roti canai and in Singapore as roti prata—which is sometimes drizzled with condensed milk, rolled up, and eaten as a hot snack, or fried with egg as a larger dish.
Roti is eaten widely across in the West Indies, especially in countries with large Indo-Caribbean populations such as Trinidad and Tobago. Originally brought to the islands by indentured laborers from South Asia, roti has become a popular staple in the culturally rich cuisines of Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica. In the West Indies, roti is commonly eaten as an accompaniment to various curries and stews. The traditional way of eating roti, is to break the roti by hand, using it to sop up sauce and pieces of meat from the curry. However, in the West Indies, the term roti may refer to both the flat-bread(roti) its self as well as the more popular street food item, in which the roti is folded around a savory filling in the form of a wrap.
The "roti wrap" is the commercialization of roti and curry together as a fast-food or street-food item in the Caribbean. This wrap form of roti originated in Southern Trinidad. It was first created in the mid-1940s by Sackina Karamath, who later founded Hummingbird Roti Shop in San Fernando, Trinidad. The wrap was convenient as the meal could be eaten faster and while on the go, as well as keeping one's hands from getting dirty. In Trinidad and Tobago, various wrapped roti are served, including chicken, conch, goat, beef and shrimp. Vegetables can also be added including potato, pumpkin and spinach as well a variety of local condiments; pepper sauce(hot sauce) and mango chutney being the most popular.
The roti wrap quickly gained popularity across the island and spread throughout the rest of the Caribbean. "Roti shops" are now abundant in Trinidad and Tobago and the wrapped roti a staple street food. The wrap is now simply referred to as a roti or just roti. As Caribbeans moved to North American cities such as Toronto, New York, and Montreal, they exported with them the wrapped version of roti. This iconic version is what most North Americans know as roti. The growth in popularity has recently lead to referring to the flat-bread its self (roti) that surrounds the filling as a "roti skin" or "roti shell." A practice that is now common in both restaurants and commercial companies.
Various types of roti are eaten throughout the West Indies. Roti is most prominently featured in the diets of people in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. West Indian style roti is primarily made from wheat flour, baking powder, salt, and water, and cooked on a tawa. Certain rotis are also made with butter.
Trinidad and Leeward Islands
FoodDescription
Sada rotiThis is a plain roti, made of white flour. Because it is the simplest roti to make, it is the most commonly consumed roti in Trinidad. It is a popular breakfast option in Trinidad and enjoyed in combination with various curried meat and vegetable dishes. This type of roti is a staple carbohydrate consumed for both breakfast and dinner Trinidadians.
Paratha rotiA layered roti made with butter, usually ghee (Clarified Butter) but any butter can be used. Ghee is rubbed on both sides, then it is cooked on tawa (a round, flat metal griddle used in Indian cooking). This gives the roti a crisp outside and small patches of light browning. When it almost finished cooking, the cook begins to beat the roti while it is on the tawa, causing it to become light and flaky. Paratha roti is more rich and flavorful than plain roti. Paratha is enjoyed with almost any accompaniment. As with other rotis, it is commonly eaten with curries and stews. It is also traditionally eaten with fried eggs or egg dishes and a cup of tea. It is common for one to dip the roti into the tea. In Trinidad, Paratha is colloquially called "Buss up Shut" (Busted up Shirt) because the roti resembles a tattered and torn up shirt.
PuriA roti where two layers are rolled out together and cooked on the tava. It is also rubbed with oil while cooking. This type of roti is eaten in Guyana with a special halva when a child is born.
Dhalpuri[6]A roti with a stuffing of ground yellow split peas, cumin (geera), garlic, and pepper. The split peas are boiled until they are al dente and then ground in a mill. The cumin is toasted until black and also ground. The stuffing is pushed into the roti dough, and sealed. When rolled flat, the filling is distributed within the roti. It is cooked on the tava and rubbed with oil for ease of cooking. This type of roti is most commonly eaten with a variety of curries. It is also the roti of choice for the making of wrapped rotis. Wrap roti
Wrap rotiA popular wrap made by folding a combination of meat and vegetable curries inside of a Dhalpuri roti. The curry or stew often contains potatoes and/or chickpeas as a filler as well as the essential meat component. Although, all vegetarian options are common as well. Popular fillings include curried chicken, goat, conch, duck, beef, shrimp, and vegetable. An assortment of optional condiments are also common such as pepper sauce and mango chutney.
Piper rotiA wrap roti that usually contains only potatoes and gravy, and scrap meat if available. Piper roti got its name by being a cheaper alternative to purchasing a regular roti. The term "piper" is the local slang used to describe a drug addict; most of his money is spent on drugs and the little he has remaining will be to purchase food.
AloopuriA roti similar to a Dhalpuri but with aloo (potato) substituted for the dhal. The aloo is boiled, milled and spices and seasonings are added before being sealed in the dough. This aloo filling is also used when making aloo pie or aloo choka.
Guyanese roti, clapped and ready to be eaten.
Dotsi Roti is a roti common in Guyana.
A small amount of fat is placed in each piece of dough before it is rolled out to make the roti softer. Usually vegetable oil is used, but butter, or margarine can also be used. Ghee is not used in everyday cooking but is used on special occasions, especially amongst Hindus. The Roti is usually clapped by hand or beaten a bit, hot off the tava, so it softens but does not break.
A good roti in Guyana is one that is very soft, with layers (almost like pastry layers if possible), which remains whole.
The type of roti one gets is determined by what is placed in the dough before it is rolled out. Various types include Dhalpuri, aloo (potato) roti, and even sugar(to keep the kids busy, while the mother finishes cooking).
In Guyana, a rolled out thin flat dough like a roti that is deep fried in ghee is called a puri, and is only made for Hindu religious gatherings. Therefore, a Dalpuri is not really a puri, as a puri and a roti are two different things.
Another item prepared like roti is bake or bakes or floats. A Guyanese or Trinidadian fry bake seems to be more similar to an Indian puri. Bake is made with butter or margarine and has a different ratio of flour to fat. It is made much quicker than roti and is usually made in the mornings. Dough is rolled out and cut into shapes or rolled into small rounds. Guyanese bake are fried, but bake from other parts of the West Indies can be baked in an oven. Bake are usually paired with a quick fryup for breakfast or dinner, stewed saltfish, or eggs (western style — onions, tomatoes, green peppers). Bakes are also made in other parts of the West Indies including Trinidad, Barbados and St. Vincent. In Trinidad and Tobago, Bake and Shark is a popular street food sandwich in which fried shark is sandwiched between two bake with a plethora of local condiments. Pepper sauce, shado beni, garlic sauce, tamarind and mango chutney are most common as well as lettuce, tomato and cucumber for fillers.
In Suriname roti refers mainly to dhalpuri or aloopuri. It is most often eaten with curried chicken. As with Trinidad and the West Indies, roti can also refer to the stuffed roti wrap. It is custom to eat this dish by hand. Due to mass emigration of Indian Surinamese in the 1970s, roti became a popular take-out dish in the Netherlands. It usually includes chicken curry, potatoes, a boiled egg and various vegetables, most notably the kousenband or yardlong bean. Another variation includes shrimp and aubergine. The meat with gravy, potatoes, egg and yardlong beans are served side by side on a plate, with the aloopura folded in fours on top. One then has the option to spice the dish with a very hot chutney made of Madame Jeanette peppers.
Roti, pronounced "Rooti" in Cape Town, was initially introduced to South Africa by Indian migrants during the 19th Century and subsequently became incorporated into Cape Malay cuisine, it is widely eaten by the Indian and Cape Malay communities living in South Africa and is either eaten as a flat bread or a wrap with locally made curries.
Samayabaje - A Newari Platter consisting of -
* Chasu-palacha (spinach)
* Baaraa (black lentil based chapati)
* Musya (soybeans)
* Alu achaar (spicy potato salad like pickle, made with boiled potatoes, seasonal raw vegetables and sesame seeds)
* Tushi Achar (Spicy cucumber pickle),
* Rajma (kidney beans),
* Baji (Beaten Rice, eaten at festivals, parties, and as afternoon snacks )
* Khen (egg)
Here is an article for the curious - tasteofnepal.blogspot.com/2012/04/samaya-baje.html
This male chaffinch has spent this morning pottering around my garden feeding on a mixture of bird seed, apple cores and stale chapatis (I like to give my garden birds a varied and ethnically diverse diet).
Roasted Cauliflower Taco
The Flickr Lounge-Letters and Numbers (L is for Lunch)
This is the first time I tried this dish. The ingredients are: Salad Greens, Carrots Pico de Gallo, Roasted Cauliflower and a Creamy Ranch Dressing. It is served in a soft Chapati Taco. I had a glass of lemon/ginger drink along side. It was absolutely delicious. They give you 3 big tacos. I ate two and gave Stu a couple of big bites. This is the one I brought home. I will eat this one today for lunch :)
Women work together making roti, an unleavened flatbread made with wheat flour and eaten as a staple food, at their home in the village of Chapor, in the district of Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Families like theirs eat better thanks to improved varieties and farmer training from CIMMYT and its partners in Bangladesh.
Photo credit: S. Mojumder/Drik/CIMMYT.
For the latest on CIMMYT in Bangladesh, see CIMMYT's blog at: blog.cimmyt.org/?tag=bangladesh.