Vintage Car Museum, Ahmedabad

Namaste friends, How is the weather in your neck of the woods? In Ahmedabad, winter is on the way out and temperatures are rising. Which means we have very weird conditions like very hot afternoons, cool nights and freezing early mornings. And that means getting up many times at night to adjust the fan speed. So as you imagine, sleep is not restful and I am groggy most of the day. 

Not much has been accomplished on the crochet front. My yarn stash which was packed away for my sister-in-law's visit last month is still kept packed as my mother-in-law is visiting us along with my son, from Mumbai. Today is my son's birthday and since we could got go to Mumbai we asked them to come to Ahmedabad. Staying away from your kids is really so difficult, but I guess I have to get used to this as he now wants to pursue his Masters which means he will be away for some more time. 

A bit of good news is that sonny has cleared his Bachelors in Animation and Multimedia with distinction. So there are two good reasons for celebrations today. :)

Auto World - Vintage Car Museum, Ahmedabad.

As promised earlier here the pics from our visit to The Vintage Car Museum. It is situated in Kathwada at Dastan Farm.

 The entry charges are Rs. 50/- per person (less than $1) and you have to pay Rs. 100/- more for your camera.  The cars belong to Mr. Pranlal Bhogilal and the collection is wonderful and very well maintained. 

The museum is spread out over a large area as you can imagine from the sizes of these cars. There is a placard on the ground next to each car describing its model and whether it belonged to any royal family before being added to this collection.

One of the museum employees followed us around narrating little anecdotes about the cars, or pointing out the special features or custom details on some of the models. It is a gorgeous collection and even though I have zero knowledge about cars, I was awestruck.

One can admire the cars only from a distance which helps in keeping fingerprints away and maintaining the mirror finish. As I mentioned earlier the collection is well maintained and transports you to a lovely bygone era. Long velvet gowns, white gloves, high heels, dainty hand held fans, little golden purses, movie premieres, gala dinners, valets, chauffeurs, debutante balls, wishful suitors......Ahem! Okay, okay, just give me a second to float back to earth :)

Some bikes for a change.

And some horse drawn carriages. (Love those puppet horses).

I hope you enjoyed the pics of these gorgeous beauties. All I can say is that there's more where that came from! So if you plan to visit Ahmedabad or India do add this place to your to-visit list. You will be delighted.

At Dastan Farm, the Auto World is  on one  side and on the other side is Vintage Village where they have alfresco dining arrangements (both lunch and dinner are available). Traditionally dressed waiters serve you an unlimited Gujarati Thali, constantly refilling your bowls of dal, kadhi, sabji, farsan, jalebi, and many other items. The setting is rustic and you have a choice of seating arrangements - traditional sitting cross legged on the floor or the usual table and chair. Privacy is afforded by bamboo mats separating the groups. Charges for lunch are Rs. 240/- per person, while dinner costs Rs. 340/- as there is folk music and dance as well as a traditional puppet show at night. As it was a weekday we chose to go for dinner. The place is lit with antique lanterns and lamps so my photos of the village and the dinner were not very clear...alas.

Did you enjoy this post? Please write and let me know. I will be back with some crochet news next time. 

If you have not yet downloaded the FREE Slant n Stripe scarf pattern hop over right now and get it. 

 

A New Year and a New Home

Namaste friends. Wishing you a very

~*~ HAPPY NEW YEAR ~*~

 A Big Thank You to my regular readers for not giving up on me and coming to visit me again in spite of my prolonged absence. A warm welcome if you are visiting my blog for the very first time. 

As you can guess from the title we have moved to a new home. No, not back to Mumbai which is the logical guess with me constantly harping on the virtues of life in Mumbai. We have moved from one part of Ahmedabad city to another part which could be considered as the old city. While this move has been mainly to help my hubby cut down on his commuting time it has taken me away from the few friends I had made near our old home. Pity!

But our new home is in a large housing complex consisting of fifteen 12 storied buildings with well maintained premises, a kids play area, a gym and a swimming pool so it is not such a bad deal after all. Of course I am yet to enjoy any of these facilities as moving and settling in is taking much longer than anticipated. Also with hubby away at work, doing everything on my own has been back breaking and boring too. I will share photos of my new home soon.

During this move I realised that over a period of time I have accumulated a ridiculous (shameful) amount of yarn. I think this condition is known as SABLE - Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy which in this case just might be true. Add to this the fact that we have moved from a huge house to a much smaller one....making it impossible to hide my yarn inventory....haha. I am having a really tough time. My husband keeps looking at the cartons of yarn and my 1000 odd books overflowing all over the place and just keeps shaking his head. But of course he cannot actually voice his displeasure...LOL. I guess I will just have to crochet more and faster too.

But this post is not about crochet. In fact I was supposed to write this just after Diwali but an unexpected trip to Mumbai really upset my blogging plans. Last year Diwali was a very quiet affair for us as it was only the two of us with sonny boy now settled in Mumbai. So instead of doing the usual  splurging and gorging on sweetmeats, I decided to something different. Something that I wanted to do ever since we moved to Ahmedabad. And that was to visit the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram.

Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati

The visit to the Gandhi Ashram was  wonderful, almost like stepping back in time. You feel a sense of peace and tranquility as soon as you enter the gates, which is amazing as the Ashram is within the city. As you move around the pictures and artifacts you are transported to another era. 

Here are a few pics from our visit:

 The Ashram looks so calm and that is exactly the feeling that envelopes you once you enter inside.

Gandhiji and his wife Kasturba in 1918.

Gandhiji's handwriting in various Indian languages.

Gandhiji's room in the ashram. A peek into this room makes you realise that to do great things you do not need the great trappings of modern life or huge offices or fancy stationery. A really humbling thought.
 

Gandhiji with his Charkha or Spinning Wheel which became a symbol of revolution and ultimately gave birth to Khadi. Khadi is hand spun and hand woven cloth mostly made of cotton. Sometimes silk or wool may be added to khadi. Khadi was promoted as a movement to make Indians self reliant  on cotton and not depend on high priced foreign goods.

 This gentleman would show visitors how the charkha works.

A multi dimensional representation of the Dandi March also known as the Salt March or Salt Satyagraha. Gandhiji undertook a 24 day march from Sabarmati to Dandi as a non-violent protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India.

Gandhiji picking up salt at Dandi. (So lifelike)

A view of the Sabarmati River from the Ashram.

Mahatma Gandhi - The Father of our Nation.

I hoped you enjoyed these photos. I will be back soon with a crochet post.

My resolution for 2015 is to Beat Procrastination (which I think will solve all other problems). What is your resolution for this year?

On my telly: Monk and Downton Abbey.

Ciao,

The Cold and The Beautiful

Hallooo there!! Oh please, walk right in.....I can see you peeking in, wondering where I have disappeared. Well, I am right here...alive and kicking, or should I say alive and crocheting!  :)

After coming back from a wonderful vacation it took us some time to slip into our regular routine. But once we settled down, calender pages just seemed to fly and before I knew it June had made way for July. And I had not written a single post!!! You have to forgive me for that, but I guess once in a while everybody gets caught up in domestic duties. I did finish a lot of new crochet projects but those are for another post.

First things first, I want to share the lovely pics of my trip with you. As Aishwarya and Preeti rightly guessed in the last post, my holiday destination was the Cold and the Beautiful Ladakh. "La" means pass and Ladakh - meaning Land of High Passes is a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in northern India. Ladakh is known for its scenic beauty and enchanting culture. Buddhism is the predominant religion.

The very first glimpses of Ladakh from the plane, had everybody scrambling for their cameras, mobile phones and what not, and then rushing from window to window to get the best photos. I was fervently praying that the plane would not tilt to one side, as in the movies. :) Truly breathtaking!

The first day was spent inside the hotel room, lying in bed to get acclimatized to the high altitude (3000 ft) and the low level of atmospheric oxygen. This is absolutely necessary as otherwise the consequences can be fatal.

Our hotel  - Hotel Grand Willow, Leh.

Sightseeing started from Day 2 onwards.

Shanti Stupa at Leh

Apricot Blossoms:

Sankar Gompa monastery with its gold spire

Leh Palace - built in the 17th century in the grand tradition of Tibetan architecture.

Day 3: We proceeded to Nubra Valley

Brrrrr..... it was freezing and it was a relief to finally reach the Diskit monastery....

the giant statue of Maitreya Buddha - the tallest in Ladakh

The white sand dunes at Hunder

We reached the camp at Nubra just before nightfall. Good thing those tents were sturdy and waterproof as it rained cats and dogs during the night.

Most of Day 4 was spent on the return journey to Leh via Khardungla Pass, said to be the highest motorable pass in the world at nearly 18000 ft.

Day 5: 

 Shey Palace and monastery, the 15th century summer palace of Leh's royal family

 No visit to Ladakh will be complete without a visit to the Druk White Lotus School. Confused?? Well, maybe it is better known as Rancho school from the Hindi movie "3 Idiots"  :)

The entrance to the museum at Thiksey monastery. I loved the painting and the Leh costumes.

Changla Pass the third highest motorable road in the world at 17586 feet.

Finally we reached our destination camp for the night - Pangong Lake. The lake is 134 Km long and 60% of its length lies in China.

This was our camp for the night. It was directly facing the lake and you wouldn't know from the photo but icy winds were blowing and as you can see the terrain, there is no place to hide. There was a small, teeny weeny, embarrassing incident with someone crying "I want to go HOME". Okay that was me.....hehe. What can I say.....I don't like being cold.

If this place looks familiar to you then you are a confirmed Hindi movie buff as scenes from "3 Idiots" and "Jab Tak Hain Jaan" were picturised here.

A gazebo at Pangong lake

The Brown headed gull - a migratory bird from Central Asia.

Day 6: Return to Ladakh from Pangong Lake

   Tibetan Wild Ass

    Grazing Yak

Day 7:

We proceeded to Alchi - a small quaint village in the Indus valley. Enroute we saw the majestic Sangam (which means confluence), here one can see the Indus river flowing and becoming one with the Zanskar river. Can you see the different colours of the water before they merge?

Alchi village - after days of seeing bare brown and white snow covered mountains, this greenery was a sight for sore eyes!

This path leading to the Alchi monastery was lined with 80 prayer wheels. (And yes, I turned each one of them).

Prayers wheels and stupas are common in Ladakh and you can find them just about anywhere. Giant prayer wheels are seen alongside the streets and marketplaces. It is believed that spinning the prayer wheel is equal to reciting the prayers and hence helps accumulate good karma.

Magnetic Hill - alleged to have magnetic properties strong enough to pull cars uphill, which was demonstrated to us by the driver of our vehicle.

Our sightseeing ended with a visit to Gurudwara Pathar Sahib (a Sikh place of worship) where one can see the huge boulder (pathar) hurled at Guru Nanak Dev ji by a demon while he was meditating. The rock turned soft like wax and did not harm him and one can see the imprint of Guru Nanak ji on the rock.

And the Military Hall of Fame, which is a MUST visit place.

A farewell gesture by the travel company - a cultural program which showcased the various song and dance forms of Ladakh.

What an incredibly long post!!! I have tried (with great difficulty) to keep my jibber jabber to a minimum, hoping that the photos will speak for themselves. I hope my pics have captured your imagination and your hearts and that Ladakh will be on your list of places to see.

Lots of crochet goodies to share with you in my next post. Until then, take care and happy crafting.