A Living Breathing City

I’ve travelled the length and breadth of Ahmedabad and am wonderstruck by the intensity of its people. There are fine people here who are working towards preserving the heritage of the city by infusing into their work, the culture, costumes, textiles, history, natural life and contemporary elements that keep their heritage alive. Writers, artists, business barons, NGOs and some foresighted govt officials have all made this a throbbing, pulsating city. How do you visualise Gujarat in the future? Will their efforts pay off? Will Gujarat be a city of skyscrapers?

Hi Namita,

Thanks for writing this piece on Ahmedabad. Yes it is true Ahmedabad is working hard to retain its past glory, its history and culture, and blend it with the new. Afterall, wisdom says that the old must not be forgotten, when we bring in the new. Not everything old is bad and not everything new is good.

Just yesterday, the TOI, local govt, and most of all Ahmedabadis, got to gether to make history of sorts in the entire country when for the first time CG road one of Ahmedabad's arterial roads became a pedestrian's paradise. It was made a no car zone! It got a terrific response and people and even little toddlers were seen walking the roads in pure joy.

We should make sure that our cities are aesthetically, culturally appealing and a humaneness and kindnesss in our social fabric prevails.