From the Rann of Kutch to The Temple city of Dwarka Gujarat

From the Rann of Kutch to The Temple city of Dwarka Gujarat

Day 3 Continued

After lunch, we bid our host Jugal adieu and left Moti Varani for our next destination, Dwarka. The drive was enjoyable, but they were tearing down bridges on the highway. We might have to pay a toll for the renovations in the future. We reached Dwarka at about 9.45pm and checked into a fairly reasonable hotel, “Hotel Dwarka Residency” on the main road. We gleaned some information about the place from the boys at the reception and the restaurant. The main temple 'Jagad Mandir' was a ten-minute walk from our hotel. If you wanted to visit the famous temple of 'Ranchhodrai', you would have to go to 'Bet Dwarka' by taking the regular ferry services.

The Holy City of Dwarka was indeed a big disappointment; my early morning walk through the city and by lanes left me with a lot of negative vibes. The filth and squalor were certainly a sight for sore eyes. I have never seen so many beggars in all my travels around other places, and the Ghats along the waterfront were in shambles. I had expected to see a more refined place for the comfort of the thousands of pilgrims who make their way to this city to pay homage to their deities. This is one place in Gujarat that needs some attention from the Government to fall into the mainstream of being a “Vibrant Gujarat”.

Gosh, it's time I posted some photographs of events down this road.

We took the route from "Moti Varani to Dwarka"

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Day 4  

[ 8th March 2013 ]

After taking a few snaps in Dwarka, we left for our next destination. We were to go to Somnath to see the ruins there, but the negative vibes of the holy city swayed our opinion, also the distance proved a deterrent to our time frame. We headed directly for The Gir Sanctuary. Below is the route we took.

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Bhuj

Windmills thousand of them

Highway 

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salt pans

the setting sun on the way 

In action

Jagat Mandir

Pilgrims early morning

Main Road Dwarka 

Gull

Dwarka Temple

Gull

waterfront

Ready to plunge

Devotees 

Searching

Gliding

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Street in Dwarka

Dwarka

Flamingoes 

Ibis

What was that you said

Gosh I'm stuffed 

Snipe

Demoiselle Cranes

 Crane landing

Demoiselle Cranes

Perfect touchdown 

Flamingo off the highway

Tern

On the highway

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Coot

Sunset Gir 

My Ahmedabad trip to Vibrant Gujarat

5^th Vibrant Gujarat Summit

I had gone to Ahmedabad on the 7^th to pay my respects to the passing away of Christina’s father-in-law. I caught the early morning bus and was in the city by 11. The entire city was abuzz with teams of labourers getting the place into top shape or, from my viewpoint, window dressing or a massive facelift.

On reaching my dear friend's place at Shahibaug I enquired about the frenzied activity that was taking place in the city, he laughed and said don’t you keep up with the news It’s the 5^th Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Modi’s Pet Love project, this summit aims to facilitate deals for the taking partaking part countries; it’s an ideal podium to explore business prospects in Gujarat. It slated the summit for January 12/13, 2011 at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar; I believe it will be the biggest and most significant of all conferences.

Shahibaug is a lovely place in this emerging mega city for an evening stroll. I had gone out to stretch my legs and while returning, was witness to an unusual scene; scene; the street leading under the bridge to Shahi baug was a scene of chaotic activity. Frantic activity. Frantic police personnel who were on their wireless phones immediately cleared all frantic traffic, shouting instructions to one another and to the pedestrians to steer clear of the roads. It surprised me to hear that the Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi was to pass that way in his motor cascade. I was dying to reach for my camera slung on my waist to take a brief clip of the frenzied scene that unfurled before me, but prudence prevailed as I did not want to be hauled up by some excited cop for overstepping …..

The scene occurred around 6.40 p.m. around the circle in the photograph posted below.

The Chief Minister inaugurated an overhead bridge in this area; this bridge ran into a few snares between various departments and hence it took ten odd extra months for its completion. Tomorrow I’ll post my day out at the bird sanctuary ‘Thol’