This story book is an attempt to unveil to the new generation the charm of this unique city through the childhood memories of someone who grew up amid its old ambience, and to instil interest in its preserva preservation tion and continuity.
An early 19th century map of Old Ahmedabad
Concept : Deb Concept Debashi ashish sh Nayak Editing Edi ting : Viv Vivek ek Khadpekar Khadpekar Illustration : Vijay Shrimali Nagji Prajapati Layout Layo ut Desi Design gn : Nil Nilesh esh Dav Dave e Printin Pri ntingg : Sta Status tus Inc. Inc. Published Publi shed by llectio
Pratima as a little girl lived in the walled city of Ahmedabad In this story book she remembers her home in a Pol
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hmedabad was founded in 1411 AD on the site of two much older settlements, Ashaval and Karnavati. It has some of the finest Indian Islamic monuments and exquisite Hindu and Jain temples. Its carved wooden houses are a unique architectural tradition.
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special feature of the walled city of Ahmedabad is its numerous pols pols –– selfcontained, enclosed neighbourhoods, each entered through a gate that could be closed at night and in times of unrest. The Sanskrit word for such a gate is pratoli , from which comes the word pol word pol .
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he pols house he pols house large numbers of people. Some pols Some pols are are virtually small villages. Narrow streets crisscross them, usually terminating in squares with community wells and chabutaras chabutaras for for feeding birds. Besides the gates, the pols the pols had had culs-de-sac and secret passages, known only to the residents, which offered further security. This painting by Amit Ambalal alludes to the legend of Sultan Ahmed Shah of Gujarat (late-14th – early-15th c.). Hunting on the banks of the Sabarmati, he was amazed to see a hare chasing a hound. Convinced that such a place must possess some miraculous quality, he set up on the site a new city – Ahmedabad – to which he shifted his capital from Patan in North Gujarat.
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Desai-ni-Pol, Khadia.
am Pratima, from the Mehta family. Let me show you around my childhood home in Desai-ni-Pol in Khadia, a part of the walled city … You approach the main door through an otlo otlo –– a kind of small, raised porch. On either side of the main door is a gokhlo a gokhlo –– an ornamented niche in the wall. In the old days, divas –– oil lamps – divas would be placed in these gokhlas these gokhlas to to light the otlo .
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y brother Priyadarshan and I grew up in this house. Ours was a large family – our parents Bhimbhai and Chandravatiben; uncle and aunt Kanubhai and Hiraben; our Dadaji (grandfather) Dahyabhai; and many aunts and cousins. Dadaji was Dadaji was a lawyer, and Diwan (Chief Minister) of some of the princely states that existed in India before independence. He built this house when our father was born. We had two grandmothers. The elder of them had no children. It was she who supervised the construction of this
A pencil sketch of nine-year old Pratima by the famous artist, the late Rasiklal Parikh (1910-1982) dated 11th february, 1944
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nside the house is a big chowk chowk (courtyard). (courtyard). The chowk chowk had had a display of brass utensils, and the doors leading from it into the rooms were decorated with rich torans torans (hangings (hangings across the top of the doorframe) of glass beads. We spent most of our time in the chowk . There was a hinchko hinchko (swing). (swing). After lunch, when the elders retired for their siesta, I would happily sit on it.
n a corner of the chowk chowk was was a small, octagonal well-like structure, covered by a heavy, domeshaped copper lid with a big handle. This was the opening for lifting water from the tanku –– a large tanku underground tank which collected rainwater from the roof. After the first few showers had washed the whole roof clean, no one was allowed on it. The tanku tanku was was our main source of water through the year.
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ast the chowk , through a parsal a parsal , one entered the ordo ordo –– a storage area with an impressive display of large, white limepainted earthen kothis kothis (jars) (jars) and, on top of them, brightly shining copper and brass pots. These held our foodgrains for the whole year. A cow-dung plastered floor kept the parsal parsal cool cool in summer and warm in winter.
he rasodu (kitchen), pooja room pooja room and paniaru (water room), were all on the southern side of the chowk . The walls around were decorated with many ghokhlas , paintings and family photographs. Prominent among these was the portrait of Bharat Mata conceptualised by Shri Krupashankar Pandit of our pol our pol .
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ven in Ahmedabad’s hot summer, it was comfortable inside the house. Cool air flowed through the front window into the house, taking the warm air up and out through the chowk . This cooled the entire house. Our living quarters were on the first floor. The second floor had bedrooms, and in summer the agashi (rooftop agashi (rooftop terrace) was a pleasant place to sleep under the
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e could hear the bells and the chants of shlokas and aarati from temples on both sides of our house. Opposite us was a girls’ school, from which the soothing sounds of morning prayers floated across.
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n the first floor was the diwankhand –– the large diwankhand hall where guests were received. Here Dadaji used to meet distinguished visitors. One of them was Swami Vivekananda. During the freedom struggle many famous national leaders, such as Gandhiji, visited our house.
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ur elder grandmother, Jadavba, used to sit on the otlo otlo in in the evening and women from the pol the pol would would come to discuss with her their personal and social problems, seeking solutions. Our younger grandmother Savita Gouri was a pious woman whose life revolved around prayer and ritual and seeing to the needs of holy personages.
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e fed the birds and kept water for them to drink. There was a chokthu chokthu (open (open space) in front of the nearby haveli haveli of of Sir Chinubhai Baronet, grandson of Shri Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, founder of Ahmedabad’s first textile mill and the first President of the Ahmedabad Municipality. Many leading Indian cricketers also stayed there as guests.
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here were lots of birds – pigeons, sparrows and green parrots with bright red beaks. They lived in specially built gokhlas built gokhlas in in the walls and ate from the chabutro chabutro in in the pol the pol
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n keeping with centuries-old custom, the food cooked in our kitchen was first offered to the family deity and then to one of the many cows lazing around the pol .
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uilt by Shri Dahyabhai Ijjatram Mehta in 1896 as his residence, this heritage building belongs to his grandchildren Pratimaben, Priyadarshanbhai Priyadarshanbh ai Mehta and their family. It is a typical 19th century example of traditional living within the walled city of Ahmedabad. he Building is being used by CHETNA, Centre for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness since 1996, and was restored with the guidance of an architect from ‘Mandala’, Ahmedabad and CRUTA Foundation. This project paved the way for the revitalisation of the
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House No.
Location of Mehta family house at Desai-ni-Pol, Khadia, Ahmedabad
City Heritage Collection 108, Anilkunj centre, Near Shefali Shopping Centre,
