Posts filed under ‘My trips to Gujarat’
Random thoughts: my trips to Gujarat
From the past few years, I am regularly visiting various places of Gujarat state. Unequivocally, urbanization is happening rapidly. Cities like, Surat, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Rajkot are expanding fast. Also, small cities like Anand, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Navsari and Bharuch are growing.
If you are a tourist and visiting Dwarka and Somnath of Saurashtra region, on the way you can see excellent infrastructure. Especially, roads, public transport system, and bus stands of Gujarat are much better compared to other Indian states. All the temples are well maintained. Tourist places are connected via rails and roads. The Dwarkadheesh temple is a magnificent monument. In Dwarka, people usually say “Jai Shrikrishna” to each other while wishing. Odia folks need to learn a lot from Guajaratis about the art of keeping temples clean and well maintained.
During a road trip from Dwarka to Somnath, one can see thousands of windmills installed by Suzlon. The Somnath temple area is vast, well maintained and calm. There are two Somnath temple, old and new. The old temple was built by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar after Mahmud Ghazni destroyed the earlier temple. The new temple was constructed in 1951. There is a statue of Sardar Patel inside the temple, who took the initiative for construction work of new temple. The Somnath temple trust provides accommodation and dining facilities. In Somnath, the minus is the salt water supply for the bathroom. You have to buy water for drinking purpose. In restaurants, you can also find butter milk.
Agriculture is more technology based in Gujarat, and I could see vast fields of turdal cultivation in many places. If you are visiting Gujarat, get ready for eating oily food, chillies, fafda, and raw cabbage. My favourite Gujarati food is Dhokla.
Personally, I felt that in the Saurashtra region, people are generally respectful and helpful towards old people and women. Overall, Gujarat is a very nice state. I will visit Gujarat again in future. In terms of development and urbanization, Odisha is at least 15-20 years behind Gujarat.
Kosal Discussion and Development Forum 