On the road, part 1: Ahmedabad to Somnath

After a long time, we went on a long drive through the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. I was upset that the driver missed the road to Rajkot which is Midway from Ahmedabad to Somnath . But it turned out to be an interesting road which took us through many villages and tiny towns of Gujarat, Here are a few snapshots of economic activities in the rural areas we traversed. The most prominent economic activity was tending cattle. The dairy industry is strong in Gujarat. Herds of buffaloes and cows were our companions on the road. There were large heaps of buffalo and cow dung on the road. In the moving car I tried to capture these dung heaps and finally succeeded.

The other industry was stone quarries and sand mining . Obviously this raised a lot of dust and made the region look bare and desert like.

I enjoy looking at the crops in the fields to guess what is cultivated in the region. The Saurashtra region was well known for its groundnut crops. But over the years it has been largely replaced by cotton. We saw a large number of fields with cotton and some cotton picking activity as well. As we moved South, the cotton seem to have matured and there was more of white colour in the fields. We were thrilled to see fields full of yellow flowers, our favourite sight of mustard fields. But they were not spread as far and wide as we have seen driving in the state of Rajasthan, further north of Gujarat.

And it was with great joy that we saw a large number of windmills rotating in the wind. Gujarat is a state which has done rather well in renewable energy, solar and wind power is being harnessed to generate electricity. I had heard of windmills along the Saurashtra coast, but witnessed it today.

Finally we reached Somnath. We were to reside at a Hotel named and truly was Sagar Darshan. ‘View of the Ocean’! It shared a wall with the Somnath Temple. We spent a long time gazing and taking in the sights and sound of the Arabian Sea.

Mobile phones and cameras are not allowed into the Somnath Temple. We felt a little at unease at not being able to capture the beauty of the Somnath Temple built on the sea coast. But we were able to spend ‘quality time’ together! Ha ha! We watched an amazing sun- set. A great red ball of fire slowly lowering itself and suddenly dropping into the ocean! Without our mobiles to distract us , we had the unadulterated joy of watching this beautiful sight. In any case I am sure our mobile cameras are not powerful enough to capture the beauty of the scene!

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