Raghu took me out on his bike yesterday to Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat, to see the stepwells of Gujarat and the famed Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple. We set off at 4 p.m. with the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair, and of course the infamous Ahmedabad dust clogging our pores.
After I got used to the momentum of riding out the many humps and potholes on the road, I stopped hanging onto the seat/his shoulders (whichever instinct had me grabbing onto first) for dear life and got a little trigger happy capturing our shadows.
After about an hour, we left dusty Ahmedabad behind and arrived at the stepwells of Gujarat, a seven-storey architectural beauty.
Exploring the damp and musty depths required nimble maneuvering. One of the well-watchers told Raghu that someone had fallen to his death a few days earlier. It sounds a little implausible, but the structure does have several potentially treacherous nooks and crannies.
Perilous conditions aside, the stepwells were indeed awe-inspiring. The filtering sunlight had shadows dancing around the columns, and navigating the narrow steps had me feeling a little like Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (yes yes minus the double-D boobs).
Shadow and light. Spot us?
We made an impromptu stop at a wildlife sanctuary/zoo, where I saw Bambi-like deers.
We arrived at the Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple at twilight, and I was astounded by its beauty. Photography is prohibited, so here's an official picture from Getty Images. My first thought upon seeing the lighted-up temple was - sheesh, this looks like Disneyland.
Dinner was at Hyderabadi Biryani, one of the only two restaurants Raghu actually patronizes in Ahmedabad. Over the faultless chicken dum biryani, eaten with raita (the white sauce) and gravy (the orange sauce); we exchanged recipes, and I think I should be able to whip up a dish of dhal and lemon fried rice when I return to Singapore.
I can't fathom how we managed the space after our biryani dinner, but we stopped at a street stall for pretty excellent kulfi-tasting ice-cream. That was also when the rain started, and we rode the 20-minute road back to MICA in bone-chilling winds and icy pelts of rain.
After a hot shower to chase away the chills, I headed over to the Champa hostel with Erwin and Nuria, where the CCC and RCM peeps were celebrating Himanshu's birthday. That's the birthday boy in red and grey.
A semi-sober Niraj, just a few drinks away from going topless and pawing Erwin.
People in various states of intoxication.
With alcohol, the quiet became chatty, the chatty became chattier, and the irritating became amusing. There was quite a bit of pawing, fighting and kissing going on, and some were caught in hilariously compromising positions. All in good fun, all in good fun. Happy birthday Himanshu!
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