Gujarat - Gir, Gourmet, God

Gujarat - Gir, Gourmet, God

After my exhausting Std 12 board exams, I craved for a break. Our family planned a short vacation to Gir, Gujarat.

I was excited! At that point I didn't care where I was going. I just needed a break as studies had made by brains `incapable` of working.

We took a train to Junaghad - sounds like a scary place, right? We took an overnight train from Mumbai and we reached Junaghad next day afternoon.

At the station, a car from the resort was waiting for us. The driver was pleasantable and on the way briefed us about Junaghad in his typical Gujarati accent. He told us that Junaghad was a fort area and had a temple on a hill, for which you needed to climb over 200 steps. For a moment I felt motivated to climb, but realised I was after all on vacation – it was leisure time and save-your-body-from-strain time.

Gujarat is popular for its hospitality and of course FOOD!! So we asked the driver to stop at a small dabha for lunch. Dabhas are really fascinating and can give you a great experience. We lunched at the `Maruti Restaurant`; of course, it was not a typical restaurant.

The place looked so exciting - it was a small restaurant with about four to five tables, a half-broken ceiling, plastic chairs, steel plates, small windows, which provided a view of the beautiful fields outside, and a welcoming manager. They have a fixed menu for each day. The menu for that day was behngan ki sabji, moong dal, bhindi, sev tamatar, chapattis and bajra rotis loaded with butter, papad, aachar and of course khichdi and chaas. Yummilicious! The food was served on our table. The hunger and the quality of food made it irresistible. I am not a fan of brinjals, but this one just melted in my mouth. It was fetched from the fields and put on our plates.The kitchen could be visible from the table we were sitting on and we discovered that a tiny old woman was behind all this yummy food.

We reached the resort after couple of hours of drive and a lunch break, tired but excited. It was already late afternoon, so we didn't have much to do. We spoke to the travel desk manager and what came to our surprise was that the Gir safari was closed during the summers as it was the animal's mating season. But he said there was a way out. Gujarat tourism had opened Devalia Safari Park, also known as Gir Interpretation Zone. Devalia has established the eco-tourism zone to reduce overload of tourists to the Gir Forest and provide the wildlife a single place for safe habitats.

We left for Devalia next day early morning. It was about twenty minutes away from our resort, Fascinatingly, our resort was in the middle of the forest itself. We experienced bus safari at Devalia with many other tourists, who ended up coming to Gir at the `wrong` time like us. The experience was not up to the mark, but was not bad either. We saw deers, peacocks, leopards and a few lionesses. Lions are the most popular attraction in Gir. We clicked pictures, spent time at the garden in Devalia, had hot chai and returned to our resort.

Some amazing food awaited us at the resort - typical Gujarati Thali. We had a delicious meal, which included four Gujarati sabjis, chapatis, khichdi-kadi, chaas and of course gulab jamun.

In the evening we took a chakda ride. Chakdas are very popular in the rural areas of Gujarat.They are a combination of a motorcycle and a rickshaw (see image).

It was an adventurous ride, with the vehicle going through many narrow, rocky roads besides small brick houses. It was a typical village, with wells, tiny brick houses, ghunghat-clad women cooking food on koyla outside their homes, and men dressed in dhoti and jabha with a cloth turban on their heads. The chakda driver was reticent, but pleasing. He took us to a small temple. On our way back, we stopped at a small guest house for some Gujarati-style hot masala chai. How could we have gone to Gujarat and not have the typical masala chai there? The lady of the house served us hot chai in glass cups with some poha chiwda, while the man recounted tales about the village. Those moments of chai pe charcha were beautiful. Sitting on a chatai outside the house, sipping hot chai, eating poha chiwda, listening to untold stories and watching the sunset can be a nerr-perfect experience.

We came back to the guest house for dinner. The owner promised us that he would serve authentic Gujarati food. The family welcomed us with warm hearts. It was a typical Indian family, with the man being the head of the family, a doting wife and mother, two children (elder sister and younger brother). They owned three cows and a small part of the farm land. The house was not really small; it had had a big hall, a veranda, where the cows were kept, a kitchen and two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms was for guests. I wished we could have stayed over there instead of the resort.

The dinner was served on the table. The menu was bhindi, baingan ki sabji, kadhi, khichdi and hot chapatis. We conversed with the owner's son. He told us how far his school was and that he helped his father in the farms after coming from school. He said he aspired to be an engineer and make his village and his family proud one day. One could see so many dreams and aspirations in that 11-year-old boy. The elder sister helped her mother in her household chores, but also went to school regularly. We bid farewell to the family and thanked them for the wonderful food and an amazing experience.

I was really enjoying my stay in Gujarat and didnt want to go back to Mumbai, where time doesn't stop. Here I could feel the air around me, the warmth of people, magnificence of nature and peace and serenity. But all good things come to an end, but we still had one more appointment to keep – with God.

It was our last day in Gujarat. We paid a visit to the magnificent Somnath temple. Surrounded by the sea, the temple transported us to a world which was unreal but surreal.

The next day was departure day. Dad and me woke up early, grabbed our cycles and went for a ride around the village. We had chai and came back to the resort, all set to return to familiar territory – Mumbai.

Lunch at Maruti Restaurant

Chakda Ride