Photo Feature : Ramadan in Ahmedabad's Old City

I've been doing a series of Photo Essays on Ramadan in Ahmedabad's Old City which include Bhadra, Lal Darwaja and Bhatiyar Gali areas on my Restaurant Review Blog.

If you like the sampler above, do take a look at the other posts which have many more pictures.

Part 1 : Laari's
Part 2 : Bara Handi
Part 3 : Hotel Chetna
Part 4 : Khaja
Part 5 : The Food
Part 6 : Faces Behind the Food
Part 7 : Just a Little More

Courtyard by Marriott, Ahmedabad

Courtyard by Marriott,
Ramdevnagar Crossroads,
Near S.G. Highway,
Ahmedabad 380015

Courtyard by Marriott in Ahmedabad is in the centre of the newer business location of Ahmedabad- Satellite.

When we first moved to Ahmedabad, this was where we stayed and we were very happy with our stay here. Comfortable beds, lovely staff.

The breakfast buffet at Momo cafe is huge and includes chaat and ice cream too. There is a smaller buffet that is set up upstairs in the business center, for people who are in town on work and in a hurry.

The Java+ Coffee shop has a lot of buzz around it right now, but honestly the food isn't worth it.

The lunch and dinner buffets at Momo Cafe are average, the food ordered a la carte is much better.

Shakahari - their vegetarian restaurant is excellent.

We have a lot of official functions here in their banquet rooms and they have always given us good service and good food.

You have to pay for wifi in the rooms.

Their in-house spa is run by O2. I haven't used it so I don't know how good or bad it is.

Rating : 4 / 5


Value : 4 / 5
Location : 5 / 5
Sleep Quality : 4 / 5
Rooms : 4 / 5
Cleanliness : 4 / 5
Service : 4 / 5

The Gateway Hotel, Athwa Lines, Surat

The Gateway Hotel
Ambika Niketan
Athwa Lines
Dumas Road
Surat

The Taj at Surat is a lovely hotel. Service and staff were extremely helpful, polite, attentive and co-operative.

When I requested a 4 am wake up call for my inlaws who had to catch the morning train to Bombay (we were driving back to Ahmedabad), they offered complimentary bed tea for them and told us that they could pack them a breakfast box that they could eat on the train. They volunteered this information themselves and had the tea and breakfast ready on time. Double Thumbsup for this attention to detail and prompt service.

We ate dinner at Flow and I think their Indian food (served as part of the buffet) was phenomenal. The buffet had a much better spread than most 5 stars in Ahmedabad. The Chicken curry and Goan fish curry were stand outs and the dessert selection was amazing.

The breakfast was not as great a spread though it was still quite subbstantial.

Room Tip: Try and get a river facing view, its beautifully calming

Rating : 4 / 5

Value : 4 / 5
Location : 4 / 5
Sleep Quality : 4 / 5
Rooms : 4 / 5
Cleanliness : 4 / 5
Service : 5 / 5

BMW Tour Experience 2014 in Ahmedabad #BMWEXPERIENCE

BMW has started its Tour Experience for 2014. This year they are visiting Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Kolkatta. Ahmedabad was the second city on this tour after Jaipur and I was lucky enough to get a taste of this experience on Day 1.

They are in town over this weekend, so BMW aficionados and prospective buyers can get not just a look but also a feel of driving their luxury sedans and SAV's (yes, SAV's, BMW calls them Sports Activity Vehicles not SUV's - Sports Utility Vehicles) across difficult terrain.

The venue for this Tour Experience is the AES ground near Doordarshan Tower in Bodakdev. A specially designed test circuit has been set up for the sedans  - the BMW Dynamic Drive - and one for the SAV's - the BMW xDrive Experience. For the SAV circuit, some special equipment - BMW X Ramps, articulation humps, steep hill and incline - has been brought in to demonstrate the unique features of their vehicles as seen in the video below.



The sedan circuit must have had a lot of help beforehand, given that the circus just vacated this ground a couple of months ago, but the team did create dips and highs to resemble off road driving. They even got a water tanker to create a marshy/boggy stretch, but given that Ahmedabad's afternoon temperatures are close to 43C, it barely dampened the ground.

After checking requisite paperwork and licences, people were chosen who would get a chance to test drive these sedans and SAV's on these circuits. Each one got 2 practice runs to get used to the car and winding circuit and then a final run where they were timed. Well, you can imagine the adrenaline rush it gave most of the men/boys assembled there. For me, I was perfectly comfortable being belted up in the back seat. (I would have preferred to ride shotgun, but those seats were taken)

Although, most of the people who test drove the cars when I was there, were most probably driving a BMW for the first time, the cars seemed to respond well to their touch, even when they took wild turns at high speeds.

The highlight of the evening for me, was definitely sitting in the sedan driven by ex Race Driver Mr Wong who went through a series of maneuvers and concluded with a couple of 360degree turns, which were thrilling to watch and even more thrilling to experience. Obviously the degree of control he had over the car, was way higher than anyone else on that field.

BMW has brought their complete range of sedans and SAV's from the 1, 3, 5 and 7 series and the X Range to town and this event is the ideal location to get a feel of all their features and test how they perform in exacting conditions, by experiencing braking, slalom, corner braking and fast lap experience. The BMW xDrive all-wheel drive system is an intelligent all-wheel drive system that monitors the driving situation constantly and distributes drive power smoothly between the axles where it is needed the most.

Mr Philipp Von Sahr, President BMW Group India says "With this unique initiative, we wish to take a step closer to our customers and bring as many customers to the BMW fold and make them experience BMW and sheer driving pleasure"

Well, the team most definitely nailed this directive. For those interested in the technical details, a team of product experts is also accompanying this Tour and are happy to answer queries and concerns if any.

In Ahmedabad, Parsoli Motors is the official Sales Outlet for BMW.

Sita's Daughters at Natarani on the Occassion of Women's Day

When I was in college, I had the good fortune of watching a Bharatnatyam performance by Mrinalini Sarabhai and I was entranced.

Inspite of living in Ahmedabad for almost 2 years and visiting Natarani frequently for events, I had never actually been to a performance by Mallika Sarabhai as we never seemed to be in town when the really interesting events took place.

Given that we were in town yesterday, and the performance in honour of Womens day was Mallika Sarabhai's extremely renowned play "Sita's Daughters", I knew we just HAD to attend.

The script is wonderful. It covers 9 stories featuring women across the ages and the navarasas (9 rasas) of human emotion that are captured in Indian Classical Dance as outlined in the Natyashastra.

The performance was brilliant. Minimalistic props, a music troupe dressed in black, but on stage blending into the background and providing the perfect accompaniment, some dance, some drama, some comedy and audience interaction. This play has been performed over 600 times in Hindi, English and Gujarati, across the globe for various audiences. And while the core script remains the same, the details and references to current news (regarding oppressed women) has been constantly updated across the decades.

Sita's Daughters is not just about women who have been oppressed, its about oppressed women  standing up for themselves and that is what makes them Sita's daughters in this script co-authored by Mallika Sarabhai and John Martin

This is a play, I would definitely recommend watching, if you get the opportunity.

As an aside, the noise from the new road constructed behind the Natarani Amphitheatre did not disturb us too much yesterday, but the noise levels have definitely increased.

The play was put up as part of a 3 day cultural program promoting awareness on Womens' Issues for Womens Day, so it started out with a panel discussion by some of the other performers and artistes of this event.