My long romance with Gujarat began in 1995; However I prefer to start from Feb 2002 before going back. Gujarat riots were at its peak. I was holed up at the Ahmedabad railway station dormitory for 2 full nights as this was the only safe place in entire Ahmedabad then. The capital was deserted and counting dead bodies on the road was common. I had to make my way to Bhuj which is 400 KM from Ahmedabad. With great risk and after lots of prayers, I finally made it there.

Bhuj, having been devastated by a massive earthquake just a year before,  was totally calm with no relevance to the massacres. People were busy rebuilding their lives rather than join the mindless cold blooded murders elsewhere. The riots were a huge blot on Gujarat  - an otherwise peace loving state.

My project was 140 Km away from Bhuj on the last piece of land in India. The place is rightly called Akrimota. Beyond this are the oceans and after 40 KM at sea, lies Pakistan. Travelling in the deserted hot and dry road, I come across a dilapidated board which read as “ The Tropic of Capricorn passes here”. This is an imaginary line which we have read in Geography with no real significance in our daily lives. I have no idea why the line chose to travel in the deserted coastal desert region.

Few inhabitants; a power plant being built in the remote desert; many BSF men patrol this area watching the boring coastline endlessly  for the 1 day when the Paks might gain entry into India. But for this , goats, camels, occasional Nilgai, scrubs, bushes there is nothing here. No hotels, no guest houses nothing.

The ladies in the desert have an eye catching attire, mainly consisting of a dark  coloured cotton skirt with numerous embroidery and glass pieces and a backless choli . The interesting part are the two big mirrors on the front side of their choli in their chest. I am still guessing and imagining the real purpose of the mirrors; To ward off dirty eyes? The sturdy well built men folk mainly wear white dress covered tightly from neck to toe. It is a variation of the pyjama kurta and resembles those worn by dandiya dancers.

The lunch there is simple to the core: Only tea for breakfast; Roti, Dal, rice, raw onions, for lunch; For dinner, rice is replaced by kitchdi – a mixture of rice, lentils and dals boiled together with masalas and Kadhi replacing dal. Kadhi is similar to our mhor kolambu but little bland. Water is never served here. Only butter milk ( goat’s ) is used in place of water.; Having an open cast coal mine to fuel the power plant, there were lot of  people from Neyveli working here, which means there was a mess and I had no shortage of Idli’s and southie food.

The evening snack consists of pani puri and my third favourite dish ( after idli and paani puri ) – Kacchhi Dhabeli; a very simple, cheap, tummy filling tasty dish. The Dhabelis here are big and are not to be missed in Saurashtra and Kutch; more precisely at Bhuj, Gandhidham and Rajkot.

Kanyakumari is generally famous for its sunset and sunrise with a huge tourist gathering waiting eagerly for the disappointment as the sun is in the same size as it appears in my terrace at Pune. However, Akrimota, being the last piece of land, when I stand in the deserted beach of my project site in evening, I can see the Sun in all its hugeness – twice the size of a huge tractor tyre. There is nothing between me and the sun barring the ocean. These are non-taxable fringe benefits of being in projects.

The winters are cold with icy winds piercing you, summers are hot; May to June the heavy dust laden winds ensure that every pore in our bodies are filled with dust. Clearing the ears of dust is a daily activity.

Matha-na- mutt is a simple old ( 9^th century AD) famous temple  here dedicated to Ashpura Mata  .  The 9 day Navaraatri is the main festival in Gujarat ( more about it later ) and here. Huge people masses of all ages right from 10, coolly walk down to this temple during Navaraatri. They walk from Ahmedabad, Saurashtra travelling over 400 KM on foot. The entire route is lined with tents on both sides of the road serving free food of all imaginable  varieties. cool drinks,tea, water etc. A number of medical camps with masseurs to massage the tired and aching foot are also scattered every 200 metre along the entire 140 KM stretch. This goes on for 24 hours a day for nearly 12-14 days

It took me 12 hours to walk the 40 KM stetch bare foot on the tar road. It was then that I realised how resilient a rubber tyre was against torture.,

Though I have not seen the huge masses walking on foot from Delhi to Haridwar /Rishikesh, I am quite certain that the Matha na mutt procession will rank among the worlds top 4 human movement event. However atleast  the 120 KM long free unlimited buffet of multi varitied food should rank as the worlds largest buffet. Perhaps, since it is voluntarily funded by numerous families, businesses and trusts it has not entered the records or caught the world’s attention..

Jai Mata de.