Thursday 13 November 2008

Visiting Ahmadabad

On Thursday, we were invited to a private residence in Ahmadabad for lunch. The person who was inviting us, had attended the workshop in the week before at the Creativity Conference. She would expect us for lunch with her family. Jane, myself, and Asha decided to join Brian and go to Ahmadabad. First, we took one of those motor rikshas from Vallabh Vidyanagar to the Anand train station. There, we encountered a long line at the ticket counter - it seemed impossible to get a ticket for the next train in time, as it was scheduled to leave in about 10 minutes. But Asha knew where to get tickets, at a dealer outside of the station. The ride from Anand to Ahmadabad cost 15 Rupies per person - approximately 20 Pence.


The train was quite full, people sitting on the ground, but we got seats together. People wanted to get their picture taken with us. The ride took two hours. I was able to record with the in-ear microphones the acoustic environment, for later mixing it to video recordings.


The train arrived in time, and our hosts were picking us up at the airport and driving us to their home. We got to know their family members and had a nice time. A brief moment of panic occurred when a monkey was seen in the kitchen...
Then Jane and I went to the old town of Ahmadabad, to see a few parts of the old architecture of the historic centre. A very densely populated area, with interesting buildings and wood carvings.


We met Brian and Asha around 3:45 at the bus station, from where we took a bus back to Anand. A bus ticket cost 45 Rupies. The ride on this Express bus also took two hours, through several towns and countryside. In Anand again a motor riksha, back to the guest house.

In the evening we invited our host from the University to a good-bye dinner at a restaurant.

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