Workshop at Narmada River

On Tuesday we leave early in the morning for a several hours drive south, towards the Narmada river. On our way we see many groups of pilgrims who walk with drums and costumes towards shrines.


Our base is a hospital near the river Narmada. It is sponsored by a charity and provides free health care for the surrounding tribes. The area is very rural: the houses are built of mud, and it looks exactly like in the tribal museum that we have visited in Ahmadabad. It seems that several time epochs live here simultaneously in parallel: out current 21st century, with cars and mobile internet, and the century-old rural agricultural traditions of the local population.



The river looks very peaceful and quiet. The dam further upstream regulates the water and releases only a very small trickle. This has changed the whole river surroundings over the past years.

The workshop encourages the participants to reflections, writings, and paintings. A few students from the Sardar Patel University who have accompanied us, bring back a few paintings which they did while being in the river bed.

Unfortunately, the Tata Indicom mobile network appears not to be present here in the countryside, so I cannot provide a live update.

We then drive further to the large Narmada dam, which has been planned since the 1950 but has only recently been completed in its first stage. Further work is in progress, as the dam height is being increased further. Is an impressive structure, and the echoes from the people are divided: some say that it is a strong interference with nature, others praise its benefits for the population.


We drive towards a few visitor points with nice views onto the dam and the regulated water flows.

At the base camp in the hospital, our group divides: most of us return back to Vallabh Vidyanagar, but three of us (including me) drive further towards Surat, where we will meet with a local educational institution which seeks links to UK educational institutions.

First Day in Ahmadabad

On Thursday morning, our group left with two cars from the university in Vallabh Vadyanagar to Ahmedabad. Our first stop was the Gujarat Vidyapith (Vidyapith, a sanskrit-turned-Gujarati word means a University; the university was founded in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi), where we were welcomed by the VC Sudarshan Iyengar. He explained to us the significance of this university, which follows strongly Gandhi's rules for simple life and rural revitalisation. Technology is seen here as something not very possitive, just barely a necessary evil for some of the communication needs.

We move into our rooms in the guest house. The rooms are designed to host two people each, and we are asked if we would mind that. However, as we Westerners cherish our private sphere around us, we are then offered each an individual room.


We drive to the Gandhi Ashram at the bank of the river Sabarmati. There are Gandhi's house and a museum devoted to his life and work. At the river, there is a lot of construction going on: large concrete slabs are erected at the river banks, and some structures indicate that this river would be converted into a flood-controlled long lake.

Here now, our actual work regarding this project begins. These days before were very fruitful for networking and engaging with the people at the Anand University, but now we are conducting our actual project work. A workshop is held with poetry readings about the river. The participants should write something about the river which then is shared. Further, a translation workshop is held, highlighting the difficulties of translating Gujarati into English and vice versa. My role here was to record some of the activities for our project documentation.


A very interesting part of this activity is the conduction of interviews with people who are somewhat affected by the river and its transformation. We meet an elderly person who defends the project, saying it will bring water regulation and is beneficial to all citizens. But there are also sceptics who argue that this work destroys the coherence of the river with its banks and the surroundings.


In the afternoon we visit a woman who is working for the organisation darshan. They create street performances about critical issues, as they have been banned form performing in regular theatres. One issue which they have addressed in the past is the violence which had erupted between Muslims and Hindu in 2002 and the following years.

Live from the Sabarmati River, Ahmedabad!

We are right now at the banks of the Sabarmati River, at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. We just held a workshop about poetry and the river Sabarmati, and now we are conducting interviews with people whose lives have been in some way influenced by the river.

Earlier today we stopped at Gujarat Vidyapith where we were hosted by the VC. We will stay the night there in the guest quarters.

This live blog update is possible because of our mobile internet connection. The new Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 comes quite handy now, to edit and collect data on the outdoors.