Once the well was completed, the king reminded the queen of her promise. Instead, the
queen, who had achieved her objective of completing the step-well, decided to end her
life as a mark of devotion to her husband. She circumambulated the step-well, prayed
and then jumped into the well. These events are depicted on the walls of the well.
(People were incredibly dramatic in those days.)
Ahmedabad is further home to the Sabarmati Ashram, Gandhi’s headquarters from
1917–1930 during the struggle for Indian independence. He chose this site as the land
was between a jail and a cemetery, and it was said anyone in favour of independence
was bound to end up in one of them. It’s from here that Gandhi commenced his famous
Salt March. Reading the history, I once again realised there’s nothing worse than
colonialism. How anyone can think such arrogance is a good idea boggles the mind.
Outside was a statue of Gandhi’s three proverbial wise monkeys: “See no evil, hear no
evil, speak no evil”. They are Mizaru, covering his eyes; Kikazaru, covering his ears; and
Iwazaru, covering his mouth.
Later, I came upon the Kalam Kush paper mill. The mill uses a Gandhian technique
where the paper is made by hand using off-cuts from fabric. It’s understood all
government offices (at least in Ahmedabad) use paper from this mill. I hope this is true;
wouldn’t it be marvellous?
Shabbier picked me up the following morning and we swung by the supermarket before
visiting Gulbai Tekra, a small slum known as ‘Hollywood Basti’ because of the women’s
colourful clothing. Gulbai Tekra is home to over 1,000 families making a living out of
carving Ganesh statues. Here villagers were keen to get their pictures taken. Some
women veiled their faces using their dupattas, barely revealing their traditional nose-
rings, but others boldly posed. In the process, we got caught up in a funeral procession.
We were welcomed into their midst and didn’t get away without getting a bindi.