Winter in India is a time of great celebration, gaiety, meeting of people and festivals abound through out the country. Gujarat is no exception, a variety of reasons some reaching back to antiquity while others to modern finance contribute to ever so many celebrations taking place. The state of Gujarat with its cosmopolitan image and atmosphere generated though years of trade and commerce is an amalgamated, mix of a variety of different people each with their celebratory festivals enmeshing within each other. It is interesting that this state has always celebrated every festival with the same amount of energy and gusto regardless of differences arising out of minor infractions.
Winter here also makes for the perfect atmosphere, a time of holidays, a period of gathering, a meeting of families, a seeming portion of time when people can rise above their mundane daily grind and spend quality lives with children, friends and try to get away from it all even for a short while. Some would prefer to spend this sequential timeline just flat-lining or remodulating the strings that hold them hemmed in, and others turn visits into parties and celebrations.
There is always a select group of the adventurous and the intrepid traveler, traveling for the sheer pleasure of not only engulfing exotically unknown places off the beaten track but would definitely like to know more such weekend extravagances to disappear from the hustle bustle and polluted mind wrenching existence generated by an urban conglomerate. The ideal climatic conditions during this period all over the state as well as a riot of color and form also instigate the tourist season giving way to a lot of foreigners as tourists, backpackers, travelers, business associates and the like. Migrating along with the flocks of migratory birds and other flora and fauna which escalate the beauty of the state. As most of these and the domesticated travelers try and follow the time and tested formula of tourist locations, be it wild life, natural beauty, pilgrimage spots or resorts each one more identical than the rest offering the same fare through a gamut, peoplitic history.
Gujarat’s sixteen hundred kilometers of coastline apart from the time and tested places offer the most amazingly varied and surrealistically divine blends of coastline. With barber pole lighthouses to guide the way while seemingly keeping the monsters of the sea at bay. Bhavanagar and the coastline around it astounds the senses creating an other worldly experience. Some of the beaches around the district are Goga, Gopnath, Timba, Makrand, Meklan, Zanzaner etc each having their own quaint historical lineage and stories surrounding their existence. Jafrabad where the sun rises and sets in the ocean, Una and Ahmedpur Mandvi where the lions of Gir once ruled supreme and now are at the edge of the Gir wildlife sanctuary bordering Diu and having wonderfully pristine beaches. The entire coastline of Kutch is a confluence of reefs and coral islands strands of Saragossa floating in tandem with a psychedelic mixture of coral, colors, sea life myriad creatures all co-exiting in a delicate eco system some of which forms the Pirotan marine national park. The scrub desert of Kutch meets the sandy beaches of the ocean; the Vijay Vilas Palace at Mandvi with its excellent cuisine and facilities is excellent for a restful enjoyment. Pilgrimage centers of various religious uses also abound the coast, each having their own celebratory melas, welcoming festivals and are a short visit away fro the urban pilgrim to cleanse himself.
For the nature enthusiast there are a variety of sanctuaries and nature parks with intricacies of local and migratory flora and fauna. Some of the visitable sites around are the Gir National Park, Velvadar, Polo, Gangad, Taranga, Vansda, Dang and Saputara and places like the Rann for exotic localized flora and fauna not found any where else in the world.
Unbeknownst and as some would selfishly say thankfully Gujarat itself has so many such wild, untraversed areas to experience and discover. So much exists within simply hours out of this urban sprawl we call Ahmedabad. Gujarat, with its convolutedly complacent yet colorfully rightues ever-changing topography, people, an amalgamation of cultures and all that the word indicates makes this a veritable paradise of discovery in sighting the spirit of adventure, edutainment and pleasure.
Published: Ahmedabad Mirror
