She sells papers on the pavement in Ahmedabad

WE HAVE VISITED AHMEDABAD (Amdavad) at least five times since our first visit in 2018. We have always stayed at a small friendly hotel close to the House of MG. This former mill owner’s mansion is now a luxury hotel, which tries to create the kind of India that most foreigners have as an imagined preconception. It achieves that, but is rather too precious for my liking. On the road immediately outside this Disney like themed hotel is the ‘real’ rather than the sanitised India, which can be experienced within the House of MG.

Ever since we first stayed in Ahmedabad, we have seen a lady who sits on the pavement outside the compound of the House of MG. When we first met her, she used to sit beside her overweight husband. Sadly, he died during the covid19 pandemic. On our recent trip in November 2023, she could not be seen, and we were worried that she had also passed away. However, she appeared after several days of the Diwali holiday, and greeted us as old friends.

The reason for her temporary disappearance was that during the Diwali holidays newspapers are not printed. And she sits outside the House of MG for a good reason. She sells newspapers. When her husband was around she and he used to be surrounded by untidy piles of newspapers. We used to buy “The Hindu” from her every day. I noticed on our recent trip that her stock of newspapers was smaller and more tidily arranged than in the past. As “The Hindu” is no longer delivered to newspaper sellers in Ahmedabad, we have had to make do with “The Times of India”.

‘Our’ newspaper lady, the friendly autorickshaw drivers who hang around near her, the man who sells screwdrivers from his simple barrow, the faithful in the Sidi Saiyedd mosque opposite the luxury hotel, and the elderly Moslem gentleman watching the world go past his wheelchair are in my mind the real India and what makes it so endlessly fascinating for me.