Amdavad, as the gujaratis  call it, is also known as the Manchester of the East. It was famous for its textile industry and mills. It gets its name after the Mogul ruler Sultan Ahmed Shah. One sweltering hot day, we decided to take a heritage walk of this city. We knew that there was one such organised by the Ahmedabad Municipal corporation. We were a bit misled and ended by waiting at hotel Agashiye. Now while we waited for our guide to arrive, we were allowed to look around in this hotel. I must say it was an interesting place. The typical musty smells of old mahogany and the curry flavour mixed together, followed us all over the place. The roof top gardens and the swimming pool were designed in the royal traditional fashion. It made me wonder, is the place specifically maintained the way it is so as to attract foreign tourists? I soon got my answer, as the only guests in this place were not indian.

Now, when our guide Sayyed arrived to take us for the walk, we were a bit astonished to know that he was taking this trip just for our family of three. A highly customised guided tour.

After this we went straight into the heart of the city. Its then we came to know the meaning of the term the walled city.  A major part of the city consists of Pol settlements. Pols are enclosed residential clusters entered by gates, which used to be shut at nights. The essence of a pol is a network of small streets, side lanes, shrines and open community spaces with a chabutaro, a birdhouse raised on a pole to feed birds in the neighbourhood. The word pol is derived from the Sanskrit word pratoli meaning entrance to an

enclosed area. Pols were originally made as a protection measure when communal riots necessitated greater security. These pols look like tunnels lined with similar looking houses. The entrance of these poles has a gate, which can be shut off. These poles look so similar that one has to be a native to be able to find your way around. Most of the pol house have a baithak that’s a reception space, an orada or a hall, paniyara – a place to store water and grain etc. Poles have a CHABUTARO or CHABUTRO. This is a bird feeder "a stone or wooden tower with artistic canopy over it constructed to feed birds" is a salient feature of the ambience of any pol in Ahmedabad. There are nearly 120 of them. The architecture of a chabutaro is different from the rest because it contains intricate carvings and complicated interlocking system of wood.

The biggest pol, incidentally is called the “Mahurat Pol”. One of the houses even had a chinese dragon head carved out on one of its veranda pillars. Also, a typical pol house reminded me of the old wadas  and the poles of the peths of Pune.

The Stock exchange was an interesting building that we visited next. It is the second oldest exchange in India.

Walking past we reached a place called the Manek Chawk. Here we saw the tombs of Ahmed Shah and his queens. These interesting looking buildings were fine pieces of architecture. I was really pained to see the state of these. It smelt bad and the place was teaming with street urchins and tramps who had made it their home. They are called the Rani no hajiro and Raja no Hajiro. The Kings tomb is a medieval mosque and a group of tombs. The tombs have intricate chaddars on them. There are intricate carvings in stone called jalis on these. At the entrance of the tomb is a Naubat Khnana. This is a place where the nagara, a type of drum and sehanai were played to announce the arrival of the royals.

The place where their holy head the imam sits to read the prayers faces in the direction of Mecca the ultimate holy place for Muslims.

Finally we reached the end of our tour. The Siddi Saiyad Tree of life. This is built by Sidi Saiyad, and has a famous stone carved screen with a date palm and a spreading tree delicately represented. This intricately carved lattice stone window is the Sidi Saiyyed Jali, the unofficial symbol of city of Ahmedabad and the inspiration for the design of the logo of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.