This story book is an attempt to unveil to the new generation

the charm of this unique city through the childhood memories

of someone who grew up amid its old ambience, and to instil
interest in its preservation and continuity.
 An early 19th century
map of Old Ahmedabad

Concept : Debashish Nayak

Editing : Vivek Khadpekar
Illustration : Vijay Shrimali
Nagji Prajapati Pratima as a little girl
Layout Design : Nilesh Dave
Printing : Status Inc.
lived in the walled city of Ahmedabad
Published by : City Heritage Collection & In this story book she remembers her home in a Pol
CRUTA Foundation
A hmedabad was founded in 1411 AD on the
site of two much older settlements,
Ashaval and Karnavati. It has some of the
finest Indian Islamic monuments and
exquisite Hindu and Jain temples. Its carved
wooden houses are a unique architectural
tradition.

A special feature of the walled city of

Ahmedabad is its numerous pols – self-
contained, enclosed neighbourhoods,
each entered through a gate that could be
closed at night and in times of unrest.
The Sanskrit word for such a gate is
pratoli, from which comes the word pol.

T he pols house large numbers of people.

Some pols are virtually small villages.
Narrow streets crisscross them, usually
terminating in squares with community wells
and chabutaras for feeding birds. Besides the
gates, the pols had culs-de-sac and secret
passages, known only to the
residents, which offered further security.

This painting by Amit Ambalal alludes to the legend of

Sultan Ahmed Shah of Gujarat (late-14th – early-15th
c.). Hunting on the banks of the Sabarmati, he was
amazed to see a hare chasing a hound. Convinced that
such a place must possess some miraculous quality, he
set up on the site a new city – Ahmedabad – to which
he shifted his capital from Patan in North Gujarat.
 I am Pratima,
from the Mehta
family. Let me
show you around
my childhood home
in Desai-ni-Pol in
Khadia, a part of
the walled city …
You approach the
main door through
an otlo – a kind of
small, raised
porch. On either
side of the main
door is a gokhlo –
an ornamented
niche in the wall.
In the old days,
divas – oil lamps –
would be placed in
these gokhlas to
light the otlo.
Desai-ni-Pol,
Khadia.
M y brother
Priyadarshan and
I grew up in this
house. Ours was a
large family – our
parents Bhimbhai and
Chandravatiben; uncle
and aunt Kanubhai and
Hiraben; our Dadaji
(grandfather) A pencil sketch of
Dahyabhai; and many nine-year old
Pratima by the
aunts and cousins. famous artist, the
Dadaji was a lawyer, late Rasiklal Parikh
(1910-1982) dated
and Diwan (Chief 11th february, 1944
Minister) of some of
the princely states
that existed in India
before independence.
He built this house
when our father was
born. We had two
grandmothers. The
elder of them had no
children. It was she
who supervised the
construction of this
21-room house.
 I n a corner of
the chowk was
a small, octagonal
well-like
structure, covered
by a heavy, dome-
shaped copper lid
with a big handle.
This was the
opening for lifting
water from the
tanku – a large
underground tank
which collected
rainwater from
the roof. After
the first few
showers had
washed the whole
roof clean, no one

I nside the house is a big chowk (courtyard). The chowk had a

display of brass utensils, and the doors leading from it into
the rooms were decorated with rich torans (hangings across the
was allowed on it.
The tanku was our
main source of
top of the doorframe) of glass beads. We spent most of our time water through the
in the chowk. There was a hinchko (swing). After lunch, when the year.
elders retired for their siesta, I would happily sit on it.
 T he rasodu
(kitchen),
pooja room and
paniaru
(water room),
were all on the
southern side of
the chowk.
The walls around
were decorated
with many
ghokhlas, paintings
and family
photographs.
Prominent among
these was the
portrait of
Bharat Mata
conceptualised by
Shri Krupashankar
Pandit of our pol.
P ast the chowk, through a parsal, one entered the ordo – a
storage area with an impressive display of large, white lime-
painted earthen kothis (jars) and, on top of them, brightly
shining copper and brass pots. These held our foodgrains for
the whole year. A cow-dung plastered floor kept the parsal cool
in summer and warm in winter.
E ven in
Ahmedabad’s
hot summer, it
W e could hear the bells and the chants of shlokas and aarati
from temples on both sides of our house. Opposite us was a
girls’ school, from which the soothing sounds of morning prayers
was comfortable floated across.
inside the house.
Cool air flowed
through the
front window
into the house,
taking the warm
air up and out
through the
chowk. This
cooled the
entire house.
Our living
quarters were
on the first
floor. The
second floor had
bedrooms, and in
summer the
agashi (rooftop
terrace) was a
pleasant place to
sleep under the
starry sky.
O n the first floor
was the
diwankhand – the large
O ur elder grandmother, Jadavba,
used to sit on the otlo in the evening and
women from the pol would come to discuss
hall where guests were with her their personal and social problems,
received. Here Dadaji seeking solutions. Our younger grandmother
used to meet Savita Gouri was a pious woman whose life
distinguished visitors. revolved around prayer and ritual and seeing
One of them was to the needs of holy personages.
Swami Vivekananda.
During the freedom
struggle many famous
national leaders, such
as Gandhiji, visited our
house.
 W e fed the birds
and kept water
for them to drink. There
was a chokthu (open
space) in front of the
nearby haveli of Sir
Chinubhai Baronet,
grandson of Shri
Ranchhodlal Chhotalal,
founder of Ahmedabad’s
first textile mill and the
first President of the
Ahmedabad Municipality.
Many leading Indian
cricketers also stayed
there as guests.

T here were lots of birds – pigeons, sparrows and

green parrots with bright red beaks. They lived
in specially built gokhlas in the walls and ate from
the chabutro in the pol.
I n keeping with centuries-old
custom, the food cooked in our
kitchen was first offered to the
family deity and then to one of
the many cows lazing around the
pol.
B uilt by Shri
Dahyabhai Ijjatram
Mehta in 1896 as his
residence, this heritage
building belongs to his
grandchildren
Pratimaben,
Priyadarshanbhai Mehta
and their family. It is a
typical 19th century
example of traditional
living within the walled
city of Ahmedabad.

T he Building is being
used by CHETNA,
Centre for Health
Education, Training and
Nutrition Awareness
since 1996, and was
restored with the
guidance of an architect
from ‘Mandala’,
Ahmedabad and CRUTA
Foundation.
This project paved the
way for the
revitalisation of the
walled city of
Ahmedabad.
 House No.

Location of Mehta family house at Desai-ni-Pol, Khadia, Ahmedabad

City Heritage Collection

108, Anilkunj centre, Near Shefali Shopping Centre,
Paldi Char Rasta, Ahmedabad 380 007.
Phone: 91-79-26579755, 26579180