Exploring empty streets of Udwada

"There is absolutely NOTHING there. Why waste your time?"!! Exclaimed one of our friends on learning we were planning to visit Udwada on our weekend trip. I couldn't explain him that where he sees lifeless, I see calm. Or, where he finds the place boring, I see a charming town of stunningly beautiful cottages and bungalows trapped in history for centuries! 

Udwada: History! Intrigue! Culture!  Stories of migration from centuries ago! Sense of longing and pain derived from it. Identity; found and now on the brink of losing it. Udwada, a quaint, little town from Gujarat; one of the most sacred places for Parsi- Irani Zoroastrian, is a paradigm of collective memory and nostalgia. It is the home for the holy fire which the Zoroastrians brought with them while they escaped Iran centuries ago. 

Parsi community in India, is on brink of extinction and with each passing day, its religious, psychological, social, political, economic ideals being altered, there is a vast difference between its past and present. With migration of the young generation, the town has become empty, struggling to hold on to its soul threadbare. The rampant modern constructions are slowly taking over the town once known for its stunningly beautiful cottages and bungalows. The new construction looks strangely out of the place, dissonant and unable to imbibe the core essence of what the town stands for.  

I have been visiting Udwada since last ten years and each time I see a few more derelict houses/cottages narrating tales of erstwhile glorious past and its subtle loss, I feel sad losing an important cultural, social, political history piece by piece.  

Each time I visit Udwada, I hope to find freshly drawn rangolis (chalk designs) at the entrance of a cottage crowded with people and pray for a chanced meeting with someone who casually walks out of home and is willing to share some stories of the family /town/community and life in general. Alas, I am yet to fulfill that dream! But, no, I am not giving up my hope, till the last cottage stands in Udwada. 

 

Me outside an old Library building  built in 1938

Closed homes and empty lanes of Udwada

  One of the many closed houses of Udwada

A shop selling material for prayer at Parsi Agiyari, at Udwada

The only two people I could see on the street of Udwada 

One of the many closed homes in Udwada creating curiosity about what it would have been like when people lived in it 

Quiet streets of Udwada where time stands still 

One of the many beautiful cottages of Udwada 

 A quintessential Udwada building, a statement on current situation of the town after migration of most people