Day 1 - Kankaria Lake

It’s interesting that despite the fact that we have written two proposals on the Food Project and even submitted one with big words to Doors of Perception. We still ended up discussing the objectives and deliverables of the project yesterday as we proceeded towards a quite obscure destination at that time to get the Bajaj Avenger repaired.

Anyway, we discussed possibility of an offline architectural system design of the food distribution mechanism around the city of Ahmedabad which could be easily molded into an Online Website, or a book or even a map. Though it leaves us with the same basic question…

What is this system architecture that we discussed? Is it just a information visualization mechanism or its the metaphor that proves the theory that the plurality of a city is a function of the multiplicity of the food it consumes.

I guess the issue is still under thought and requires a few more days for its construction, but we started the project anyway. To be perfectly honest, we had no idea that there was a lake in the middle of the city in Ahmedabad which is called the Kankaria Lake. All that we had plans for was to visit a so-called huge 10-Acre-Mall. The place was a not quite impressive as we had imagined, but we spent most of the afternoon there trying to ward off the extreme heat of the day.

So, come evening we walk back to the Lake via the Kankaria Road and are welcomed by this gentle breeze around the lake. We managed to walk through the entire perimeter of the 76 acre lake by the end of the evening.
The place was filled with local food stalls throughout its perimeter; they even sold you coconut water to probably give you a sea beach experience(or rather to help you from dehydrating). It also had a 462 years temple (the usual with any place in Gujarat) and a whole lot of people, making it more of a picnic spot for people belonging to the middle class or the lower middle class.

We didn't quite bother to ask a few stall owners where they had come from. But yes, we managed to ask them about whether the lake was artificial or not.

Kankaria: History
Kankaria is a polygonal artificial lake, situated in the south east region of Ahmedabad with an island summer palace. This lake has 34 sides and was constructed by Sultan Qutab-ud-Din in 1451 A.D. The lake was frequently visited by Mughal Emperor Jahangir and his Empress wife Noor Jahan. It now stands as a local picnic spot and has vivid bird life.


bushBhutta, originally uploaded by clakeSnapster.

Kankaria Lake: Life around it.
So this is the place where we meet Gautam Bhai [ Bhutta walla (roasted corn vendor) ]. Quite an interesting find if you just manage to have a look at his nothing-out-ordinary stall with a giant flex which apparently has been covered by two English Newspapers and a magazine called Chitralekha. The reason being that his flex has George W. Bush eating 'bhutta'! We spoke to him about the cost of the flex and he says, "I spent 900 bucks on the flex, but I don't regret that expenditure a bit. I wouldn't have made into newspapers even if I had spent 5000 bucks on it." It's amazing that even Bush can take you that far with your publicity. And then he gave us his card and said that that he thought of putting a photo of George W. Bush on his visiting card as well but then he thought is zyada ho jayega. (it would be too much!)

He presents another model of original and different thought that probably reinvents the concept of innovation. Before I forget to mention, the place presented a strange distinction, all the proper big size stalls made for the elite among the ordinary men and women out in that place were on the outer perimeter of the lake. All the smaller stalls were on the inner perimeter separated by a road. Probably it’s more a function of the proposed architecture around the lake but still it creates an essential notion of separation between people mostly economic in the present scenario. Now, the Lake has an island garden set amidst of the lake, Nagina Wadi. There is a beautiful pathway that connects one side of the lake to Nagina Wadi. It involves an expenditure of 10 rupees per person to get inside for a laser and musical fountain show, which was not bad except for the part where one thought it was a waste of the technology they had at hand.It lacked the essential construct of experience design and with the amount of exposure that my friend has of such things in Singapore and Thailand, we ended up discussing the possibility of a BTech. Project in experience design and yes, we ended up telling a few things to the manager of the place.

Kankaria Lake has been garnered into quite an interesting ensemble of places for entertainment around. With a zoo and a park and an exhibition center, the place forms the essence of reason for the growth of the place and the interactions between people! Food happens to support the cause in elementary ways. Public interaction requires food because the notion of food and its consumption probably breaks down the inherent barriers among people easing conversations and the overall experience of a place.We moved on from that place, knowing for starters that food and experience are complementary. One works for the other. And the relationship is mutually dependent.