Ahmedabad

A biography of Ahmedabad from a winner of the Sahitya Akademi award

There are many legends around the founding of Ahmedabad. One has it that some time in 1411 AD a dog was looking for easy prey on the banks of the Sabarmati when a hare attacked him and drove him away. Sultan Ahmed Shah witnessed the scene and impressed by the hare's spirit decided to build a city right there.

Now six hundred years later Ahmedabad is a city at the intersection of the old and the new. Centuries-old dargahs and havelis stand alongside high-rises and glitzy shopping malls. Once known for its textile mills it is now one of the world's fastest developing cities. But while the fortifications of the walled city crumbled long ago divisions between its varied groups have come to the fore pulling them apart.

Esther David a member of Ahmedabad's small Bene Israel Jewish community is a storehouse of city stories. In Ahmedabad: City with a Past she takes the reader on an intimate rickshaw ride through a city full of life and wondrous contradictions.