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Footloose
Vishala is a restaurant-cum-museum which holds in its rustic ambience all the ingredients that soothe irate nerves and gives the feeling of being at home
Shivani Zakarde
Amidst all the hustle and bustle of urban life, somewhere deep in the heart lie buried the innate desire to go back to the roots and snuggle peacefully in the cocoons of tranquility. Vishala is the personification of all those cravings that any modern urbanite may harbour in the deep recesses of mind. The place is striking in its simplicity.
Located near Vasna Toll Naka in Ahmedbad, the place is more a recreation of a Gujarati village in the largest city of the state. Typical dhoti, kediyu and paghadi clad men and chania choli clad women are there to welcome you at the entrance. A person visiting Vishala is instantly rejuvenated by the light, melodious tone of a flute that fills the atmosphere.
A walk down a kucha (unpaved) path leading towards the main area leaves most customers nostalgic as memories of ’grandpa’s house nestled in the lap of greenery’ comes alive. In a fine ambience of nature, the village atmosphere has been created using charpai, mud-huts and lanterns. There is that typical aroma of village with smell of charcoal grills.
What tourists like about Vishala is the time it gives to laze around and explore. This is because the food, once ordered, takes around 45 minutes to be prepared, as every dish is cooked fresh. This time is utilized by the customers in ’being together’ as they enjoy the evening marveling at the beauty of utensils displayed at the Vishala Utensils Museum ‘Veechar’. Additionally they have puppet show and jaadu ka khel, which people of all age groups will certainly enjoy. At the dinner time they organise dance and music program called manoranjan to give your evening an authentic finishing touch. If the body is too exhausted then one can leisurely spread out on rope-strung cots or relive childhood days on the swings.
In Vishala, everything has a definite concept so much so that even food served has a philosophy and the way in which it is served makes it all the more hospitable. Usual furniture like chairs and tables are missing. The place is taken over by ’floor setting’ where customers are made to sit on cotton carpets or on a platform built for those who can’t sit cross-legged. The food is served on leaf plates and bowls accompanied by earthenware glasses, pots and vessels.
Vishala opens at 11 a.m. and the first course of meal includes taazagi and bapora (lunch in Gujarati). In taazagi, you are served with hot and delicious Gujarati snacks and bapora is a typical lunch with roti, sabzi, sweet and other specialties. There is always a counter there for ice cream and cold drinks called barfila, where you can also enjoy the baraf (ice) gola in excruciating heat.
Then there is dinner which generally is true blue Gujarati food - bajre ki roti in butter, at least two subjis, sweets, kadhi, achar, garlic chutney and of course how can a Gujarat course complete without khichadi and kadhi?
"Service with a smile and hygiene" are the crux of customer service (leaf plates and earthenware once used are discarded). The idea of purchasing fresh crockery may bewilder any hotelier but who knows the importance of utensils better than Surendra Patel, the architect, conceptualiser and designer of Vishala. An engineer by profession, he decided to make a beginning of preserving some aspects of utensils’ history when a chance to visit Sihor utensils factory in the 1970s brought alive the memories of shining decorative utensils adorning the shelves of his ancestral house. The idea gave birth to the Utensil Museum in 1980. Today, it is approximately a 110-foot-long, 90-foot-wide majestic affair. It houses more than 3500 pieces of Indian utensils ranging from a tiny spoon to a huge granary.
True to the tradition of utensil history Vishala’s collection is awesome and spell-binding. Name it and it is all there - utensils that were used for fetching and storing water to utensils that were used while travelling. The collection even boasts of a thousand-year-old utensil with Brahmi writing on it as well as pots from Samarkand, now Uzbekistan.
Besides these cooking utensils, there are those which are not used for the purpose of cooking but hold as important a place in an Indian kitchen as cooking utensils.
The basic concept of Vishala is to make one realise that positive aspects of bygone eras need to be made a part and parcel of our society.
So, if you happen to visit Ahmedabad, do not forget to experience this ultimate village in City.
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