Wednesday, February 22, 2012

India: Where I Come From - Unjha! Part 1 - Spice Market

I finally put my pictures from my India trip I went on back in November. I've used my India pictures to practice what I have learned so far in my new photo editing software, Lightroom, that was one reason for the delay...along with my laziness to go through a thousand pictures! I appreciate any feedback on how my pictures look and thoughts on how to improve them! I will post pictures from my trip slowly throughout the month.

Shama and I traveled around India for 19 days and visited 9 cities during that time...we visited our families, vacationed, attended my friend's wedding, and learned how to pack and unpack quickly! Our first stop from Chicago was Ahmedabad, a city in the state of Gujarat. We went there to visit my cousins and of course, do some shopping! We also had a chance to watch my niece, Aesha, compete in the Gujarat state championship!!!

Aesha playing tennis






Then we drove an hour and a half north to Unjha. We spent a night in Unjha. Shama had never been to Unjha so we had to take her to the main attraction...Asia's largest spice market known as the Ganj Bazaar. The market sells are cumin, sesame, mustard seeds along with psyllium (which is the fiber in Metamucil). My cousin, Hiten, and uncle, Popat kaka, took us around the market. We made a quick drive through to see the hustle and bustle in the area and stopped at my uncle's office there. Here is what we saw:

The Ganj Bazaar - Unjha's spice market

Piles of spices
Bagging to transport
Waiting to be transported - notice Patel on the bag? These are outside my uncle's office!
PATEL UNJHA!!! :)
Popat kaka (my uncle) outside his office.
Transporting sacks by pulling a cart...

...transporting sacks and a PERSON by pulling a cart...

...and transporting with a truck!!!




3 comments:

  1. These are great pics girl! Did you bring some spices back for your friends?

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  2. thanks man. your photos will help me a lot in my project.

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  3. Hi, I was researching information for jeera when I came across your lovely blog with great photos. Thanks so much! I have used one of the Unjha bazaar photos for my story, with a link back to your blog. I hope you don't mind? Please let me know if it is ok. My blog about jeera is here:
    http://delhimagic.blogspot.in/2013/02/know-your-spices-1-jeera.html

    ReplyDelete