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India.com
2 hours ago
- Climate
- India.com
Discover The Hidden Beauty Of Monsoon Season In Ahmedabad City
The largest city of India in Gujarat stands out because of its cultural diversity and historic sites together with active commercial zones. Extreme summer heat persists in the city until monsoon arrives which brings atmospheric relief to the entire region. During monsoon Ahmedabad earns its status as a lush sanctuary that permits residents and visitors to observe the city through fresh eyes. Seven essential characteristics demonstrate why the monsoon season in Ahmedabad is exceptionally beautiful. 1. A Respite from Scorching Heat During summer months Ahmedabad becomes well known for temperatures exceeding 40°C (104°F) which creates an oppressive heat wave throughout the city. From June until September the monsoon period provides crucial relief for the region. The damp air cools the atmosphere while replacing uncomfortable heat conditions which enhances outside activity enjoyment. The temperature decrease brings revitalization to both humans and nature which creates a better climate throughout Ahmedabad. 2. Revitalized Greenery and Landscapes During the monsoon season Ahmedabad witnesses dramatic changes in the way its territory looks. During rainy times the parched desert-like environment transitions into a colorful green paradise because trees along with plants and shrubs absorb the rainwater. Visitors can enjoy strolls at the park district Law Garden together with Kankaria Lake while they become enchanted by the abundance of greenery. The vegetation along roads and small garden plants look rejuvenated through rain while transforming the relative drabness of city life. 3. Kankaria Lake: A Monsoon Marvel Kankaria Lake presents itself as an enchanting treasure for Ahmedabad which stands as a prominent landmark while monsoon rains fall. During monsoon season families and tourists enjoy visiting the green lake where plants flourish alongside colorful flowers. Visits to the amusement park Bal Vatika increase because children from all ages spend their time playing there under cloudy skies. The boating facilities of the lake provide peaceful opportunities to admire natural views generated by rainwater. 4. Culinary Delights of the Season During the monsoon season numerous tasty seasonal foods are available in Ahmedabad for local residents to enjoy. The food stalls and restaurants in the city prepare fresh hot snacks including pakoras and bhajiyas along with khaman together with spicy chutneys. Together with hot ginger tea you can sit in front of the rainfall while enjoying traditional comfort food that includes both steamed ginger tea and pakoras and bhajis and khaman. Traditional Gujarati families make a tradition of preparing festival foods including undhiyu and fafda-jalebi for celebrating the seasonal produce available in this period. 5. Cultural Festivals Amidst the Rain Several cultural festivities take place during the monsoon period in Ahmedabad which raises the city's overall festivity levels. Teej represents an important tradition where female members of the community don traditional clothing and perform musical folk tunes in reverence of the monsoon. Raksha Bandhan stands as a prominent festival because siblings offer presents and delicious sweets while coming together with their family members. The wet weather serves as a dramatic backdrop to make all festive occasions more special throughout these celebrations. 6. Architectural Wonders Glistening in the Rain The wet season brightens all of Ahmedabad's numerous historical buildings that make up its cultural legacy. The stepwells of Adalaj and Sarkhej Roza along with the Sabarmati Ashram develop enchanting magical qualities during rainy days. Ancient stones and intricate carvings become more visually appealing when water droplets attach themselves to them and draw photographers as well as historians toward them. During rainy seasons stepwells completely reveal their magnificent engineering works as they capture rainwater partially. 7. Community Spirit and Vibrancy The monsoon fosters a sense of community among Ahmedabad's residents. People across the city share a joyful atmosphere because rainwater coats the streets and thousands of umbrellas appear throughout the skyline when they move together. The daily hustle of local markets continues unabated as people purchase essential monsoon items as enthusiastic children play in puddles which delight everyone walking by. People tend to find car traffic delays more manageable during rainy days because the car roof sound provides a soothing rhythm. The universal experience of dealing with rain unites community members and shows off the intuitive strength of the city's population. Final Thoughts The rains transform Ahmedabad into a dynamic community that displays both its visual charm and its food culture and its passionate atmosphere. All aspects of the city during this season show the special charm of monsoon through their combination of renewed green spaces with local flavors and cultural attractions and architectural wonders. The city enables energetic visitors to access multiple natural, cultural, and community engagement possibilities despite rainy weather. Any resident living in Ahmedabad permanently or anyone visiting will build wonderful recollections of the monsoon season because of the city's enduring visual splendor.
SBS Australia
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
SBS Gujarati Australian update: 20 June 2025
SBS Gujarati is a part of SBS South Asian, the destination channel for all South Asians living in Australia. Tune in to SBS Gujarati live on Wednesdays and Fridays at 2pm on SBS South Asian on digital radio, on channel 305 on your television, via the SBS Audio app or stream from our website . You can also enjoy programs in 10 South Asian languages, plus SBS Spice content in English. It is also available on SBS On Demand
NDTV
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Bhungla Batata From Bhuj: The Street Food Classic You Have Got To Try
If you have ever strolled through the vibrant streets of Bhuj in Gujarat, chances are you have spotted a plate of Bhungla Batata before your stomach even realised it was hungry. Picture this: a mountain of spicy, masala-coated aloo, crowned with a generous shower of vibrant yellow sev, and rising dramatically above it all, those crisp, hollow coils known as bhungla. They look more like a snack sculpture than actual food, practically demanding a second glance. One look and you are hooked. And one bite, trust us, you will be back for more. A true-blue Gujarati chaat, Bhungla Batata is bold, punchy, unapologetically messy, and downright addictive. It is the kind of dish made to be dunked into with fingers and savoured without any pretence. Also Read: Dal Dhokli, Undhiyu And More: 5 Gujarati Curry Recipes You Must Try But what exactly is Bhungla Batata? Where did this spicy masterpiece originate? And why has it become such an obsession for street food lovers across Gujarat? Here is the full story of this crunchy, tangy, tongue-tingling Gujarati classic. Let's dig in. Where Did Bhungla Batata Come From? A Brief History: Bhungla Batata has deep roots in the food carts and dusty corners of Bhuj, where local vendors turned humble potatoes into a cult classic. The name says it all: Bhungla refers to a crisp, deep-fried, hollow snack made from chickpea flour - what many know as fryums. Batata is the Gujarati word for potato. While the exact origin story remains unsolved, the snack has cemented itself as a must-try for anyone craving something spicy, satisfying, and a little chaotic. Also Read: 5 Best Gujarati Sweets To Try At Home: From Shrikhand To Mohanthal And More! What Goes Into Making The Perfect Bhungla Batata? The batata part is not just plain boiled potatoes. It is a spice-coated explosion that balances sweet, sour, and heat just right. Here's what typically goes into the masala mix: Red chilli powder (a little extra never hurt) Black salt and chaat masala (for that lip-smacking tang) A touch of sugar (because Gujarat never forgets the sweet) Fresh coriander, a squeeze of lime juice, maybe some finely chopped onions. Everything gets tossed together in a big steel bowl and is finally served with a drizzle of tamarind or green chutney for added zing. On the streets, it is usually handed over in deep plates or paper cones that are easy to hold, convenient to eat from. Gujarati Bhungla Batata Recipe: How To Recreate It At Home Ingredients: 3-4 medium potatoes, boiled and diced Salt to taste 1 tsp red chilli powder Half tsp chaat masala Juice of half a lemon Nylon sev, a handful Bhungla (cylindrical fryums) Tamarind or green chutney (optional) Method: In a mixing bowl, combine the boiled potatoes with salt, chilli powder, chaat masala, and lemon juice. Toss until well coated. Plate the spiced potatoes in a wide dish. Top with a generous handful of sev. Right before serving, stack the bhungla coils dramatically on top. Serve with chutney on the side or pour it on top. Also Read: 6 Evergreen Gujarati Dishes You Must Try For A Wholesome Meal Experience (Recipes Inside) The Right Way To Eat Bhungla Batata: No forks, no dainty bites; this one is a hands-on, lean-over-the-plate kind of dish. Step 1: Break a piece of bhungla. Step 2: Scoop up some spicy aloo and sev. Step 3: Repeat, until the plate is empty. Bhungla Batata is not fancy. It just shows up, spirals in tow, and wins hearts one crunchy, masala-loaded bite at a time. You must give it a try! Advertisement For the latest food news, health tips and recipes, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and YouTube. Tags: Bhungla Batata Street Food Gujarati Cuisine Show full article Comments
Hindustan Times
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
50 years on, Emergency lingers as memory and metaphor in Mumbai
June 25, 1975. Bombay woke up to an announcement on All India Radio that Emergency had been clamped across India in view of 'internal disturbances.' Heavy rains darkened the city's bleak mood. 'There was a blanket of fear over Bombay in the first few weeks. No authentic information was available thanks to press censorship. I was 23 and scared as the future suddenly seemed grim and uncertain,' said music critic and writer Amarendra Nandu Dhaneshwar, who would go on to spend two years in prison as a class 'A' detainee as political prisoners were then termed. But initially, there were also some people, especially among the city's middle class, who were happy to see government officials with their noses to the desk and suburban trains arriving on time, said Gujarati writer Ramesh Oza. But very soon the reality of the Emergency started to bite and the protest movement began, he added. Oza recalls sneaking into the ward at Jaslok Hospital where Jayaprakash Narayan, helmsman of the anti-Emergency stir, was undergoing treatment for kidney ailment. 'I was 21 and hugely nervous. I told JP-ji that I was keen on doing my bit to restore democracy. From his hospital bed he put me on to a senior Sarvodaya functionary, and got me inducted into the Bombay Sarvoday Mandal, a hub of civil rights activists.' Over the next two years, it was the city's socialists and Gandhians who kept the embers of the anti-Emergency crusade burning. Several of them were arrested under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), while many others went underground. 'The Gandhian-Socialist brigade dubbed it doosri aazadi ki ladai [second war of independence],' said Dhaneshwar. But every act of resistance was met by greater repression. Young men were randomly picked up from their homes for vasectomy. 'Aapression' (operation) became a dirty word across Maharashtra's rural heartland. On October 14, 1975, popular Sarvodaya leader Prabhakar Sharma's death by self-immolation at Wardha stunned the city. But it also fired up a whole new generation of protestors, most remarkably a slew of fiery women leaders. They included the writer-scholar Durga Bhagwat, Gandhian academics Usha Mehta and Aloo Dastoor, Socialist firebrand leader Mrinal Gore, Pushpa Bhave, Rohini Gavankar, Sudha Warde, and Jana Sangh leader Jayawantiben Mehta. Under Bhave's leadership, a small group of volunteers would plaster anti-Emergency posters in railway compartments after the last train had chugged out of Churchgate station. The police were constantly on Bhave's trail, but she always managed to give them a slip. As did Mrinal Gore, who dodged the cops for a year by changing homes and hair styles, said her friend and poet Usha Mehta. Gore once tip-toed into Usha Mehta's Shivaji Park residence at mid-night, unrecognisable because of her closely cropped hair and'modern' look. 'Mrinaltai would help us in household chores, even as she kept an eye on the window to check if a CID official was hovering around,' recalled Mehta, who memorialised the Emergency in a book titled 'Aanibaani Aani Aapan' (Emergency And We). Their comrade-in-arms Durga Bhagwat was arrested in June, 1976. The police entered the Royal (now Mumbai) Asiatic Society, her second home, even as she was sitting down to lunch. The cops were embarrassed when Bhagwat offered them food, said noted writer-translator Ashok Shahane. There were others such as Minoo Masani, the editor of 'Freedom First' who contested censorship orders while publisher-writer Ramdas Bhatkal of Popular Prakashan which would go on to publish JP's Emergency memoirs, and Usha Mehta and academic DV Deshpande floated the 'Group of 1977' to provide financial relief and legal aid to Emergency victims. When the state department for publicity objected to the publication of a coruscating translated essay by Sunil Gangopadhyay in the literary magazine 'Satyakatha', the editor Ram Patwardhan chose to keep the page blank rather than lop off of a few paragraphs from Gangopadhyay's piece, said Sunil Karnik, who was then a sub-editor on the magazine. Long incarceration brought some sections of the Socialists and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh closer. RSS members Wamanrao Parab and Swaroopchand Goel, among others, were Dhaneshwar's cell-mates at the Arthur Road prison. Sudhir Joglekar, a senior Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad member, shared the Yerawada prison cell in Pune with Sadanand Varde and Jagannath Jadhav (both Socialists), and Datta Patil and Prabhakar Patil (both Peasants' and Workers' Party). However, the camaraderie forged in jail did not quite dissolve ideological differences, which eventually brought down the Morarji Desai -led Janata government in 1979. Fifty years on, Emergency continues to flicker on Mumbai's grey horizon both as memory and metaphor.
The Hindu
21 hours ago
- General
- The Hindu
Hindi, English most preferred medium of instruction languages for Class 10 and 12 board exams
A majority of students appearing in Class 10 and 12 board exams preferred Hindi as a medium of instruction, followed by English, an analysis conducted by the Ministry of Education (MoE) pointed out. As compared to Hindi and English, students opting for 16 regional languages as medium of instruction — Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Odia, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Assamese, Punjabi, Malayalam, Bodo, Sanskrit, Nepali, Santhali and Manipuri — ranged in single digits from 0.9% to 6.1%. Also Read | Following outrage, CBSE reinstates Kannada, others, on list of regional languages in draft policy The analysis includes a total of 1,85,26,013 students who appeared for Class 10, and 1,49,24,580 students who appeared for Class 12 board exams in 2024. While on average 88% of all Class 10 students who appeared for the board exams passed, for medium of instructions like Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu and Assamese, the pass percentage of students is lower than the national average, officials point out. 'Only 82.7% students who appeared for Class 10 exams in Gujarati passed, while only 75.4% of those who appeared in Kannada passed. Both in Telugu and Assamese, 79.8% of students who appeared passed. This is lower than the national pass percentage of 88%,' a senior MoE official said. Meanwhile, the pass percentage for students studying in the Malayalam medium was 99.9%, much higher than the national average; so it was for Odia - 98%, and Manipuri and Punjabi - 96.2%. Similarly, officials have expressed concern about the low pass percentage of Class 12 students with Telugu as a medium of instruction. 'While 86.5% of 1,49,24,580 students who appeared for Class 12 passed, among these only 61.7% of 1,06,936 students who appeared from Telugu medium passed,' the senior MoE official said. Meanwhile, ranging between 90.5% to 92.3%, students studying in Tamil, Nepali, Punjabi and Manipuri had a much higher pass percentage than the national average of 86.5%, officials said. Interestingly, while the pass percentage of Gujarati medium students was lower than the national average for Class 10, it was at 92.6% for Class 12, which is higher than national average. Data analysed by MoE also suggested that a majority of students, an average of up to 39.3% belonging to government, government-aided aided and private schools, opted for Hindi as a medium of instruction when appearing for Class 10 and 12 board exams. While fewer students (31.4%) opted for English as a primary language for medium of instruction in Class 10, more students — 38.6% — picked English for Class 12. Many State Boards follow regional language as the medium of instruction till Class 10 and switch over to English in Class 12. 'For instance, if a student studies in Kannada medium till Class 10 and enrols in English in Class 12, s/he will have great difficulty in comprehending and adjusting to a new language. This also leads to a lower pass percentage in Class 12,' another senior MoE official explained. Officials said that in order to remove disparity between differences in pass percentage among various boards, there needed to be an emphasis on standardising assessment processes, curriculum, paper setting, and exam spans. 'These findings also create a strong case for curriculum and assessment equivalence across boards with different languages as a medium of instruction,' they said. The Ministry of Education was grappling with the issue of retaining around 26.6 lakh Class 10 students in the formal school education system, of which 4.43 lakh did not appear for exams, and another 22.17 lakh failed and thus were unable to progress to Class 11 in 2024. 'Class 10 failure is one of the causes for low retention rate and Gross Enrolment Ratio at higher secondary levels,' the senior official pointed out. Similarly, of the 24.76 lakh Class 12 students, 4.6 lakh not appearing for the exams, and another 20.16 lakh failing are a cause of concern for the MoE.
