Sunday
Morbi or Morvi is a medium sized
city with a population of about 250000. Like most of the cities in
Kathiawar, this was also a small princely state till 1947 and like
most of the states of those days, it was also a poor state
(Classified as Class III by British) without adequate resources.
Things however changed for this small state in 1879, when a dynamic
prince, Waghjee Thakor, was appointed by the British to rule over the
state. Immediately thereafter, he started taking steps to increase
the prosperity of his Morbi Kingdom. He started to build, in 1886,
Railway lines for the convenience of people and transportation. He
developed Navalakhi port located at eastern tip of the in the Gulf of
Kutch, for transport of salt, which was the major produce around.
Besides transportaion projects, he built Schools, Colleges and
Hospitals also. After his death, Prince Lakhdhirji Thakor was
announced as king of Morbi. He also did remarkable job in the history
of Morbi. In his time Electric powerhouse and Telephone exchange were
built. He also built Temples, Technical High School and Engineering
college.
Morbi Princes were very keen about
development of industry in their state. Considering abundance of
china clay in the state, they actively welcomed ceramic or pottery
industry to the state and offered all kinds of incentives. Today
Morbi has more than 350 industrial units, manufacturing ceramic
products. There are also many clock manufacturing units in the city
today.
Prince Lakhdhirji Thakor built around 1940, a new palace for
the royal family. This is the first item on my itinerary today. This
palace is just on the side of railway line near Nazarbagh station.
The palace compound and the grounds are very imposing and impressive.
After getting an entry in the palace grounds, a curving road takes us
to the compound of the palace proper. The gate for entry is a huge
one and very imposing. Our station wagon gets easily through one of
the smaller gates on the sides of the main gate. A straight road
leads to the front side of the palace with an impressive facade.
However we turn left and reach a side door with a porch.
The palace
itself is a two storied building, with top class modern architecture
of 1940's, which reminds me very much of the buildings built on
Mumbai's Marine drive during those days. Rooms on the corners have
nice curvy shape at the corner. The building has bays and all windows
are placed in a band, with slabs projecting out above window lintels
to protect from harsh sunlight coming in.
We are shown only the ground floor,
which essentially has three suites in north-south direction with each
suite consisting of a hall, dining room and bed room, separated by
open courts in the middle . The rooms at the ends, which spread along
east-west direction, have Darbar hall, lounge for visitors and a bed
room on one side and a swimming pool and a billiards room at other
end. Each and every room is furnished and decorated in a manner which
shows an exclusive and rich taste. Even the marble flooring of rooms
have used marbles of different designs. I am able to imagine the
grandeur and lavishness of the life style of these Princes, who
essentially were dependent on the British crown for their survival.
One interesting piece of decoration in Library room is a map of India
of 1944, made by using pieces of wood from different trees. For each
state and province a different type wood is used. Another noteworthy
observation is about the painting and photographs, mainly of British
origin.
Locomotive shed of Morbi railway
Facade of old palace
Suspension bridge on Machhu river
Mani Mandir
Machhu River of Morvi
After visiting the palace, I have a
look at the original locomotive shed of the Morbi railway, a
suspension bridge on Machhu river, old or Darbar Gadh palace and
finally Mani Mandir palace and a steel structure known as green
tower.
In the afternoon, we start for the
main attraction of this place. A visit to Little Rann, which is about
40 Km from Morbi. Even though Morbi city is part of Kathiawar region,
Little Rann has always been part of Kutch. This means that I am
revisiting Kutch. We leave on highway 321 or Morbi-Jetper road. After
Jetpar, we cross the highway 7, which connects to Gujarat capital,
Ahmadabad. The road now leads to Khakharechi town. There are fields
around with standing crops of Jira and Erandi. The waters on Narmada
river from south, have been brought up to here, through a canal and
have brought prosperity to this region.
Skul of a wild ass
Soon we reach the village of
Wenasar. The little Rann starts from here and spreads north. We now
pick up a dirt track to go in the Rann. The land scape is now
strikingly familiar. Reddish brown soil, Gum Arabic trees, grasses
and little hillocks. Soon we reach dried mud flats. Cars can be
driven on this surface during winter and summer, but it is better to
always follow someone else's tracks. I can see at a distance, a
breached dam. This was named as Sagar dam, but it got breached during
floods. We stop the car on a slightly high ground and get out to
search for the wild Asses, which is the principal reason for this
little excursion. I see at one place, bones and skull of an ass.
Possibly died few years back. The vultures and ants have done such a
good scavenging job that the bones look spotlessly clean. We manage
to spot one male ass roaming alone, as they always do, but he is so
far away that it is difficult to photograph him.
We move on. On the
right, I can see a little pond of water, known as Canal pond, as it
contains water mostly leaked from the Narmada canal. I can see few
tiny white spots on the blue surface of the pond. We push ahead.
Parking the car at a safe distance, we observe the white spots
through Binoculars. There is a group of 4 Pelicans and behind them
are 6 Flamingos, 4 adults and 2 young ones. Finally I have managed to
see them, as they have been eluding me throughout this trip.
Flamingos stand rock steady in water looking for fish. Their orange
legs stand out over beautiful blue waters of the pond.
We now turn back and continue on a
highground known as 'Handi bet.' Police were using this area for
shooting practice. But due to pressure of environmentalists, they
have shifted out of this and wild asses have returned and have
started roaming around.
We do not require much time to locate a
group of 3 fabulous animals, all mares. They are quite tall almost
like a horse with white and brown patches on body.
Further ahead, we
see another patch of white Rann, which just looks like Great Rann
White desert. However, they extract salt from here for commercial
purposes.
While returning, we see a flock of
Peacocks and fowls near town of Khakharechi. The Peacocks have lost
their blue-green feathers, though their necks look bluish-green. Two
of the male birds have fanned out the feathers in a grand fan but the
spread out feather fans have only a brownish-grayish look. No wonder
that none of the fowls are paying any attention to them.
Tomorrow, we leave for the coastal
town of Dwarka.
(To be concluded)
9 February 2013
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