Discovering an ancestral treasure chest: Tales from Patan

It was one of those rare Sunday evenings, where I truly felt so happy. The husband and I were in an auto rickshaw on our way to Unjha station from Patan. Amidst the pitch dark sky, sparkling stars and the refreshing winds from the fields on both sides of the roads, I thought to my self, that this weekend had been the best holiday I had ever had in years. I felt like someone who had just discovered a treasure chest. Going back to the roots of my maternal grandparents families and my paternal grandmothers home, discovering the town of Patan and small towns nearby was truly an enriching experience.   So here is detailed account of my trip, a bit long.

The train to Patan

My maternal grandparents were going to be visiting Patan and staying at one of our relative’s house. The grandfather was keen that the husband visit`s the town. Me on the other hand had always been excited with the concept of going to Patan but November has been a hectic month, with travels on every weekend, so I wasn’t particularly keen. Any ways, with some coaxing from the husband  and the lovely tales narrated by my grandmother and aunt about their train rides to Patan, where they got onto an extremely slow train from Ahmedabad, which also had goats and cattle for company got me excited. The husband somehow managed to get the train tickets. Secretly, I wished he had not and we would get an opportunity to travel in the general compartment. Our train ride was quite un-eventful, there was nothing rustic about the experience, till we crossed the tracks at Unjha station in the morning  to get into an auto and go to Patan almost 25 km away.

We entered Patan city and the auto driver, not a local asked a couple of people for our destination address, Loteshwar mandir. After scrambling through many tiny by lanes and some fabulous houses, we finally landed at our destination. The grandparents were overjoyed seeing us.  They felt like we had fought some big battle by reaching Patan and heaved a sigh of relief.

Our home stay in Patan

The house we were staying was my maternal grandmothers sister`s house and also my paternal grandmother`s  Masi`s house. The sister was no more, but her family had renovated and maintained this ancestral home with some basic facilities. This was in kampani pada. The house had a typical old character to it. With a living room, kitchen and a small room in the ground floor. A small staircase led up to the first floor which had a small covered terrace in the middle connecting 2 rooms. One room was in the main road with small windows. The early mornings in Patan are  truly magical wonderful. People walking through, the cleaners cleaning the road  and the rabarans selling milk and vegetables.

Some basic facts about the architecture of Patan

Patan has a variety of houses. Some in art décor style some with distinct Indian carvings. More than 90% of houses have a common wall, they are mostly stuck next to each similar to the town homes of America. The utility of space in these houses  is amazing. When you look at some of this houses, you may feel they are really tiny but when you actually walk inside you will amazed to see a terrace and tiny rooms and even  a basement. Many of them have1 or 2 floors  connected through really tiny wooden staircases

Vada- Vada means a gated community with lots of houses.

Pada-   means an area with less houses.

Seri - means a tiny lane with just 2 houses.

Dehla means a big open space with a door, more like a god own 

Chowk- Like a junction

Walking tour of Patan with the grand parents

The grand mother was super excited and over a cup of tea, she told us about the various people who lived in various houses and vadas and insisted that she would walk with us and show us all the houses. At the age of 86 she has a fabulous memory. On the other hand we called up the paternal grand mother who is in Bangalore, asking her to stay next to her ipad as we would take her through a live walking tour of Patan.  

Renuka Ba`s birth place

We  walk out of the kampani pada and come towards something called Limdi chowk(4 roads). Interestingly there is a big Limda tree on the middle of the road. My grand mother in excitement tells me that big white mansion at the beginning of the road, was actually a Dehala( a big open space with a door) and behind that was her Mothers maternal house. This was where she was born in a little godown. The people of patan are really warm, as soon as we went near the house they all came out and even offered us water and breakfast.  

Kasumbia vada-   Our next stop was Kasumbia vada, this is where my Dadi`s house was located. This vada had some fabulous old houses. There was a huge big bungalow owned by the Kilachands, which was quite old and had got ripped off during the earthquake. Only the remnants of that house remained. In the tiny lanes of this vada still stood some lovely houses owned by one of our relatives another Kilachand. It had lovely balconies and mark of KC

Dadi`s house

The main entrance of GTC house in Patan

As we walked towards Dadi`s house in Patan,  GTC house in the same vada, some of the neighbors came out. Some people recollected meeting Lili ba, my grand mother`s mother. We enquired who lived in the house and as my nana nani conversed with the neighbors, they somehow managed to get the keys to the house and we were able to see how it looked.

Carving  on the main door of  Dadi`s house with the  crown and the Kalash

The house had lovely carvings outside with a distinct carving of the queen’s crown at the entrance and kalash carving below, perhaps it was symbolic of the family, the perfect blend of east and west.

The backside terrace with the symbol
GJC Gordhandhas
Jamnadas Choksey

Side view of the house

On video call,  Dadi tell us that her father has actually got this house build with the help of one of his friends who was an architect or engineer. 

The Grand staircase 

The house had a grand stair case leading upstairs and the tiles from the olden time.  As I walked into that house, I tried hard to imagine how life must have been when the entire family lived in this, I wish I could rewind into a day back then.

The front view of Nananji`s house from
Kampani Pada

Nanaji`s house

My Nanaji`s family was a very prosperous family of the patan nath. They had a huge business of supplying Herda from Maharashtra. So they didn’t live a lot in patan but they had many house. 2 of their houses were located in Kusumbia vada.

One of the houses which they last owned, was huge half of the house was in Kusumbia vada and the other on the main road of Kampana pada. This was the most fabulous house I had ever seen. Nanaji`s cousin uncle whose name was also Kilachand had got this house built in 1940 for his son Jayanti`s wedding. He was known to be a very prominent personality. v

The house had 3 floors. If you entered the house from Kusumba vada,  on  the ground  floor there was a small platform ootla  as they call  it in gujarati, where people sat in evenings to chat with the neigbours.The door had fabulous carvings, and design of the exterior was uniform to how it looked on the other side of the road. There were 3 rooms on the ground floor. When you entered there was a small open room with tiny staircase leading up, next was the kitchen, which also had a staircase and last was the living room with a toilet. 
The Living room door opened to the other side of the road. We climbed the first floor from the back side staircase. On the first floor was a small covered room, with tiles pieced flooring with a lovely design.  

The next floor lead us to another room, more like a store room. When we opened the storeroom door, it lead us to a lovely open terrace, and next to the terrace  on the other side was another huge room, where there was big old poster bed, which belonged to our family.  This room also had a tiny terrace. From this room itself we could now go down via front side stairs which lead into the kitchen. We climbed down to the   2^nd floor of these side, where there were 2 rooms. 

One of the rooms which opened on the road side had lovely windows and wooden cupboards embedded in the walls of the  house.

The family who lived their now had purchased this house from Nanaji`s family in 1990. Apparently this house was rumored to have had the ghost of jayanti kaka, nanaji`s cousin brother.The family said they were very happy with the house and they never meet any ghost:

Auto ride

Our next halt was going to Vakharna Pada where my Nani`s father`s house was. It also had houses of other relatives.  As the distance was a bit far, we had to take an auto. We were five of us in one auto. This was great experience travelling on the front seat of the auto. We visited few of the old temples, one of which was built by Dadi`s grandfather.

Nani`s  house:

My Nani`s house was at the  left hand side entrance of vakharana pada. Nani`s brother had rebuilt the house many years back, so there was nothing old or ancient about this place.

My Nani  had quite a tragic child hood. Her mother died very young of a stomach ulcer in Bombay leaving back 5 children with her youngest sister only 2.5 years old. She was only 14, being the eldest sister she had to take on the responsibility of taking care of her younger siblings.  Her father then a  trader of flours, having a shop at nal bazzar, Bombay was perhaps so shattered, that he  developed severe Aasthma. Doctors though that the Patan air may suit him better, so my Nani left her school at 4^th standard and came to Patan, to look after the father and the siblings.  Unfortunately her father didn`t live too long he passed away within a year.  The house as my Nani describes it was quite nice. It has lovely red titles, a floor on the top with 1 room and 2 rooms downstairs. Her mother`s widow sister helped raise the other children.  After 3 years, when Nani was 18 she got married to Nanaji and started her new life in Kishore Bhuvan, Mumbai. She was determined to study, so she would go to school from 1-6pm every day and somehow managed to complete 10^th.

Other houses in Vakharana Pada

In vakharana pada, in a tiny  lane was the house of Dadi`s nanaji.  It was a tiny house with just one floor.  Last we went and visited Praveena ben and Shantibai an elderly couple, they were related to us and have been living in Patan for years. My father was good friends with them, perhaps coz they too were great connoisseurs of art and my dad would make many trips to Gujarat as a youngster to purchase handicrafts over the weekend and sell in Bombay. They too lived in a house which was rebuilt. But my aunt had described their old house to me and what was most fascinating of that house was a small opening in the basement, where one could hide.

Patan na Patola-

The newly designed Patola museum of Patan is a recent development. The Salvi family originated from Maharashtra and were perhaps the first of the lot to make any kind of cloth. The Salvi jain community  about 1000 families migrated to Patan  during the role of the siddpur king  and were in this Patola weaving business. Now only 3-4 families are left. The museum display`s ikkhat, patola art from different parts of the world, and patolas of patan. The weaving of this patola requires distinct skill and a lot of patience. It takes at least 9 months to make one saree. The beautiful sarees cost around Rs. 1.9lacs.  At this stage of life, I can perhaps not afford to buy a patalo saree, but I do buy a few cards with the patola design

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Ranki Vau & Shastraling talav- Ranki Vav  and Shastraling talav are a part of world heritage sites.  When I had been here 15 years ago,  with my dad. It  had lied in the ruins than. But Gujrat tourism, seems to have taken some good steps towards developing this place, with lovely green gardens in both the locations. 
Apart from the locals who come here for an evening outing, you will see a lot of foreign tourists too,

Famous foods of Patan

Patan is famous for his potato chip chevda, penda and salam pak.