Back to business... by Leah

One of Ahmedabad's major industries is textile dyeing; it is a hub for dyeing and printing in India. My fantastic hosts took me to visit a SKAL certified low-impact dyeing and printing facility here. It was very interesting to see the industrial machines that do the scouring, dyeing, printing, drying, and finishing. What a process! The low impact method still uses chemicals, but uses hydrogen peroxide instead of chlorine to bleach the fabric, in addition to avoiding the use of all banned chemicals. It was a very clean factory, and good to see what the middle road between conventional chemical dyeing, and natural herbal dyeing is like. I am still so much more drawn to the magic of natural dyes, but it is very important to have as many low-impact dyeing facilities in use as possible! This is a very good step in reducing the impact of the dyeing process, which is highly polluting when done in a conventional way. The conventional factory we will wait to see when Paul and I return here later.

Good news about Ahmedabad...
The petrol-fuelled auto-rickshaws that run within the inner city have now been replaced with gas, something like propane, which burns cleaner and more efficiently. This is a much needed change, and indicates some progress towards dealing with the air quality here. Still a long way to go though, as the scooters and motorbikes, which easily outnumber the auto-rickshaws and vehicles, still run off petrol, spewing a trail of thick black exhaust behind.

Republic Day...
Not much to report from India's much-anticipated birthday celebration (anticipated by me only perhaps!) No painted elephants, samosa floats, or twinkly dancers. Well, there was a small parade of high school students that paraded around the block in uniform with drums, but that was it. Oh well, apparantly Delhi pulls out the stops a bit more with the Republic Day parade- I missed that one, but will be there by next week, after a stop or two along the way. Ahmedabad has good hearted people, gracious hosts, greedy rickshaw drivers, fantastic food, and an unbearable audio landscape with all of that incessant honking. I am both sad and relieved to be traveling on in the next day or two. More from Jaipur in a few days...