There’s more to Baroda than Sev Usal

A few years ago, I tried googling the word ‘Baroda’ being an ardent Baroda-phile. Apart from a couple of other ‘Barodas' across the globe, I found a few entries on my Baroda. I wasn’t interested in looking at commercial websites but more of a blog or an individual account of the city – I didn’t find any.

What I did find after a variety of keyword combinations were various posts on messenger boards and Baroda websites, mostly nostalgic tributes by expatriates and Barodian students at universities abroad. All of them mentioned how much they missed the city and had one thing in common. An unabashed tribute to the famous Mahakali’s sev-usal. That’s it. No reference to the city’s great culture, heritage, or history.

Now sev-usal, essentially a Maharashtrian dish is hugely, insanely popular in Baroda. So popular that we have one road-side laari serving this in every corner of the city. And Mahakali’s sev-usal for those who have savoured it is a cult in itself. I can see why though, having been converted after one taste of this legendary pea bean soup. But I am unwilling to let it go at that. There’s more to this city than sev-usal.

More recently, I found this breathtakingly beautiful slide-show of old Baroda pictures. An absolute delight for someone who loves this city (and possibly even for those who don’t?). See for yourself.

And here’s a short list of things that set the sleepy, lazy town of Baroda apart from any other that I know. IMHO, of course.

Navratri: Indubitably, it has the world’s best, best Navratri ever. No comparisons. For these nine nights, the city well and truly wakes up and lives it up in an unusual style.

The Maharaja Sayajirao University: for what it was to a lot of people, and still is to some. True, the 127-year-old institution is not the same anymore, but how many 127-year-old things are? The Faculty of Arts, Fine Arts and Performing Arts in particular. Kudos!

The great visionary: Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad himself, who had astonishing foresight that is visible in every institution, every monument and every system of the city that bears his stamp.

Culture: Not called sanskar-nagri for nothing. The air of Baroda has a different something, be it the Gujarati they speak here. Artists of international acclaim that reside here, the poets, the novelists, the academicians, the botanists and the zoologists. The great singers, musicians, dancers, dramatists. In fact, even the architecture, the landscaping and the old four-walled city lend a character quite unlike any other.

The Banyan trees: Pardon me for stating the obvious, if it is obvious. But the city does get its name from the magnificent Banyan trees that dot the roads and every park. They are beautiful and very, very Baroda. And one lesser known fact about Vadodara is that it is the one of the rare cities in India that has an abundance of the hyphaene or the branching palm – which is beautiful to look at.

Rail connectivity: May not sound like much but being an important junction has obvious advantages and connectivity that makes life easier.

Block prints: Generally speaking, I haven’t seen the kind of block-printed cotton that you get here(way different from Rajasthani ones), something that’s on the shopping list of all out-of-town family and friends. Really marvellous how they have kept the traditional block prints and the cottons going on for years on end.

Contribution to cricket: By which I don’t mean the Pathan brothers. The Baroda Ranji team and the BCA have a unique association with the game that goes as far back as 1904. The BCA has a beautiful picture gallery of old and new rare moments in cricket history, which is a must-see.

Paan: I have been told by paan-lovers that they just don’t make them like Baroda anywhere in the world. I know a lot of people from Nadiad (what’s the word for that – Nadiadites or Nadiadians or Nadiadadis?) who think the same about Nadiad paans and a lot of Mumbaiites claim about their paan too. A dubious distinction again.

And last but not the least food: be it Duliram’s penda, Jagdish’s bhakharwadi, Room-zoom’s pani-puri, Pyarelal’s kachori, Sandwiches, bhel and sev-puri on R C Dutt road, and of course Mahakali’s sev-usal.