I Love Ahmedabad – Punjabi View
“Amdavadis are gentle when it comes to personal relations and aggressive when it comes to business. This rare combination, which is difficult to find in any other city, made me fall in love with Ahmedabad,” says Surjeet Singh Bagga, owner of Punjab Automobiles. Bagga, who came to the city in 1955 and started a small business of selling scooters, says he could undertake mammoth business expansions only due to the nature of the people of Ahmedabad who are great to do business with.
Bagga loves to eat dhokla and treat his Gujarati friends to sarson-da-saag and makke-di-roti. Moreover, he is passionate about Ahmedabad’s heritage and the spirit of Amdavadis to explore the heritage of
other cities. He is leading a group of 40 Gujaratis on December 20 to Amritsar to visit the Golden Temple and explore the Punjabi way of life. “The darwajas of the city make one aware of the city’s heritage on a daily basis. We all should contribute to preserving it,” says Bagga.
Many Punjabis chose Ahmedabad as their hometown over their native town because they love Ahmedabad for its peace, potentials of a progressive future, relaxed lifestyle and vibrant celebrations of festivals. The city, they say, has all the ingredients that make life livable.
Pradeep Chona of Havmor recalls that during the partition, the Chona family chose Ahmedabad as their hometown and left their native place Karachi in the 50’s. “The city has given us love, support and progress. Today we have been able to establish a flourishing business and this has been possible because the city has given us an open environment to grow.”
“I belong to Ahmedabad and Ahmedabad belongs to me,” says former director of development and educational communication unit of ISRO, B S Bhatia, who is currently involved in the project of digitizing Mahatma Gandhi’s works. “During partition, my father came directly to Ahmedabad as he trusted the people here. The trust continues as I love the city and its people for being genial and business friendly,” says B S Bhatia.
Surinder Pal Jain, a textile businessman, moved to the city in search of better business opportunities.
“We moved to the city in 1969 with a hope to flourish our textile business. Within three years, we saw great business potential in the city which also convinced my younger brother Suresh to wind up operations from our native town and move to Ahmedabad.”
