Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat is a laidback small city only 45 minutes from the larger and chaotic Ahmedabad (a metro city). So, it feels a little strange that Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat and not Ahmedabad…. But then slowly the charm of its 6-lane highways and beautiful next-gen structures like this Mahatma Mandir grew on me.

Mahatma Mandir has come up outside the Gandhinagar central station. Both structures are futuristic, spacious and mostly empty. Truly international feels with the goodness of India especially lip-smacking delicious foods that’s Gujarati people are famous for available just a few mins drive away.

The Mahatma sound and film museum on Gandhiji’s life is at a striking pyramid called Dandi Kutir. The open and clean vistas puts us in a different state of mind. As we enter, we are asked to wait on the benches until the next guided batch is taken inside. A batch starts every 30 minutes.

As we queue up, ready to enter in group, I notice everyone is being asked to wear a audio unit and a headphone. I quickly checked whether the headphone is sanitized, surely they aren’t giving used headphones without any sanitization! “There is a UV technique with which the ear muffs are sanitized after every use” came the answer. “Anyway, these are a fresh lot for today since you have come early”.

Interesting. To be honest, I was still somewhat suspicious that in usual “Indian” way the sanitization was probably not done rigorously and I might be wearing someone’s used head phones. Oh, well! At least I checked and they have assured me. Let’s go with that.

Good to mention, that I was the only person in 30 people crowd to be wearing a mask. So, it was telling that I asked abt the headphone sanitization also. Now with the digitally connected universe, we hardly feel odd one out simply cause those physically surrounding us think differently. We know we have a tribe that agrees with us somewhere in the digi-verse 😀

Anyway, I digress.

Now, we line up and take the elevator to the third floor. The session begins here and we will wind downwards over the next hour or more. There is no real guide… only some staff who ensure crowd knows what do and clear any doubts.

We have to step into different sections with props, pictures and settings and basically the audio unit would automatically detect the section and start playing associated audio. It’s a little clunky at first, as audio units don’t detect the area if you don’t stand within the particular range around the image or prop. However, we understand how to maneuver with it soon enough.

My visit was filled with a bit of wonder of this technology, scepticism of whether it was better, wouldn’t a traditional museum experience suffice? , grouchy about a work call slotted on a Saturday which would start in a while…. But soon as we moved through the visual settings with the audio story being narrated by different protagonists, my wonder began to grow.

Finally, we reached a mini theater where we all sat in the central region and soon the sounds began , lights dimmed and screens slowly slid down from the ceiling all around us. We were sitting in a theater experience surrounding us literally 360 degrees! All around the scene was unfolding… Gandhiji was in front of me.. making a passionate speech. One spectator from my left chipped something in..another from the right. Soon the spectators chorused in agreement all around us. The scenes happening on screen, but surrounding us completely.

Wow, what an experience! Lovely story telling and so engaging. Loved it.

There was a half hour or more to be seen and experienced. However, my work call was to start and I had cut short in the middle. I had no idea that one should take a minimum of 2 hours of time to visit this Mandir. You know it now 🙂 so avoid tight schedules like mine where you have to leave midway.

❤️❤️

Do visit when you get a chance. If you have already visited, share your thoughts. Here is a photo post on my much earlier visit to the Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad: https://maproute.in/gandhi-ashram-sabarmati-photo-essay/