Along with erosion of the beach, the
old-world charms of Udvada are also
in danger of being lost
Sarosh Bana
Decades before the air-conditioned video-blaring coaches started bringing day trippers to Udvada, pilgrims journeyed by trains hauled by coal-fired steam locomotives. Passengers would make a beeline for the stalls at each station en route to partake of the delicacies that characterised that place — Palghar for vadas, Dahanu for dar (lentils) and nariel (coconut), Gholvad (and Dahanu) for chikoo and safed kanda (rose apples), and every station for its cutting chai. Today, idli sambhar and dosa have homogenized all stations. And before bottled mineral water made its advent, little tribal girls would besiege passengers at stations, cradling narrow-necked pots containing......