Closely packed homes, slim streets peppered with chabutaras (chook feeders), hole-in-the-wall retailers promoting jeeru masala soda… amidst this a part of Ahemdabad lies a 150-year-old stately bungalow. A grand courtyard replete with a fountain results in the mansion: architect IM Kadri’s ancestral home that’s now jüSTa Diwans Bungalow.
The previous few years have seen the adaptive reuse motion decide up in India, and this property is the most recent addition to the nation’s hospitality redevelopment initiatives.Built within the 1860s by Kadri’s great-grandfather, the construction had two wings related by a small, vibrant hall. Today, it’s run by jüSTa Hotels, the boutique hotel chain with properties throughout India.
The household’s contact stays with heirloom artefacts, work, fragrance bottles, and portraits throughout the foyer and rooms
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Special Arrangement
The Kadri contact
Today, the revamped home with architectural influences of colonial Gujarat has eight rooms; two deluxe twin rooms and 6 heritage suites. Six of those rooms are named after Kadri’s brothers, and the opposite two are devoted to his elder brother’s youngsters. No two rooms are the identical, with non-public balconies, sit-outs, stained glass home windows, and connecting doorways including to the bungalow’s classic allure. The household’s contact stays with heirloom artefacts, work, fragrance bottles, and portraits scattered not simply within the rooms however throughout the foyer and eating areas. “The internal courtyard houses a swing that used to be my mother’s favourite spot in the house,” reminisces Kadri, now 91, who helms Mumbai-based IMK Architects. The mentioned courtyard is the place Dalan, the all-day restaurant, sits.
Chasing havelis in Sidpur
An roughly two-and-a-half hour drive from Ahmedabad will lead you to Sidpur, a small city home to the now deserted havelis belonging to the area’s Dawoodi Bohras. Ornate facades in pastel shades of rose, pistachio inexperienced, and poppy yellow — nearly resembling a sweet jar — greet you as you enter lanes lined with these mansions. Designed within the row-house model, the construction’s house owners are actually settled in numerous components of the nation and overseas. If you go to, don’t miss the Zaveri House comprising 365 home windows.
“The last person to live in this home was my mother. It was in the mid-80s,” he shares, including that the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel, and Morarji Desai had been frequent guests given his father’s involvement with the nationalist motion.
The eating space
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Special Arrangement
Once it was redeveloped as a hotel in 2011, Diwans Bungalow was managed by the Neemrana Group earlier than being relaunched beneath the jüSTa umbrella in October 2024. “Proceeds from the property go towards funding the education of nearly 3,000 girls at the Rah-e-Khair Girls’ School run by the Kadri Foundation,” says the architect recognized for initiatives similar to Taj Coromandel in Chennai, Ramada Hotel in Dubai, Ceat Mahal in Mumbai, amongst a number of others.
Taste of the outdated metropolis
Now run by extraordinarily courteous employees, jüSTa Diwans Bungalow affords travellers an expertise of Ahmedabad’s old-world allure. One approach is by showcasing the household’s heirloom recipes of khagina, hen Hussaini kebab, malai paneer, and so on. that the household is now planning to pen in a cookbook. The standouts had been the melt-in-your mouthpaneer begum bahaar, and khatta gosht. The stars of each meal had been the desserts: chikoo halwa, and decadent shahi tukda, that I’m positively going again for.
Today, the revamped home with architectural influences of colonial Gujarat has eight rooms
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The up to date additions through the home’s restoration have been accomplished with utmost care, utilising each house and nook. The house under a staircase, as an example, is now a collection’s bathing space, and tiny nooks have been transformed into open closets and studying rooms. “Back then there was just one toilet in the home for 20 people, and it never bothered us,” says Kadri, including, “During the restoration, we had to insert new plumbing lines, which was quite a structural surgery.” In the final decade, the home has seen three units of upgrades. “First, by my team in 2009, then by my son Rahul Kadri and his team that added a modern kitchen and staff areas, and enlarged some rooms, and finally by architects Viveka Kumari and Shimul Javeri Kadri who added sophistication, luxury, openness and a deep feeling of the old world charm of the 1800s.”
Shades of the town
As you relish the property’s numerous choices, curated excursions are additionally deliberate by the staff. An structure path of Mill Owners’ Association Building, Amdavad Ni Gufa, CEPT University; an eye-opening structure path overlaying Modhera’s Sun Temple, the Rani Ki Vav in Patan, and Bohra Havelis of Sidhpur; and an in depth textile tour of Patan Patola Heritage Museum, and the Calico Museum of Textiles is a must-do for trend fanatics.
The Rani Ki Vav in Patan
| Photo Credit:
Abhishek Vyas
For a style of Ahmedabad’s historical past, a heritage strolling tour of the outdated metropolis takes you thru Teen Darwaja, Jama Masjid, Rani no Haziro, the well-known Hussainy Bakery, amongst different websites. Do not miss the numerous chabutaras scattered throughout the town, and if you’re within the temper for a facet of eerie along with your chai, head to Lucky Tea Stall. Adjacent to the well-known Sidi Sayidis mosque, it’s constructed on a graveyard with chairs propped round tombs! The institution additionally homes an authentic MF Hussain, who was mentioned to be an everyday.
With the vacation season approaching, if you’re searching for a vacation that takes you again in time and immerses you in a metropolis’s old-world allure, the place to go.
The author was in Ahmedabad on the invitation of jüSTa Diwans Bungalow
Published – March 07, 2025 04:00 pm IST
