Ahmedabad, July 30, 2008
Four days after the serial blasts ripped apart peace and security in the city, the Gandhi ashram sees a significant drop in the inflow of visitors, with hardly international visitors seen in the otherwise crowed premise. Milan Paliwal and Dashang Trivedi, two city based youths, who often visit the ashram says, "there is a definite fall in the number of visitors. Usually foreign tourists, when approached are full of curiosity and questions, but today, as we went up to few, they were a little apprehensive". Another staff personnel inside the ashram office acknowledge the fall in the number of tourists, although on seemingly different grounds. " Usually the ashram receives about close to 1500 visitors in an ordinary day. However, in the wake of the controversy that wrapped around another city based ashram, the ashram receives even less than a thousand visitors", she stated.
Although, B.P. Jadeja, P.S.I, Sabarmati police station assured of adequate security arrangements involving seven security personnel invested in the ashram, there was only a single security guard spotted in the campus. Arie Stempher and Dorine Feller from Holland are among the rare foreign visitors in the premise. When asked, if they are shaken in anyways by the recent blasts in the city, they candidly respond, " When one comes to India, you pretty much come with the awareness. Besides, serial blasts are not exclusive to the city." Dorine quickly adds, " but, out in the city, it appears back to normal. There are no security checks and the likes. It's business as usual."
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