Dear Gujjus, how did Ahmedabad become India’s business powerhouse when the city itself feels so filthy, polluted, and poorly planned?

This question is for Gujjus and this post is about Ahmedabad, a city I have had the chance to visit multiple times and stay in for over a month. I genuinely enjoy watching Shark Tank and, unfortunately, it’s one of those rare shows you can watch with family without awkward scenes, but it’s still very entertaining. I’ve fully watched Season 5 and still keep going back and watching random episodes from earlier seasons here and there.

And I am pretty sure almost 50 percent of the participants on that show are from Ahmedabad. That alone makes me feel like Ahmedabad is a place where people actually get things done. I am not saying this as a political statement, and this has nothing to do with me being anti BJP or pro BJP at all(I absolutely hate them), but I genuinely feel it is one of those cities where execution happens for sure.

Now I am trying to understand why. Is it because corruption is lower or because ease of doing business is higher? My personal impression was that corruption is still there & rampant, but it is very systematic and organised, which ironically makes things smoother in a way, which I am not really in favour of morally, but at least work gets done.

Or is it more about the Gujarati business mindset? And no, I don’t think this is because of the government alone, in fact I would even say the government might have made certain things worse. But there is clearly a strong trading and business instinct in Gujaratis that seems to have existed for centuries. They have been doing business for generations and are found all over the world, where their great grandparents migrated and settled purely for trade and business reasons, and many of those communities are still thriving and dominating local economies.

This is not just USA, UK or Canada. Even in African cities like Nairobi, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg and more, Gujarati communities are present and quite affluent. Of course these are not always the safest or most developed cities people dream of living in, but Gujaratis are often wealthy enough to build tight knit communities, maintain prosperity, and stay relatively unaffected by the surrounding conditions.

And what is the city that represents them most strongly? Ahmedabad. Because it is the economic and cultural core of Gujarat and Gujarati identity in many ways. It feels like the place where things get done. I even feel Ahmedabad is to India what Chicago is to the USA, with its strong commercial backbone, industrial energy, and a kind of ruthless efficiency when it comes to trade, logistics, and business activity.

Now coming to the main point, **Ahmedabad is absolutely filthy.** There is no question about that! It is genuinely the dirtiest city I have personally ever visited in India. The level of dirt and pollution is insane. Infrastructure exists and is often new, but it feels poorly planned and chaotic.

Public transport is also one of the worst I have seen. You cannot even compare it with cities like Bangalore or Chennai. There are factories and dump yards literally within city boundaries, constantly releasing smell and toxic smoke all day and night.

And of course it is also a place where things get done, so naturally there are industrial belts and factories running 24/7 around the outskirts, continuously emitting pollution almost nonstop. The summer heat is extreme and unbearable, driving is chaotic and almost impossible, and the driving culture is honestly one of the worst in India.

Footpaths barely exist, and if they do exist they are either occupied by homeless people with carts and belongings, or covered in cow dung. Cattle are everywhere in the city. Cows on roads are common in many Indian cities, but in Ahmedabad it feels like cattle pro max level.

Even worse, cattle are so routinely fed food waste that I have never seen anywhere else. Leftover khakhra and other Gujarati food items, often rotten, are dumped on streets for cows even when trash bins are right next to them or municipal collection vehicles are nearby. The cows don’t even care about the rotten food sometimes, yet it continues anyway.

It almost feels like wealthy people live in completely sealed societies inside large gated compounds, and whatever happens outside those walls does not really affect them. They travel in cars from one gated area to the next mall or office, living in a completely separate reality from the street level city. It is like two different worlds divided by brick walls.

I am not even going into caste or religious segregation in housing societies because this is mainly about cleanliness and city condition.

And honestly, this is like 95 percent of the city. The remaining 5 percent is just a slightly more polished, somewhat posh central area, and that is it. The rest feels like garbage and neglect everywhere.

I am pretty sure if you randomly use street view and zoom into almost any part of Ahmedabad, you will find dirt, clutter, and mess in every lane and corner.

So my question to Gujaratis is how are people okay with this? I know there are rankings where Ahmedabad is called the cleanest city in India, but honestly that feels completely fake and disconnected from reality, or at least heavily misleading.

Or is Ahmedabad basically just a place to get things done, make your money, build your business, and then use that money to travel elsewhere, live elsewhere, or enjoy life in other cities, while returning back and living inside a protected cocooned society that is completely detached from what is happening outside?