Nadi-Mitra (Vishwamitri – First Hello)
“I have been in Vadodara for the past 35 years and retired from the Indian Railways. However, when someone asks me about Vishwamitri, I usually have no answer”, was the response from our 65-year old enthusiastic participant when asked why he chose to join the Nadi-Mitra session.
The first Sunday of 2026, more than 20 participants of varied age groups, from 14 years to 78 years came together at the Vishwamitri ghats near Kalaghoda to know about Vishwamitri river.
Some of the participants were college students who had recently come to the city about an year ago and did not have much idea about the Vishwamitri river and the challenges that an urban river faces. Some others have been born and brought up in Vadodara and know about Vishwamitri as being a harbinger of floods of famous for its muggers. Some have moved to Vadodara few years back and were knowing about the city’s relationship with its river. At least one participant who had spent her childhood near the Vishwamitri but has now moved abroad, joined the course too, to learn about the Vishwamitri, the memories of which still linger. Two medico friends from Silvassa also joined specially to learn about the river.
For many participants, it was the first time that they visited the Vishwamitri Ghat and so it was a novel experience for them.
How does one get to know a river? We started with a contextual question around imagining river. Participants were given time to visualize a river. And then to draw what they have visualized as river. Sitting at the river ghat, visualizing and drawing a river and suddenly one is brought back to the reality of an urban river through a plastic bag – filled with worship offerings most probably, thrown from the bridge into the river. It wasn’t an aberration but the reality that the river faces each day – day on day. It wasn’t just the apathy of the government but the lack of civic and moral responsibility that we citizens lack. We worship and pollute the river in the same breath.
After the reality check, we discussed about how each person visualized the river and what memories helped them draw the same. Ayushi shared how she imagines the river as flowing boundless and so she has used the entire sheet to just draw the river. Some participants drew the river with mountains and sun and the hut – the way they used to in the schools J Some others drew the river with boats and some turtles and fishes. One participant was reminded of his hometown Nangal and the huge Bhakra Nangal dam built on the Sutlej.
To contextualize further, participants were asked to write down what they know about Vishwamitri river and its relationship with the city. But before this the participants were asked to think about how old was Vishwamitri? There were interesting answers to this question. Kinjal talked about the name being derived from sage Vishwamitri while Pupul said that it is said that Pavagadh is older than the Himalayas so the river must be about that old.
Post that the participants, they exchanged notes with the other small groups about their knowledge of Vishwamitri. The small groups shared some beautiful stories about the river. Ashok ji shared how he was once in Vadodara around 1973 and when he went back to Varanasi he received news about the floods due to the swelling of river Vishwamitri. And he was left wondering where Vishwamitri was – he never saw it during his stay in Vadodara at that time. Dinesh ji shared a mythological story about the origin or Pavagadh. While some thought the state of Vishwamitri as it is today is a recent thing, the old timers corrected them by sharing how the river has been in such a state since at least they remember, circa mid-1970s. That a lot of sewage flows into the river each day was also made known to the participants so that they understand that what they were seeing currently in the river was not the rain water/ fresh water.
The participants were then led to the laid out panels that consisted of factual information about the history of Vadodara and its interaction with the river, the bio diversity, a history of floods. This led to a few interesting insights for the participants. Some were intrigued by the number of Mahadev Mandirs along the river stretch within Vadodara, while others looked at the meandering river within the Sayaji baug. Some learnt about the different years in which the river flooded. Tulsi observed how the river has swelled every few years since 2015.
We once again gathered around a river line drawn from Pavagadh to Gulf of Khambhat. The participants were then asked to share if that was how a river flows – from a starting point to a discharge point. While being a simple question, it was not an easy one. The diversity of answers led to an explanation of watershed and how various streams / water bodies might come together to form a river. The most important things being that we are all part of a watershed and everything that we do impacts the river. There were interesting discussions around the loss of ponds and lakes and their impact. We also discussed how the meandering is a sign of a healthy river.
A crocodile and a turtle kept appearing in the river as the workshop progressed, as if they also wanted to know what we were talking about and why we had gathered at that place.
Then the participants were guided to the panels showing the flow of river from Dena Bridge to Vadsar bridge. The participants tried to locate themselves or their homes on the map. The discussion around the rivers, rivulets, kaans led to the topic of how a river is defined. The participants were made aware of the definition of river given by NGT in its order in 2021. Then Mitesh bhai shared the definitions of different terms in that definition. The participants could see how the encroachment of flood plains and the filling up of ponds can lead to floods.
Finally, the participants enacted a role play to understand the different pressures that an urban river faces from different stakeholders. And the Vishwamitri River spoke too, to share what she wanted from human beings.
Later the participants signed up the pledge sheets of what simple actions they will take to keep the river healthy.
The workshop ended with a beautiful rendition of a song of the river in Bengali “O Nadi Re” by the community elder and one of the most observant and intuitive learners, Ashok uncle.
A lot of gratitude for those who could join to know, connect and serve the river together.