Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial

                                    An impressive ode to the Iron Man of India!

     The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial, an imposing and elegant building (an erstwhile palace), is dedicated to a splendid display of artifacts related to the life and times of the great leader who was responsible for the merger and integration of the Princely states in India into the Union of India, after India’s independence. 

     Moti Shahi Mahal, as this palace was initially named, was built by Emperor Shahjahan between 1618 and 1622. The museum has photographs, writings and other memorabilia of the leader, displayed neatly. Two multimedia halls with interactive exhibits are the highlights here but for lack of time, we couldn’t enjoy them fully.

     A small entry fee is charged to enter the Memorial.
     

     A basement gallery has amazing portraits of all the great leaders of India.

     Just outside the building are statues of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, seemingly engaged in conversation! An endearing moment beautifully and deftly captured by the sculptor!

     The toilet block was clean but the latch of the toilet I entered, was faulty.

     The Memorial’s complex has a small privately managed cafeteria which had lots of items on its menu but could serve us only some vegetable sandwiches after a lot of time! The chutney was very pungent so I could barely manage one of those sandwiches and gobbled some biscuits to curb my hunger pangs.


      This review written by me, has been published at www.tripadvisor.in.