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Vadodara - The Cultural Capital of Gujarat

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Vadodara, a city in Gujarat in India, also known as Baroda, is named for the vad (banyan) trees that flourish in the area. Vadodara City is also known as cultural capital of Gujarat. The city has a cosmopolitan mixture of Indian nationals as well as that of Non Resident Indians with various tourists visiting this city. The major residents of this City happen to be from the native land of Gujarat and speak Gujarati. Being a multicultural mix, the city has people who are generally found to be able to speak Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi as well as English. For the people of Vadodara today, it's modern history begins with Sayajirao III. Maharaja Sayaji Rao III, who took the throne in 1875, did much to modernize Baroda, establishing compulsory primary education, a library system and the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He also encouraged the setting up of textile factories, which helped create Baroda's textile industry. He is well known for offering B. R. Ambedkar a

Wagah Border Ceremony - Daily Patriotic Fervor

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Attari, also spelled Atari, is a village of Amritsar District in the Punjab state of India, 3 kms from the Indo-Pakistani border at Wagah. It is situated 25 kms west of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar. It is the starting point of the National Highway 1, part of the historic Grand Trunk Road and is also part of AH1, the longest route of the Asian Highway Network. This small village has gained a prominent place in Indian tourism owing to the flag lowering ceremony that takes place here at the border everyday before sunset on both sides of the nations. The Wagah Border Ceremony, more popularly known as Beating Retreat Ceremony, was started in 1959. The occasion is to symbolically close the border for the night and lower the National Flags of both nations. The Flag Lowering Ceremony is done everyday before sunset. Free entry starts on the Indian side at around 4 PM into a large semi-circular open stadium built specially for the ceremony. There is a smaller stadium built on the Pa