Vechaar at Vishala – A Utensils Museum, Gujarat

One of the important places to see in Gujarat, Vechaar museum is known for an exquisite collection of priceless utensils, nutcrackers, and nut cutters. The museum is a part of Vishalla, a traditional restaurant founded in 1978 by Surendra Patel. Vechaar museum is the brainchild of the owner of Vishalla, Surendra Patel, who is also the managing trustee of the VECHAAR (Vishalla Environmental Centre for Heritage of Art, Architecture and Research) Charitable Trust. Utensils exhibited in the museum are the collection of Surendra Patel, which were gathered from towns, villages, factories and antique dealers. By 1980, Patel had a collection of around 2000 utensils. In 1982, with the help of Dr. Jyotindra Jain, he planned to make a permanent museum of his collection.

Vechaar museum is located in a world of its own, far away from the hustle-bustle of the city. In this hut-shaped museum, all the items are displayed freely, not in any box or case. The collection of utensils includes 3500 types of equipment and utensils, such as pot, pitcher, betel boxes, nutcrackers, ritual accessories, incense burners, and lamps. There are two main galleries in the museum, one is metal utensils, and another one is the net crackers.

In the metal utensils sections, one can see equipment of different elements like wood, stainless steel, copper, mud, glass, brass, bronze, zinc, and German silver, which are collected from various countries. Most interesting part of the museums is finely crafted and designed pots. It is hard to believe that all these masterpieces were made when there were no machines to make them, plus no one possessed any degree to produce such genius products. The second section of the museum is the nutcracker section which exhibits sculptures of different sizes. The net crackers gallery is the exquisite part of the museum. What catches the attention of tourists to this gallery are the nutcrackers made of different shapes like birds, angel, animals and various dance poses.

Made from different elements- from mud to silver- here one can see how mankind needs have changed over a period of time. Visit Vechaar to witness the unusual kitchens utensils from the Gujarati kitchen. VECHAAR (Vishalla Environmental Centre for Heritage of Art, Architecture, and Research) Charitable Trust also plans to organize crafts workshop, where craftsmen will demonstrate their work and traditional craft development projects for schools and college.

Address: Opposite A P M C Market, Vasna, Vishala, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380055

Timings: 3:00 PM to 10:30 PM, Monday Closed

Attractions: Utensils made of wood, stainless steel, copper, mud, glass, brass, bronze, zinc, and German silver