Abstract
In a modest room at the Swaminarayan temple guesthouse, there were suitcases everywhere, on the floor, in between and around the two single beds, and in the adjacent outside bathroom area with its built-in clothes lines. These suitcases belonged to members of an extended family whose stop in Ahmedabad, Gujarat was the last one following their pilgrimage to BAPS Swaminarayan temples in New Delhi and Gujarat. In the closet along one wall of the room, there were even more suitcases amongst the clothes waiting to be packed. Also in one corner of the closet, piled on top of a suitcase lying flat, was an oddly charming heap of stainless steel pressure cookers. As it turned out, these were not new purchases, destined for stovetops far away from India. Rather, these used cookers had made the journey in suitcases from Australia, Britain, and Zanzibar, and were soon to be brought to the pressure cooker manufacturer’s shop in Ahmedabad. Here the old cookers could be exchanged for a discount on a brand new model with its yet unstretched rubber gasket and shiny pressure regulator.