Walking down a little down lane in Dariapur, what you do not expect to come across is a mosque that looks like it belongs a bit in Morocco. The colours of mud and the earth, the straight lines that lead into a dome, the rough texture of the walls.

   Yet, if you look closely, your first expression is illusionary. The air of Morocco vanishes and you are back in Ahmedabad. In an area not really known for its wealth or ostentation (riots and mayhem are more associated with it), the structure represents a community effort. When fully functional it works as a meeting and a religious monument.

   Architect, Hiren Patel who got the project through a family friend was intrigued by the idea of being asked to design a mosque. a first for him. I have very close friends who are Muslims but to design a mosque meant trying to understand a religion and community from within. He traveled within Gujarat studying small mosques .he knew it had to be kept simple, as both space and money were a factor.

   “I initially thought of blue tiled domes like in Russia. But when I decided to keep it simpler. My clients were quite modernistic in approach. I did not have to fight to convince them about my ideas. He was given a very free hand. This is unlike temples where we have to stick to tradition,” he explains.

   As Patel was aware, however people like ornamentation. That was where Nissatbhai from temple and gurudwara along the highway are testament to his carving skills –but he was asked to embellish the domes and the doorway.

   The mosque is set in a crooked corner plot of 950 sq. yards which includes the prayer area with a carved mimbra, a small garden with open to sky space the then has offices and community areas. The colours are yellow ochre and mud brown with white for the colours.

   Buildings and the compound wall, with its rough texture and colours, both the human-made and aviary kind, surround it. It speaks of a close-knit community mixed in its representation but also, somewhere of congestion and confusion. After all, this is old Ahmedabad and isn’t that an SRP checkpoint down there?

   But it’s still about children running through lanes, street vendors peddling their ware and people going about their work. And there, it’s about a mosque designed by a Ahmedabad Architect who happens to be a Hindu.

   Says the engineer Zakir Shaikh, People wondered whether we were building a mosque or something quite strange. Now they have got used to it.

   Much like Ahmedabad and Daripur, the building of the mosque required a blend of religious and culture as. Patel says got the Dadamiyan mosque project we got the Dada Bhagwan project to build a Jain temple and Dharamsala. Nissatbhai will be helping him in that as well. From domes of a Masjid to the towers of a temple is not too long journey here. Today, Anjuman-e-Rehmat-e-Alam of Dadamiyan mosque stands as symbol of hope, of the success that can come from collaboration. Dariapur is crowded, congested and given to communal tension. Will the strands that have gone into the Dadamiyan help?

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