2nd March 2012

Today Sunil Bickhu came to take us to Gangpor to spend a couple of days with him and his family. First he wanted to go and buy some booze from one of the few licencee places where you can go and buy alcohol in the Gujarat, with a special permit that Savi had obtained at the airport. We suggested the place in Surat as this was almost on the way to his village, however Sunil said you could not get a whole months supply in Surat and he wanted to drive to a place called Daman which is about 1 hour down the coast motorway towards Mumbai. Daman is in fact a very small state searate from the Gujarat and is a seaside / holiday resort. We arrived and Sunil topped up his alcohol supply and then we stopped at a restaurant which was attached to a resort hotel. The seaside is not like a normal coastal resort, the beach is brown mud, and when you looked at the waves breaking on the distant shoreline you could see that the water was a brown muddy colour.





On to Sunil's Gham, village) where we met his wife Krishnaben and daughter Henishaben. They made us very welcome to their home. His son is at boarding school in Mumbai, at the tender age of 8 years. When Savi (as she would) questioned this, they said that although it was hard for them and him, it would improve his life chances, and he was with a group of boys from the same village.


When the temperature dropped in the late afternoon we went for a walk from Gangpor to Jatpor, where Savi's family had some of their land and one of their houses. Here we met Sumanbhai and his family who have been close friends to Savi's family and now live in Savi's family's old house. On the way we met an old school teacher of Savi's brother Arvindbhai who was called Santumaster.


Admiring the banana plants, which look very healthy, and should produce a bumper crop.


Savi remembers this road, going over the railway track to Umrakh, as one which she walked many times between the two homes.


Walking towards Savi's old village house in Jatpor, which has been completely revamped by Suman, but remains a nostalgic place for her and her brothers. Suman,with his wife Nita and two daughtes and son. He really loved my parents, and idolises them for the help they gave him to set up as a young man.


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Location:Gangphor