6th March 2012.

Lovely evening spent with Savi's 82 year old phoie (father's sister) and Damyanti, her daughter. We got the most information from them about the family tree in Jatpor, and the relatives on her grandmothers side, making links and understanding where the ties are. We were up until nearly midnight, a testament to how caught up everyone was in the process, as it's usually bed by 10 'o' clock at the latest! Next morning we went to meet Askok and Nayna at a housing development complex called Lake City on the outskirts of Baben, where Savi's phoi lives. They were very excited as they had just that morning agreed to buy a three bedroom house on the complex.








As well as houses the complex has indoor and outdoor swimming pools, banqueting hall, and guest houses and lovely seating areas where you can relax. It even boasts full size snooker and pool tables. The complex is well laid out with beautiful landscaped areas.











There is a canal that runs adjacent to the complex which is one of the many in the Gujarat that supply irrigation water for the crops (sugar cane mostly). These canals are typically 5-10 metres wide and the water is passing along at a velocity of about 1 m/ sec, so you can surmise that there is a lot of irrigation water being supplied!


Geoff had talked to Nishitbhai (Bickhubhai's son) about these canals and he told him that the water system is run and controlled by the central government. The canals in this region are all linked back and fed from a dam across a huge lake at a place called Okai some 50 km east of Bardoli. Sugar cane as a crop requires the field to be flooded with water every 10 days in the summer and 20 days in the winter. You can get two crops of sugar cane off the field every three years, and there is no requirement to re- fertilise the land, you just plant and water. On the way back to phoi's house we came across one of many convoys of galli (cattle powered cart) towing cut sugar cane to the local factory at Bardoli.

Absolutely delicious talli for lunch at phoi's, then rest and relaxation in the heat of the day before Sumanbhai from Jatpor kindly came to take us back to Navsari. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Babin / Navsari