Ancestral Lands

My family is originally from the village of Kambath, also known as Cambay, at the head of the Bay of Kambath.  Neither of my parents actually ever lived there but Indians usually maintain a connectionto their town of origin, often marrying into other families with origins in the same village.

On the way down to Kambath I stopped off at Lothal, a Harrappan settlement from 2,500BC.  Here you will find the remains of the first known dock in history and the excavated traces of the settlement.  An interesting feature of Harrapan cities is their sewage drainage systems, the first to have such.  It's actually a very small site, mostly missed by domestic and foreign tourists, way out in the middle of nowhere but because it was on the way I had the opportunity to visit it.

Kambath is a sleepy little town of 80,000 with few cars on the road, certainly more cows than cars.  After meeting with some relatives my uncle Hemunt picked me up on a motorcycle and we rode around town to get a feel for the place.  Kambath is actually an ancient place, reached by Alexander the Great when he poked into India.  The mosque pictures was built in 1313.

We tracked down Ghodypore, Ghody Street, where curious locals who were wondering why I was taking pictures of the street showed me to where my grandfather lived.  The place was boarded up and the street too narrow to capture the whole thing, so you'll see just the doors in the picture below.

We then rode past my maternal grandfather's house, so obviously built in the 60's.  One of the neighbors who saw me taking photos insisted I knock on the door and meet the people staying there to take a look around inside.  Some distant relations were occupying the house while their own place was being renovated.  After the obligatory pleasantries I skipped the tour because my uncle had a couple places he wanted to show me at sunset.