Day 27: Patan, Gujurat

Day 27: I woke up that morning in my cousins house on my fathers side. He lives there with his wife, his son, his sons wife, and my uncle his father. I slept in most of the day after my long flight. I woke up that moring and decided to head out to the bizarre with my cousin's sons wife. I hadn't realized how modern Patan had gotten. It had a two story shopping bizarre with many different types of stores, it even had a nice new movie cinemas. For those of you who are not familiar with India, Indians love the movies. Bollywood as this is Indians version of Hollywood hails as the largest film industry in the world. We walked into the street area some more and I noticed the camels pulling the carts. This is something that I did not see in South East Asia, boy I thought this really is the cross roads of Asia and the Middle East. I then spent the day speaking with my uncle who at the age of 75 had the best English out of everyone in the family. Many people from Patan, did not speak English well so I forced to speak the native language which is 'Gujurati'. Each state in India has it's own language aside from the offical language which is Hindi.

Gujurat: The state of Gujurat, is one of India's wealthier, more industrial areas. About 40% of Indians in New York are Gujurat and the Gujurati, surname 'Patel' is well known overseas. The 'Patel' surname is the most common surname in the state of Gujurat. 'Patel' means famer or village head. I could see that as both of my mother and father grew up in small villages outside of the town of Patan in north Gujurat. Being the entrepenuers the 'Patels' usually are both my mother parents and fathers parent both started business from the crops that they grew on their farms.