Meeting Ravi's Masi in Vapi

Krishna, the eldest child. She wants to be an Interior designer one day...

View more photos 

We arrived at Indu masi's (Ravi's Mums youngest sister) house at 10am. They were anxiously expecting us. Pintu the youngest,  we met first, shortly followed by Heena an then Masi. Masi owns her own beauty parlor and works very long hours. Masaji (Indu Masi's Husband) managed a fctory and was out of the house most of the day.

It was interesting to stay here, beacuse we had just come from visiting the higher class of Indian soceity to Bombay. Masi lived in a 2 room apartment, consisting of 1 kitchen and 1 living room/bedroom, and even with such a little space they were happily living, and made us feel vey welcome and very comfortable. The community life was a big part of their lifestyle, and when we arrived we also felt like we became part of the community. Ravi played cricket with the local kids (out on the first ball, although a high ball intentending to be a six) and Kranti played badminton and assisted masi with the cooking.

Pintu

View more photos 

It was in Vapi that we started to really experience the heat of the Indian summer. And realised that the current 38degC temperature was to only get hotter.

The kids all suprisingly spoke English, Hindi and Gujarati well, and were all learning how to use computers. In this small town I was surprised to see so many parallels with my upbringing.

We stayed here for two days and ate masi's lovely home cooked meals (thanks Masi). The family was very hospitable and when it was time to go it was sad to leave them.