Flat Naren Goes to India!

Theese pictures are of Flat Naren's recent trip to India with his Aji and Abba (Grandma and Grandpa) this past February.  He visited the city of Mumbai, where his Aji was born, and the city of Pandharpur, where his Abba was born. 

Mumbai is the largest city in India with a population of over 15 million people.  It is also the financial and fashion capital of India and is where Bollywood is located.  A simple comparison is to think of New York and Los Angles combined into one big city.  That would be Mumbai. 

This is his Aji at the Gateway of India.  The Gateway of India is located on the waterfront was built in 1924 for King George V and Queen Mary.  Also, the last British troops to leave India passed through this gate in 1948. 

Next Flat Naren went to the Taj Hotel in Mumbai.  Many famous people have stayed here such as The Beatles, The Duke of Edinburgh, President Obama, and Oprah Winfrey. 

Next,  Flat Naren visited the Arabian Sea.  You can see the fishing boats and other sail boats in the water.  The Arabian sea connects to the Indian Ocean and if you look really hard you could probably see Africa.  (Just kidding) 

This is a picture of Flat Naren at a statue of Shivaji Bhosle.  Shivaji led the resistance to free the Marathi people from Sultanate of Bijapur.  He helped create the Marathi kingdom which eventually led to the state of Maharashtra from which his Aji and Abba are from. 

Flat Naren thought it would be good to take a rest from his long journey.  India is over 9000 miles away and it takes nearly a whole day to get there by plane.  Imagine what it was like before planes and people had to use boats to travel to far away places like India. 

These pictures are of Flat Naren's visit to the Apte school.  This school is in the city of Pandharpur, the hometown of Flat Naren's Abba (Grandpa).   It is the school that Abba went to when he was the same age as Flat Naren.  Next year the school will be celebrating it's 100 year anniversary. 

Finally, this photo is Flat Naren standing on the head of an elephant at the entrance of Narsinghpur Temple that is over 500 years old.  It is the Temple that Naren's great great great grandfather used to go to worship.