Musoma

Kundan Gohil nee Chudasama (Daughter of  Late Mohanlal Dayalji Chudasama and Mrs Shardaben Mohanlal Chudasama) visited Musoma with her family during July 2008. She has shared her experience during her Musoma visit via a comment left on the ‘Let’s Talk’ section on MusomaBlog.

The description of the Musoma visit should have a place in the main section, where it can be shared with all Musomians effectively. Musomians will surely enjoy reading about today’s Musoma. Photos will be added to this entry once MusomaBlog receives them.

Hi!  This is Kundan Gohil.

I visited Musoma with my family in July 2008, this was the most memorable trip I have ever had.

It brought some wonderful memories of my childhood, although Musoma has changed a lot. Everything seemed so small and the houses closer than I had imagined. I was only able to spend an afternoon to look around the whole town. I visited my school Nanak Chand as it was known and took photos. I also went to the house where I grew up in and asked the owners if I could take photos and video of the place. They were kind enough to allow me to take the pictures and video. I also visited my father’s shop, but could not exactly remember which one it was. I also took photos of my grand-father’s house (Dayalji Ramji Chudasama), his brother’s house (Popatlal Ramji Chudasama).

We walked around the market and bought some vegetables. The locals were a little bit uneasy for me to take a video of the market and said that I have to pay to take the video. Luckily I had someone who lived locally to walk around with me and also my husband Mukesh spoke fluently in Swahilli even after 30 years, so they left us alone.

I also took photos of the Jamat Khana and finally went to the Mandir in the evening with my daughters. It was very humbling to note that the same tradition is still kept since I left Musoma. All the locals gather in the evening at around 7.30pm to do satsang and aarti. The wonderful memories flooded back when we, as children, used to play outside on the slides and swings. We used to climb the wall between the Mandir and the Gurudwara to pick fruits. The older men used to sit at a table playing cards and the young male adults used to play volleyball.

I will try and post the photos soon.

Unfortunately, there was no one who we knew living in Musoma. The day that I left the UK, I heard that Kasimasi had passed away. Her son came to visit us late in the evening when he found out from someone that I was coming to Musoma, he thought that it was one of my aunt who had come.

My whole experience of Musoma was quite emotional, but wished that I could have spent more time there.

The only disappointing thing was that when we stayed at the Afrilux Hotel, the food had bugs in it, lunch and breakast. The rooms were clean and comfortable.

A note of ‘Thanks’ to Kundan Gohil for making the effort to share her experiences with Musomians.