My Heritage Chronicles

Ghodbunder has a rich history dating back to the pre-Portuguese era when it was the hub of horse-trading. Horses were the commodity and they would be bought all the way from the Arab world and traded here while spices, cotton, salt as well as one of the local fabric would be exported. The ease of navigation in Thane creek where the Ulhas river flows and gets merged into the Arabian sea aided in developing trade and commerce. Portuguese fortified the area, remnants of various fortifications still exist like Ghodbunder fort, Gaimukh fort  (now it's a church), Nagla bunder fort (in ruins) as well as Thane fort (now a jail). All along the banks of Thane creek, there have been many villages like Ghodbunder village, Chene village, Waghbil, Kolshet, Majiwada, etc which have been very old settlements. As people settled here, they built places of worship. Today these religious places over a period of time have undergone renovation or have been rebuilt but traces of heritage or deities which

Aarey forest is that green lungs of Mumbai which is standing on the edge of being slaughtered. Agricultural land which was part of Sanjay Gandhi National park, today acts as a buffer zone between the forest of national park and development that maximum city of Mumbai so badly wants to sustain its ever increasing population. Aarey land has been eyed by successive state governments over the years, first it was in name of white revolution that we carved out a portion of Aarey to start Aarey Milk colony which constituted milk factory, cattle grazing units and residential quarters for its employees, then we carved Film city out of Aarey and then Royal Palms residential and commercial complex and now this Metro train shed and in offing is proposed new zoo project and this list continues.... Not to forget the huge land parcel occupied by slums which have also grown in leaps and bounds within Aarey. But very few would know that Aarey forest has been continuously inhabited by its original resid