I am from a community in kutch that in ourselves is known as kanbis, others take us as kutchi leva patel . We are inhabiting 24 gaams that fall under the districts of bhuj and mandvi. Till the major earthquake in bhuj, kutch was a place that would be hardly mentioned but now it is quite well known and also mandvi coming up as a tourist attracting place also adds on to that. Our people are wide spread in kenya, uganda, tanzania, london and now in america and austarlia as well. We as a community to date have in pracrice all the old traditions and cultures no matter where we reside. We insist on getting married within the community  and one thing that is not allowed is to get married within people who share the same surname as that is considered family no matter which village we belong to. Majority of us follow the swaminarayan sampradhay. Life in villages is rich with culture so we take the kids there so that they too can see the way of life of their ancestors . Many of us have farms or lands or house in the respective villages that is usually passed on by the fore fathers and some renovations are done to them to suit todays lifestyle. Some of the villages are up to date in their buildings and so sweet and simple is our way of life. Most of our people retire back in the villages and spend their old age enjoying their savings and enjoying the quiet  and simple village life after hard work all through their life. Many of our grandparents left the place and went to africa durind the colonial time in africa to work due to droughts in the region of kutch and earned wealth and good life for their children to enjoy and to spend their old days peacefully.They had quite a struggle with life but we are enjoying the fruits all thanks to them. I would like that all the people in the world to visit thse kanbi villages one in their lifetime . Initially it was hard struggle as we lot were not quite so educsted because of the financial problems and lack of exposure to other peoples way of livng. All these made us to be ill treated by others but now we are well educated and civilised and most of all still after all this we are stuck to our traditions. Some would consider it outdated and being old fashioned or backward but we as a community as happy with what we are today and would like our generations to come to be like us as well. We usually try to discourage marriage with other communities so that we dont lose our identity as a community , but isnt it good to be rooted to your culture to be happy and keep your grandparents and parents happy as well, we try to follow all these so that we can be in good relations within our community. This is a community that is not much known as it should be so i wanted to give a brief overview about us.