National Basketbhall Championships.

Indoor Stadium in Athwa Lines area was recently venue for a 5 day National Basketball Championships, where Surtis had tha chance to witness the Indian Masters of the game, including our very own Surti... Robinson!

Kite Themes..

Kites have traditionally kept pace with the changing times, and the topic of the season gets onto kites. If elections are round the corner, most parties would have kites with their symbols. The pride of place for Uttarayan 2009 was obvious... Tata Nano & Narendra Modi!

Kites of various sizes are flown... but the BIG ones are kept for the evening when a brisk wind blows. Anyone flying a BIG one would have the smaller ones aiming for it to cut... and then a loud shriek...."Kaaaypooo Chhheee"!!!

Uttarayan...

Pictures of Kite Shops at Bhagal area... a sight the true-blue Surti would have grownup with!!

The Shops start operating over a month before Uttarayan, and the strings (Maanja) gets prepared... all this leads upto a crescendo on 13th Jan night, when the entire Bhagal area becomes a sea of humanity all buying kites, manja, caps, sunglasses.. and post 9pm on 13th Jan.. kites are auctioned off, for next day is Uttarayan.

Surti Santa !!

Whether this Christmas brings cheer to the world or not, this Surti Santa seems more worried about the Santa Caps and Masks on sale!

Yuletide Spirit...

Christmas is here... and its time to spread the cheer around, Surti Style!!

Morning News...

Early morning news under the Banyan Tree... Athwa Lines!

Ashwini Kumar Road

Just as you cross the Varacha Road Railway Garnala (Underpass) and head onto Ashwinikumar Road, you come across a this interesting sight as you travel with the trains just above your head!!

Nearby the above road... an tired man tries to rejuvenate himself at the end of a hard days work!

Steely Defense...

An interesting steel sculpture in one of the diamond factories.. Are diamonds to be like this? Heavily guarded??

Umiya Dhaam...

Located right in the centre of Varacha Road is the Umiya Dham Temple.. an interesting work of art, where the Diamond Polishers come to pray. Navratri sees this temple become the hub of one of the biggest Garba's.

Diamond Hub...

For those Surtis who's impression of Varacha Road was an overpopulated area with bad roads and traffic, here's what it looks like now.. The buildings you see are Diamond Polishing Centres.

The Traffic Island on Varacha Road is aptly designed to reflect the shape of an inverted Diamond. The bldg behind it is a diamond polishing unit, where state of the art laser cutting machines are used.

Its said, 8 of 10 diamonds polished in the world are done in Surat.. Here's one more diamond factory.

Security in these diamond units is state-of-the-art, and all bldgs are completely sealed and aircon. Compared to the manual techniques used for polishing diamonds, currently its technology at work!