[Gannu_1]

Hey guys, I thought of penning a travelogue (more like a pictologue) on our recent trip to Ahmedabad during Diwali ’13. This was officially the maiden road trip (so to say!) after acquiring my GT TDI during early October so all of us were excited!

Member rama75 had mentioned in my ownership thread, “Team-BHP has to be credited for bringing out hidden talents (detailed ownership reviews). Members are becoming excellent screenplay writers.” I wholeheartedly concur with him. I have to give it to Team-BHP - the forum and its members definitely inspires us to get off the couch, step out of the home and wander in search of places to visit, enjoy the vacation, click a gazillion snaps and scribble down something for others to see, read and get inspired. The umpteen travelogues in this section is a good way to pass time during boring office hours (I hope my boss isn’t here!) and weekends, provides a wealth of knowledge, oodles of high-quality snaps to feast upon and exchange some feedback. I used to be a couch potato playing games on my consoles and PC most of the time. Not any more! Looks like gaming has taken a backseat with all the titles piling up in my backlogs. I used to complete most titles in a day or two (discounting RPGs) but I haven't completed Beyond: Two Souls yet and it has been over a month! That's a testament to what I just said.

Watching the concluding sequence of 3 Idiots on the theater, the backdrops of the Pangong Tso lake were literally jaw dropping! I knew of a close friend who had accomplished this feat (of going to Leh i.e.) on his Bullet from New Delhi and he had so much to share, quite possibly his biggest feat till date. Drop in at the Travelogues section of the forum and there are a whole bunch of members who have conquered Leh in every other type of vehicle you could think of! Plenty have done it using their SUVs and 4WDs, one member had the guts to do it on his Alto K10 from Delhi - SOLO! (sends shivers down my spine when I come to think of it!), another did it from Hyderabad on his brand new baby Ninja (again, solo!) and somebody had attempted it on the Bajaj Chetak! If they all could do it with great enthusiasm and courage, I bet all of us could! And thus, we (I and my ever trustworthy, friendly, nerdy roomie for the last 4+ years) decided, we WILL go to Leh when the roads open up next year. It doesn’t matter if we have to face challenges en route, Murphy’s law applies - ‘Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong’. It will be a journey of a lifetime, one that I wish to strike off from my bucket list as soon as I can. Well, chuck that for now. Summer of 2014 is still a long way ahead and our plans are still on the drawing boards as on today!

So, Diwali was fast approaching and we had a weekend and the adjoining Monday and Tuesday as offs from work. Most of them had gone home for a long vacation and we were the only ones left out without any privilege offs! There were three of us and we were clueless as to where to head to. 3 days were too short a duration for a lengthy trip so we had to make do with places that were close by - anything within a 350 km radius from Surat. Bombay, Pune, Lonavala, Saputara etc. came up. I was back from Lonavala just before Diwali after a short training program so Lonavala was struck off from the list. Bombay was close by but being Diwali it was bound to be crowded with the celebrations, the streets were going to be packed and besides, we had been to Bombay so many times so it was ruled out, Saputara was told be crowded during Diwali so Ahmedabad was left out and seemed like a good option since we hadn’t been to Ahmedabad before so it was a new place for us and we were told the expressway roads were kick-ass. We were set! Logged into TripAdvisor.com and booked a not-so-expensive AC hotel room for 2 days and 2 nights. Checked Google maps for the route, maps were loaded onto our respective devices (a Lumia 920, Nexus 7 tablet, HTC HD7 and a Spice MI410), and a short itinerary was prepared.

The route. Notice the straight stretch from Baroda to Ahmedabad!


Have car? Will drive!

[Gannu_1]

DAY 1: Saturday

The car was washed and cleaned on the previous day evening and we left to our workplace on Saturday morning with our bags packed. Work on a Saturday usually tends to be boring because it is a half-day and most of them are already set in the weekend mood! And we usually get to leave an hour early from work during the occasion of Diwali and thus, we left the workplace at 11:45 AM. Dropped a colleague of mine at the hostel (she had to hurry to catch a train), ate a quick lunch (or brunch) at the KFC outlet and joined the 4-lane road around 2 PM after driving through some congested regions around the Surat railway station.

The 4-lane road from Surat to Baroda was very good but the expressway that was ahead was on a different scale altogether! Guys, believe me when I say this - I have NOT come across a better expressway before anywhere in the country!

Just look at that straight stretch!

The NH-8 that connects New Delhi and Bombay is just fantastic and this section between Baroda and Ahmedabad has to be the best! A beautiful 4-lane (and 6-lanes at some sections) tarmac surrounded by lush greenery and a few tolls in between. Let us just say, the roads were perfect and well maintained - mostly straight stretches, no unevenness, no potholes anywhere, no odd placement of speedbreakers and fortunately, no animals in the midst of the roads! We’d wish these kind of roads were everywhere in the country!

At L&T IDPL's toll booth. We believe the servers and other equipment were housed here.

During our onward journey, the roads were mostly empty sans for a few private buses and the odd commuters who were in a hurry to reach their homes before Diwali. I couldn’t control my joy when we entered these roads and floored the gas! I cannot mention the numbers here but I can safely say it went way above my expectations and close to the figures from the official reports. What surprised me was, the car was absolutely rock solid at such high speeds - neither did I feel any shakiness or excessive vibrations nor did my friends complain of any. On the contrary, our Swift Dzire back at home used to vibrate so much at high speeds, my mom would ask me to slow down instantly (she has this nasty habit of keeping an eye on the speedo when I am behind the wheel!). At a couple of occasions we had to brake from 3-digit figures and the car would do so without any drama. I was completely taken aback! No screeching or rubber being burnt - a complete halt, that’s it!

Thanks to the insane roads and the adrenaline-charged driving, we never bothered to take out the camera much so apologies for having not many snaps here! After approx. 3 hours and two pit-stops for stretching and relaxing, we finally reached Ahmedabad. And we drove straight into a BRTS lane from the junction and suddenly realized, ‘Oh gosh! This is the BRTS lane!’ and reversed back into the adjacent lane. What a way to mark the entry into the city!

We had set the location of our hotel on our GPS devices and it was constantly guiding us as we drove ahead. But the sense of traffic in this place is extremely bad! Folks who are from South India would feel very bad and depressed knowing that the rickshaws and the private commuters almost tail-gate you in narrow roads maintaining hardly any distance and they try to squeeze through the smallest gap available. Traffic lights were ON but none bothered to obey and there were confusions at all the junctions. Very sad really. I was worried if someone would bang my ride. And when all this was happening, we happily drove into a one-way road! Crossed 5 feet or so, the passersby started giving weird looks and we realized we entered into a damn one-way road. By this time, a cop came by the side, I rolled down my window and he asked for my driver’s license. Handed it over and he asked me to reverse the car while guiding me through the process. Reversed it out, parked the car, he fined us Rs. 200, collected the receipt, he gave us the proper directions and we left.

Reached the hotel, checked in, freshened up and we left for our first destination here:

Kankaria Lake

This huge lake resembles the logo of SBI if viewed from above. Here’s how it looks on the map:

A lakefront built around this lake has a temple, a toy-train ride, a tethered air-balloon ride, a zoo among other things. Here are some snaps we managed to click at this location:

The temple at the lakefront.


The multi-colored lighting at the periphery of the lake was fab!


An entrance to this lake from another side. There are several entrances to the lake.


A random bokeh shot.


The toy-train railway.


(L to R: my roomie Krishnamoorthy, colleague Sreejith and yours truly)




Another bokeh shot. We were messing around with the cam.

We walked around the periphery of this lake for a good distance and were tired and hungry; the last meal we had was at KFC almost 9 hours back! We wanted to feast ourselves and were told that there’s a chowk very near to our hotel that offers heavenly street food. So that was the next stop!

Manek Chowk

Manek Chowk is a town square - a veggie market by the day, a bullion market during the noon and a street food market at night. There are many stalls that retail heavenly chicken, mutton and seafood. As we walked down the heavily crowded street (note that the time was 10:30 PM!), the vendors would try pulling us into their shops with their attractions - grilled chicken, tandoori chicken, various types of chicken curries, mutton kheema, mutton raan, fish fries mostly pomfret, prawns etc. were the common stuff sold in almost all the shops. The best part was the tandoori roti. One plain tandoori roti cost only 6 Rs. each and were huge, easily bigger than my palm! Tawa rotis were also available and so were tandoori naan, fried parantha (or paratha as somebody else would call it) etc. The eateries had simple desks and benches laid out - nothing fancy. The hygiene of the place was okay, typical of what we would usually expect from street food vendors. Mineral water bottles were available and paan-gutkha shops aplenty at the nook and cranny. Sincere apologies - I might have already made some of you guys drool by now - please have a good sumptuous meal today!

We arrived at the hotel around 11:30 PM, freshened up, chatted for a while and crashed.

[Gannu_1]

DAY 2: Sunday

We woke up around 8 AM, took a quick shower, ate a few slices of bread and left for our first destination for today.

Sabarmati Ashram:

The Sabarmati Ashram is located on the banks of the Sabarmati river and served as the residence of Gandhiji and his wife Kasturba Gandhi, who were later joined by few others viz. Vinoba Bhave and Mirabehn. The place is of historical importance since the Dandhi March (Salt Satyagraha) during India’s struggle for Independence began from this place and Govt. has recognized the ashram as a national monument. Today, the ashram houses a museum named Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalay which has put up several articles on display including a miniature model depicting the Dandhi March.

The walkway to the residence from the entrance.


His statue at the center of the garden.


The stairway overlooking the Sabarmati riverfront.


Miniature model inside a glass-case depicting the Dandi March.


The three wise monkeys.


Gandhi's signatures in various scripts.


I sucked at my history classes back in the day so I chose to click snaps instead.

We reached the ashram just when it had opened for the day and the whole place was being cleaned and kept tidy as we arrived. The cleanliness of the place shows - the walkways were clean, the statues cleaned, the lush green garden and the bushes trimmed. The ashram had a nice peaceful atmosphere all around and we loved the presence.

A huge open ground in front of the residence.


Hridaya Kunj - the residence.




Clicked through a small slot on the door, this area was off limits to the viewers.


A small courtyard of the residence.

We wrapped up from the Ashram after an hour and a half and headed to our next destination.

For more information, refer Sabarmati Ashram - Wiki

Adalaj Step-well:

I am sure some of us have been to a step-well or a stepped-pond adjoining a temple before. Step-wells are some of the most beautifully crafted architectures esp. in our country. Other than descending a gazillion steps to access the water, some step-wells may have elaborate religious carvings as well. During the early days, these were built for the storage of ground water primarily for irrigation and the consumption of the folks who dwelled around these arid regions.

The Adalaj step-well is in a league of its own. It is surrounded by a vast garden and the 5-storeyed step-well built out of sand-stone had some magnificent and intricate carvings. Due to the peculiar construction of the step-well, the ambient temperatures at the bottom of the well were lower than what was outside and it felt a lot more cooler (not AC-type chillness but you get the point!).

At the entrance of the stepwell.


Carvings in sandstone.





They did not want the visitors to cross the narrow walkways and had these spikes everywhere. Reminded me of Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia classic.


Notice the intricate carvings on the pillars and the adjoining structures.




Notice the color of the ground water.




The water was very clean!




Looking up from 5 storeys down below.


The carving of the mythological Tree of Life!


The central corridor.


The tombs of the masons who built the step-well. Because the king did not want them to build another one, he had them killed and buried here. - Ancient folklore.


From up above.


The top of the central well.

We took a stroll in the garden after coming back from the well and were done with the step-well after an hour or so - I mean how long could you be in this place and go on clicking and clicking! So we moved to our next stop.

For more information, refer Adalaj Stepwell - Wiki

[Gannu_1]

Indroda Dinosaur and Fossil Park:

This is a huge dino-fossil park, a botanical garden, a walk-in aviary and a zoo all clubbed into one massive place. We walked and walked and walked like there was no end and still there were some places to see; we had no energy left in us and had to call it quits after almost 3 hours! If you are visiting this place sometime, consider bringing a crate of Red Bull - trust me, you are going to need this!

The first attraction here is the dino-fossil park, which is considered to be the second largest dinosaur eggs hatchery in the world (the first being Balasinor also situated at Gujarat). There are plenty of scale models of dinos, some of them well executed and crafted and some not so. Fossilized bones and eggs (resembling cannon balls!) have been kept on display. The next location is a botanical garden housing various species of plants and a cactus house displaying various types of cacti. The next place was the zoo which has large enclosures with tall fences for a leopard, tiger, blackbucks (we spotted a bunch of them locking horns!) and sambar deers. Gray Langurs with super long tails could be spotted everywhere freely roaming around within the zoo.

The lone tiger in the huge enclosure was quite a sight! She was roaming around the fence and finally rested under the shade of a tree. The best part of the whole setup was, unlike a typical zoo wherein we would ideally spot these wild animals in an artificial cage with bars, in the Indroda park they were housed in XL enclosures with a natural ecosystem in place. Not like a sanctuary either which is a safe haven for animals but not as bad as a zoo wherein they would feel stressed and claustrophobic missing their natural habitat. The zoo also has a mini snake-park (or snake-cage rather) but just the usual suspects in the cages - python, viper, cobra etc. The King Cobra was missing however.

The entrance to the dino-park.


They had some scale models of dinos on display. Some of them looked really well executed.


Fossilised parts of dinos.


That's a dino tooth. Or so they say!


Fossilised eggs of dinos.


Fossilised bones of dinos.


Fossilised bones up close.


Fossilised eggs on a piece of rock. Now that looks pretty much authentic!


A banyan tree with its roots. Looked scary!


Gray langurs were aplenty.


A random snap.


Another one.


Spotted this one hiding in the bushes.


She was too tired after the meal. Took a stroll and rested under the shade.


The white peafowls were quite a sight!


A banana spider.


A blackbuck in the enclosure. Clicked this outside the fence.


Locking horns! Notice the vast area within the enclosure unlike a cage.

All said and done, this place was definitely worth the visit. The place is set away from the city limits set in the lap of mother nature - absolutely no pollution, a green ecosystem well preserved and a clean atmosphere all around. It was time for lunch and we set the GPS for the nearest Domino’s Pizza outlet relative to our location and we found one around 7 km to our place. After lunch, we headed to our next pitstop.

For more info, refer Indroda Nature Park

Akshardham Temple:

The Gandhinagar Akshardham temple is one of the largest temple complexes in its existence. Security has been beefed up within the temple premises ever since the September 2002 terrorist attacks and thus, photography is banned in any form and thus we were forced to leave our cellphones, cameras and other devices within the car. Only the wallets were carried.

The central monument is located afar from the main gates led by a walkway and lush green gardens with sprinklers and fountains. The BAPS organization has heavily invested in the infrastructure and maintenance of this place and it shows. Located within the temple is the murti of Swaminarayan. Beneath the temple is a museum with figurines chronicling the life of Swaminarayan.

For more info, refer Akshardham, Gandhinagar - Wiki

After spending close to two hours within this place, we decided to head to our last destination for the day and pay a visit to the 3M Car Care outlet en route. The 3M outlet was just about to close down being a Sunday and amidst Diwali celebrations. The workshop boys were doing the finishing touches to a customer’s White Octy and it was shining! The store manager regretted that the outlet will be shut down for the next 3 days on account of Diwali but he was considerate enough to drive the car inside the showroom and inspect the underbody. The car was raised using the hydraulic jack and he suggested that the Polo does not have too many exposed metal parts for the underbody coating to be carried out. He did however recommend the paint protection be applied and it protects the car retain its color without fading over the long run and also prevents minor scratches from directly affecting the external paint. Some Meguiars products were kept on display as well. He promptly drove the car out of the showroom and on our way back, we spotted the Porsche showroom.

A Cayenne, Cayman S and a Panamera (not in the snap) were on display.


The car also clocked 1k on the odo en route.

Sarkhej Roza:

This ancient mosque was built during the 15th century and overlooks a huge lake from one side of the central courtyard. This is a Sufi mosque and has a dedicated prayer hall laid out with carpets for the worshippers. It is open to non-Muslim tourists as well.

The central courtyard.


A small island on the center of the adjoining lake.




The lake.


Another shot of the central courtyard.

For more info, refer Sarkhej Roza

After a brief while, we left the place and decided to call it a day. We reached the hotel room and crashed for a while. We were too tired for anything!

The tiff with the rickshaw-guy:

When it was time for dinner, we decided to go to a nice restaurant with a good ambience that served good non-veg. food. We should have asked one of our friends for the suggestions but never mind that. So we thought of taking a rickshaw and asked a guy upfront to take the three of us to a good restaurant. He said there was this restaurant not too far from here but serves excellent food. We boarded the rick and he kept riding the rick like there was no end! We were traveling for almost 15 minutes and at one point, we got infuriated and asked him how much longer did we have to go, to which he responded, “Another 10 minutes!”. We politely asked him to take us back to the place where we had boarded the rick.

So we retraced the whole route, got out of the damn rick and asked him for the tariff we had to pay. He replied, “Rs. 210!” We completely lost our cool and exploded at this moron in anger! Which in turn, pissed him off and he yelled at us. He took out a tariff rate card from somewhere and told us that the tariff is Rs. 80 and that he was telling us the meter reading and not the rate! It was crystal clear to the three of us, that he mentioned rupaiyaa. We gave him a 100 Rs. note and left the scene. Rickshaw-wallahs (and taxis) like these are a complete disgrace to our place! If this man wanted to loot us, imagine what could he do to a foreigner who is unwary of the place? Even if he were to charge by the meter, a crook would take us through a lengthy circuitous route and charge us!

Anyways, we started walking and spotted a restaurant attached to a Hotel; AC - check, serves non-veg. - check, decent ambience - check! We ate a sumptuous meal, paid a bill for about Rs. 500 and left for our hotel room. And the best part? This restaurant was a stone’s throw from our hotel! Anyhoo, that was a good episode and an experience. We came back to our room and crashed.

[Gannu_1]

DAY 3: Monday

After freshening up and a quick breakfast, we packed our belongings, settled the hotel bill for the tea-breakfast expenses, bid adieu to the caretakers, tipped the guard for taking care of the car and left for our first stop for the day:

Hutheesingh Jain Temple:

The temple is located within the city premises and has an amazing architecture. The central shrine is divided into two floors, each housing several deities and built around the main shrine is the gallery that serves as a boundary wall for the temple. The gallery consisting of 52 smaller shrines with a door and a look-through grill. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited inside the main shrine so we were limited to clicking snaps outside the temple premises.

The Kirti Stambh.


Alternate view of the tower.


The entrance of the temple.


The carvings.


(L to R: colleague Sreejith and yours truly)


The gallery that borders the central shrine.

For more info, refer Hutheesingh Jain Temple - Wiki

After offering the prayers, we drove to the final pit-stop for our Ahemdabad trip:

Auto World Vintage Car Museum:

We already have a thread on our forum on this Museum from Ajmat - Link

The 'Auto World' car museum is owned by Pranlal Bhogilal, the founder of Vintage and Classic Car Club of India (VCCCI). Presently, there are about 100 odd vintage and classic cars from 1906 to 1964, most of which are in working condition. The museum was located on the outskirts of the city, about 17 km. This is one place that should be on your itinerary if you ever plan a trip to Ahmedabad! Auto-enthusiasts and vintage/classics connoisseurs specifically! Plenty of vintage and classic cars are on display with boards indicating the vital information for each model. An entry ticket costs Rs. 100 and Rs. 50 for a device to click snaps. All the cars on display were maintained pretty decently, cleaned and dusted from time to time by the caretakers of this place albeit some cars had its chrome worn out and rust had started to build up. Being an open museum, the cars accumulate dust quickly and they must be maintained periodically.

We spent close to 2 hours here but easily the best place we’d visited in the whole trip! Up close and personal with some of the best vintage and classic cars - I am glad I could click a few snaps of these grand-daddies before they become extinct. At a time, when my grandchildren would be possibly using hover-cars, I could show them these snaps!

Nature's own parking lot! Plenty of shade although bird poop may be a menace!

I hope the nameplates kept below the cars are readable. Over to the snaps:

Contd.

[Gannu_1]

A Bedford 'Chest Mobil'. This is a mobile chest-clinic vehicle which was donated to the museum by Ahmedabad based Tuberculosis (TB) Organisation durign 1963. It has facilities to examine a TB patient and was widely used in rural areas of Gujarat state during the TB outbreak in the '60s.


The innards.

Contd.

[Gannu_1]

Check out the box for carrying the hunting rifle!


























This Caddy was a show-stopper! She was long, sleek, had power-windows and AC for a car of that era.


Missed the power window buttons from the snap. They were just besides the padded arm-rest (bottom left) on the door.

[Gannu_1]

The tailfins used to be a style statement between the 1950s and '60s that originated from the US automobile industry.

[Gannu_1]

Ugghh that color scheme!




A 1920 Ford Model T.










The Fiat 500C! Looked so damn cute.

[Gannu_1]

Logos and hood ornaments galore! Some of them were a blast from the past.

This one's quite popular. Sadly it had lost its shine though. I believe none of the present-gen cars from Bentley come with one. The hood ornament back in the day also served the purpose of a radiator cap.


This one was on the Chevy tourer.


The Flying Goddess on the Caddy.


Armstrong Siddeley's Sphinx with the jet engines! A very unique hood ornament.


An old Jaguar logo. The radiator cap is missing the leaping Jag.


The hood ornament on a Wolseley.


The 'Flying A' on the Austin of England.


The one on the Humber.


This one's also popular - Maybach-Manufaktur.


The most revered hood ornament which can still be found on present gen. Rolls Royce cars - The Spirit of Ecstasy. This is the kneeling version.


And this is the regular version.


The one on the Packard.


The Caddy logo. More like the stretched one.


Another Caddy logo.


The logo on the Buick. The evolution of Buick logos can be seen here - Link.


This one on the Daimler looks like an aftermarket one. Please correct me if I am wrong though!


The leaping Jag!


This one's self explanatory.


This one was on a Buick. No idea what it was though.

Here is a link that gives you some excellent information on the evolution of some bonnet ornaments - Link.

That would be the end of it. We ate lunch from a veg. restaurant en route, bid bye to Ahmedabad and caught the expressway back home. We saw a few vehicles broken down and parked by the side of the expressway with the hazard lights turned on.

The highway patrol from NHAI were deputed at regular intervals of the expressway.




Call it daylight robbery but this was the price of diesel at one of the Reliance fuel stations near Baroda. We were running short of fuel and being on the expressway, we were a bit worried if we would find another one so we had to fill some from here unfortunately.


A long queue at the toll.

All in all, this was one hell of a trip! Some of the locations were truly worth the visit especially the stepwell, the nature park and the vintage car musuem. The expressway between Baroda and Ahmedabad was kickass! Honestly, in all these years I have never driven in better roads. Gujarat truly has some of the best roads in the country.

In the meantime, we have also planned several trips to places nearby such as Daman, Saputara, Lonavala etc. We also have a Leh trip planned for the next year summer when the roads open up. We might drop in by Amritsar as well. Do let me know if you guys have any more suggestions. The next travelogue might be for the Leh trip - hoping for the best!

Buckle up and drive safe! Gannu signing out.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing!

[richiesubbaiah]

Beautiful Captures!!! Would love to do this trip sometime!!!

[9thsphinx]

Have been in Ahmedabad pretty much all my life, but I haven't yet seen most of the places that you covered in such a short time span

Thanks for sharing all the lovely pictures.

Hope your GT TDi served you well on your little journey!

[rahul4321]

Great Travelogue: I saw your car at the Grand Bhagwati on SG Highway. I was in a Golden coloured Chevrolet Tavera and saw the front 'GT' badging and was telling my friend about the signficance of that badge. Didnt know you were a Bhpian! Why I distinctly remember your car is because it is a GJ-5. I am originally from Navsari- your neighbour

[Gannu_1]

Thanks guys. And while we thought this was a 'road-trip', we came across a couple with an X-Trail doing a cross-continental drive between France and China!



The SUV was parked outside the same hotel we were staying at but we couldn't get a chance to interact with them. This was an LHD X-trail but it bore Chinese (or Mandarin?) number plates in a blue background. A go-pro cam was also attached to the front windshield.

Originally Posted by 9thsphinx

Have been in Ahmedabad pretty much all my life, but I haven't yet seen most of the places that you covered in such a short time span

Credits to my roomie and colleague for finding all those places worth a visit. They planned and prepared a proper itinerary as well. Check it out - Ahmedabad Itinerary.xlsx

Originally Posted by rahul4321

I saw your car at the Grand Bhagwati on SG Highway.

Why I distinctly remember your car is because it is a GJ-5. I am originally from Navsari- your neighbour

When was this? Because we passed via the road below the flyover only once - during the return journey from Ahmedabad and that was on 4th November, Monday around 5:30 PM.

And it looks like we have a few members from Surat. May be we should meet up some time and drive down to some place nearby.