swally suvali surat

SUVALI SHORE’S SWALLY SECRETS……….
As the winter Sun beckons us Surtis to bask in it for a picnic, more often than not, suburbanites head towards Suvali beach that lies12 kms.NorthWest; Famous for its privacy and infamous for its treacherous tides, here many a young soul has lost its life. Deep down, a number of secrets lie buried below the sands. There is a lot more than meets the eye on this now barren land………………
In the pages of Indian and British history, ‘Swally’ as the Brits called it in their anglicized way, was the port where the English ships docked to enter and depart Surat .Since the Tapti was heavily silted at times and busy with the Portuguese ships ,this shore made easy entry point even in times of low tide. So deep are the waters off –shore this area that it was possible to embark even the heavy tonnage ships here. Little wonder then, that till this date a number of people enjoying on the edge of the beach are caught completely unawares when the tide comes in inundating the otherwise dry area and makes it absolutely impossible for anyone to swim back to the shore.
Few people know that Suvali is also the birthplace of the Indian Navy. Surprised, are you? Well here is the low down on it-In 1612, Captain Thomas Best encountered and defeated the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally.This marked the end of the Portugal commercial trade in India and the beginning of British ascent .To protect the port from further such encounters with pirates and intruders The English maintained a small fighting fleet from 5th September that year onwards .Named The Honourable East India Company’s Marine, the officers of which went on to play an important role in surveying and protecting the Arabian, Persian and Indian coastlines and later functioned from Bombay. Then onwards, any ship embarking this shore would have to pay tax to the Company to do so.
Below the now silted shores lie a field of bones in what used to be the graveyard of Swally.Historians believe that the eccentric English author ,polyglot and traveller Thomas Coryate ,whose travel book ‘Coryat’s Crudities’ was a rage in that age lies buried here. A comedian at heart, he was known for his humorous way of writing about his courageous travels around the Globe. Known as the ‘English Fakir’ in Surat, his tomb was constructed in Mohammedan style with a 20 feet high edifice over it.
One of India’s oldest lighthouses, the Hazira light, previously known as the Taptee/Suvali light also shares the Suvali shore further down. Humbly built with masts and fire logs initially, the tower built thereafter was completely destroyed by a fire from its petromax apparatus in 1836. Since then it has been upgraded often with lights from different parts of the world and now stands proudly with state of the art equipment and a metal halide lamp.
Thus, the silent Suvali shores share secrets in galore. So the next time you visit this now vacant shore, try and envisage what Suvali must have looked like in its busy days of yore.

RADIO GAA GAA……FM FEVER IS HERE TO SWAY………

RADIO GAA GAA……FM FEVER IS HERE TO SWAY………

It’s finally here! The Radio Revolution that we Surtis have been making noise about. We now have our own for apnu Surat.No more need we be dependent on the Mumbai/Ahmedabad folks and their jokes…… BIG927, MIRCHI and MYFM are here to please us. Hopefully, this means that we will be able to listen to format especially created for people of Tapi- town. Even though commuting in Surat takes only a max.time period of 30mins to go from any point A to B, we have faithful radio listeners in our busy sabzi and paanwallahs, over worked diamond polishers, trendy college kids with fancy mobile phones, bored housewives who have had enough of saas bahus and of course commuters by cars and autos who need not worry if their c.d.players have gone for a six. There is something for everyone as all the frequencies have a different age group on target, be it from varachha, to ved road, katargaam to, khatkiwaad or lalgate to majuragate.So you can ‘suno sunao,life banao’ and be ‘always khush ‘with filmy songs,bhajans, cricket remixed [20-twenty] scores and town tattle.’ Move over Parvati and Mr.Walia, here come Vidya Belan and Raj a.k.a Munna.
The radio bandwagon is all set to woo us surtis by giving away freebies in forms of coupons for coffee and dinners, tickets to movies and other knick knacks as they offer easy to answer questions and options. Describing Surat as khubsurat and a land of fine dining,’ ‘leheri lalas’ and patang manja, they talk about the town nukkads in a nutshell. Popular film characters are impersonated to make the lingo more entertaining. Personal problems –a la’ Sleepless in Seattle’ are aired to get surtis to participate in phone-in/sms advice .Even though some of the RJ.’s[radio jockeys] sound ahmedabadi, the script given to them is surti so they should be able to catch up given some time. Thus with the onset of the festive season, life should be all song and dance on the FM scenario.
In Swarn Surat, as it is called, we have always been surrounded by loud sound, whether its from gramophones on special occasions, cars reversing with harsh tunes above the allowed decibel sound wave, surtis fighting away in their famous profanity or pandals put up for navratri/ganeshutsav etc.Now with the advent of the local FM options, there will certainly be more singing in the surat terrain. Huge hoardings and colourful umbrellas announcing the FM channels are sprouting around town and in your face lest you forget to tune in. Here is your chance then surti, to put your feet up[tap to tune] and participate in the trend of your town, vote for your choice, get entertained, gain freebies, make your voice heard all within the comfort of your home. Radio is ‘BIG ‘news and is here to make us surtis sway……..so gaa gaa dear surti and swing away because FM fever is here to stay.Top5 things you most definitely will and won’t hear on surti radio…………….
WILL WON’T
1. Cookery recipes. 1. Cocktail recipes

2. Cricket tosses 2. Modi’s losses

3. Love stories 3. Financial worries.

4. Rakhi Sawant Item numbers. 4. Santana and Diana Krall’s wonders.

5. Hot and happening surti news. 5. Aamchi maati, aamchey manas.

IF ITS EIFFEL, IT MUST BE PARLE POINT

IF ITS EIFFEL, IT MUST BE PARLE POINT.........................Other than presenting undhiyu and khaman dhokla to the world,we surtis also set the biggest example of acceptance and intigration .not only do we spread our culture but also adopt new ones immediatly our women proudly wear their'jeans pant' with a bindi [only now has maddonna started to do so],our kids are as comfortable with PS2 as with lakhotis and the men share tiffins at work with sindhis,marwaris and jats.surat has its own identity through its food but her people are from all parts of the world.a large part of its populace belongs to the NRI gang who annually visit here to shop and support causes .the oldest architecture here is portugal,english,mogul and persian.it seems the city has always welcomed foreign folk.roadside kiosks sell pizza next to pani puri and chinese next to idli dosa.pasta is a well loved treat at home and every gujju mom worth her salt will have culinary skills to match a world cookbook with her own adaptation of khow suey and chicken steak.surtis are traders [lalas] at heart and know that adopting the ways of the world will help them rule it better.much as they love their ponk and ghari, uttaran and diwali they also know how to celebrate pujo and bai-sakhi.from adajan to antwerp timalyawad to taiwan and majuragate to malaysia,surtis learn ,live and laugh all the way to the bank.malleable and ductile in their ways of life,we have never felt hostile towards the culture of the new folks wading in,instead we have reached out and adapted their ways in our lifestlye.right down to our traffic islands!!!!!!!we boast of an eiffel tower,an airplane[even when we did not have an airport that functioned],a kargil chowk for unsung war heros and numerous others which have nothing to do with the town but are built in the surti spirit.Here's to the lala way of life ,may the world learn to live like us.