Let’s celebrate the year passing by, which has strewed big reaps for 2016.

March was good

SHED put together an evening concert, bringing Alchemix to Surat. Alchemix is a French experimental music group. The concert was superlative in more than one ways. First things first, the music. The French collective of musicians were extraordinary in creating that superseding space for the audience. It was a ‘pay as you like’ concert, which also served free food. SHED broke even on the concert, proving that if there’s goodness, it shall never let it go. Hail Surtis!

Even better from Pooja Chaurushi, Gujarat’s triathlon champion. After winning a gold medal at the National Games, Pooja created an international record recently, which will be hard to beat.

 

It drizzled gems this June

Ritu Seth opened her stand-alone boutique showcasing her richly designed line of jewelry, Belisma. She holds the National Recognition Certificate of Excellence with the Retail Jeweler India awards and has won several accolades across India. Her vision is to deliver stylish jewelry, which is glamour with delicate femininity. Ritu strives to customize each of her client’s desire with personalized service and perfection. Successful exhibitions, professional recognition and rave reviews make her designs more desirable than any jewelry showrooms in the city.

Bipolar August

Patel Agitation

Out of now where started an agitation for reservation and out of no where a riot broke out in the state. In August, under Hardik Patel’s leadership, the Patel agitation led to circumstances where the Patel community started a riot against the government, in response to the lathi charge that the police had conducted at the GMDC ground in Ahmedabad. For almost a week, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mehsana and other areas, dominated by the Patel community had continuous reports of rioting incidents.

Two results followed: Firstly, the incident has changed the political balance in the state altogether. Secondly, for a week mobile internet services were suspended across different places in the city under the pretext of containing the damage. To an extent, it’s a violation of a citizen’s right.

Drashtikon Photo Fest 2015

August 2015 also saw Drashtikon photography artisans put up their brilliant second exhibition, four years after their first exhibition. This year saw more vibrancy in terms of participation and pictures.

Sun-kissed September

September 2015 embarked a new mile stone in the city with a marathon, extremely well organized by Surti Runners. From professional runners to morning joggers, the Surat City Half Marathon raised high spirits among the participants and the viewers with this memorable event. Surti Runners have made a proud name for themselves, not as a commercial organization but for their active participation in promoting and encouraging recreational running in Surat.

Even in the overpowering heat, people turned up in huge numbers, again making Surat Night Marathon one of the biggest night marathons of the country. Hopefully, the city will host the two marathons again in 2016.

October fest for the coders

We manufacture the most number of engineers in the country. It also happens to be one of our biggest exports. Where colleges in the west turn to hackathons when looking for innovation and unprecedented breakthroughs, our country doesn’t have a single credible platform for our IT and Computer engineers to showcase their talents.

To put this in the past, a bunch of engineers from SVNIT, Surat started working towards Gujarat’s first hackathon, InOut. It was initially held in April 2015 at a small scale, but big enough to ignite sparks for a full fledged event in October. InOut turned out to be India’s biggest hackathon ever. Tech giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter, IBM Bluemix, Salesforce, Dropbox, GitHub and many more sponsored this mega event.

Surat Kahani celebration

This year was also very special for the city because it marked the beginning of a new culture altogether.
In November, DPS Tapi and Surat put together our city’s first ever literature festival, which had a number of talks, workshops, exhibitions and plays etc. Each talk and play and workshop had a full house and it was like a breath of fresh air in a city where this was unheard of.

Also, DPS announced the second edition of the festival for 2016.
Looking forward to it already.

Heritage revamped

The first weekend of the last month of the year came with good news. After years of being in shambles, the very famous Gopi Talao in Navsari bazaar was once again open for access. It has now been converted into a public space, where anyone and everyone can come and feel the fresh breeze and the soothing effects of the lake.

Finally, providing immense joy to all the garba lovers, Indoor Stadium has opened its gates once again!