Surat is going through a metamorphosis. The city known for churning more industrialists than poets is changing its ways. And this is an attempt to highlight these “undercurrents”… happenings which are slowly but steadily changing the way of life in Surat. In this section of the blog we plan to list 5 happenings of Surat every week… Happenings which highlight the positive changes happening to our #LifeInSurat… happenings which are positive/fresh/transitional or just happy Also thank you everyone for all the appreciation we received for the first edition of this series - Undercurrents - Week 1 (April 1st - April 8th). We are super happy that Ashlesha Khurana (An absolute inspiration for us!) noticed Bullet Battalion in one of our updates and went on to do a full story on them in her TOI column "KhoobSurat". Here is a link to the same. So here we are with the second edition of Undercurrents... do share it with others :)

Story 1 - #Surat Trends on Twitter !!!

Twitter from 12th April onwards has extended its local trends to 21 Indian cities, as a part of its global expansion of trends... and guess what... Surat was one of them !!!

#Surat in the list of 21 cities getting Twitter trends

So now Surtis active on twitter can just check what Surat is talking about !!! Also now we are really looking forward to ganging up with fellow Surtis and making #LifeInSurat Trend \m/ Check this update from Kaushal Thakkar -

To view localized trends, users can go to the Trends section on Twitter.com, click on ‘change’ button and choose their preferred city to get trends for the respective city.

Story 2 - "EVOLVE" Is #Surat Listening ???

ASAC- Architecture Students Activity Council, the student body at the Faculty of Architecture, SCET organized its annual festival earlier this month. Here is what Ashlesha had to say about the festival (an excerpt from her blog) - "EVOLVE's concept depicted and revolved around evolution of the living form of thought".

Bhumit Shah and his team painted some wonderful graphics on walls, numerous artistic hands set up sculptures and installations. A team led by Dhruv Rupawala and Abhinav Kelawala took inspiration from Rajarshi Smart’s art and put up an exquisite version of an auto rickshaw ,converting it into a trolling three-wheeled monster with a kathakali dancer's face.

Various professional workshops on paper pulp, bamboo, canvas painting, film making and theater were held/taught by renowned artists that arrived from all over India. Students also grooved to college rock star Ian Christian’s rock band ‘Morphine’. Read Ashlesha's full article here.

Story 3 - Hic !!!

What happens when the man sitting next to you and trying to snatch you drink happens to be God?!

Bookoholics is going one step further with its monthly meets and as a part of a bigger organizing team is helping in getting "When God Said Cheers !!!" (A play written by Anurag Kashyap; Directed by Cyrus Dastur; and cast including Tom Alter and Cyrus Dastur) to Surat.

'When God Said Cheers' is an intelligent comedy that makes you laugh and think at the same time!". One of the biggest hits ever to have happened on the Indian parallel circuit, it has been staged at just about every unconventional venue across the country over and over again. For more details check FB event for Bookoholics Meet here.

Story 4 - Project Y

So this is something to look out for !!! Surat’s best and award-winning film-making crew is coming together and is looking for acting talents across the city and more, for its upcoming ambitious project - India’s first web-based Dramedy, code-named (tentatively titled) – Project Y.

Brain child of Adhish Panchal (creator/director of the project) the pre-production has already begun since the first of March and the scripting of the entire project has been done by writers Maanav Mehta and Adhish Panchal who have also written the screenplay. The project will be aired on YouTube, free for everyone to watch. They also plan to come up with a crowd funding model very soon, where anyone can help make this project better, and maybe the best and get exclusive privileges for and on the project. We will have more details about this project on the blog soon.

Story 5 - Dhokla Khaya... Loocha Khaya... Fafda Khaya... Aab GOLI kha !!!

Finally some news for Foodies !!! Goli Vada Pav - Mumbai's leading Vada-Pav joint opened its first branch in Surat this Monday. Check out their advert for more details -

So this is all we have to report for our second edition of this series We will be continuing this through the coming weeks. Please Share this post… and also we are present on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (search for LifeInSurat)… please follow our handles, tag us in your Surat related updates and help us in compiling stories like these

Lets Celebrate Our Life In Surat !!!

Chao!

Surat is going through a metamorphosis. The city known for churning more industrialists than poets is changing its ways. And this is an attempt to highlight these "undercurrents"... happenings which are slowly but steadily changing the way of life in Surat. In this section of the blog we plan to list 5 happenings of Surat every week... Happenings which highlight the positive changes happening to our #LifeInSurat... happenings which are positive/fresh/transitional or just happy :) Story 1 - Spring Is Here!

April first week heralds the coming of Spring! ‘Tis the time of the year when Surtis feel the rush of heat against their face every morning :l But you also get to see the nature around you blooming... you can also let out your summer/spring collection that keeps looking at you from the back of your wardrobe :P Following are a few pictures representing the spring by Surtis from our Instagram Network -

Spring in a Bottle. Image Courtesy - Puja Kedia

Story 2 - Surat Bags The Best City Award.

Surat was adjudged The Best City For The Quality Of Life and Best City In City Systems in a survey which considered 50 top Indian Cities. (Yay!) These are a few pictures from our Instagram Network -

Story 3 - Salil Bhatt in Surat. #SPICMAYCAY

Internationally acclaimed instrumentalist and inventor of Satvik Veena, Salil Bhatt enthralled Surtis in a series of programs. The initiative was taken by the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPICMACAY) Surat Chapter, during which Mr. Bhatt delivered lectures and demonstrations at six educational institutes. He was accompanied by nationally acclaimed tabla artist Himanshu Mahant. Around 800 students witnessed the performances. Following is a picture of him playing at one of the schools from our Instagram Network -

Story 4 - The Bullet Battalion Surat !!!

Surat has its own Bullet Bikers Gang !!!! This is something we did not know until this last week when they organized a biking trip. The gang started from the Mercedes Showroom in Piplod and finished at Wilson Hill (150 KMs away). We are in touch with them and you can expect a full on blog post on them in coming days !!! Till then please manage with this teaser :P

The Bullet Battalion at Wilson Hills !!!

Story 5 - Cloud-Cloud ho gaya!

Surat saw awesome cloud formations happening in its skies a few days back. All the social networks were full of pictures of skies and cloud formations... Following are few of the best pictures clicked by Surtis from our Instagram Network -

So this is all we have to report for our first edition of this series :) We will be continuing this through the coming weeks. Please Share this post... and also we are present on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (search for LifeInSurat)... please follow our handles, tag us in your Surat related updates and help us in compiling stories like these :)

Lets Celebrate Our Life In Surat !!!

Chao!