When are you taking your next vacation ??? Have you decided on the destination yet ??? Is it in India or Abroad ??? Are you planning a visit to someplace nearby or somewhere far away ??? Let me quickly suggest a destination -> SURAT. Yes... take a break and get lost in your own city... i am sure you will realize that so much has been here all along... and yet you have been far away... Also... don't go alone... take this with you.

There is so much more to Surat than what meets the eye but all we do is get baffled by the chaos on the road sides on Sundays... curse ourselves when we get stuck in the traffic menace near Station... drain our energy visiting textile markets and seeing the sea of humanity getting crushed under the myriad of different cloth fabrics... and think Surat is limited to few malls which have come up in last couple of years or so.

Have we ever made that effort to know what Surat really is or has been... things like how on earth an Eiffel Tower replica ended up on Parle Point ??? Or how did Rangooni Parantha/Khawase (Burmese Dishes) ended up being common at Laries of Rander... Or how is there a Dutch cemetery in Surat ???

Here are a few of those answers -> Last Sunday saw the book launch of 'KhoobSurat - Hope for Heritage' by Ashleshaa Khurana published by The Times Of India Publications. It is a collection of Ashleshaa's columns from the TOI.

The book launch event took place in the Science Center. Following are a few images from the launch event -

Ashleshaa as such needs no introductions... her column/blog is our absolute favorite. As quoted in the TOI - "From Surat Civic Polls to the quietly flowing Tapi, from heritage buildings to Panjarapoles, from a jewish cemetery to the latest in Garba fashion - the column has been lovingly chronicling the life and times of Surat". Her columns were a big influence on us when we started this @LifeInSurat Blog as well. And it was an absolute treat for us to get an "autographed" copy of her book at the launch event :)

Following are a few more images of our treasured copy and of the Book Launch Event at the Science Center.

Do grab your copy of the book and spread the word, it sure is a #MustRead for every Surti. Also if you are a fan (like us) do leave a few words of appreciation for Ashleshaa and we promise we would communicate the same to her. The book is available in Bookworld (Kanaknidhi).