LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Surat: Place
built 643 days ago
There is a popular adage in India which translated means if Kasi is a stairway to heaven, Surat is the place for food. The variety of cuisines is quite large, varying from the local Gujarati Thalis to South Indian food. There are a lot of nice eateries like Indian Curry, Klassic,Deewan-e-Khaas which will give you the flavour of a traditional indian food and for South Indians Mysore Cafe, Vishnu's,and the Mallu Restaurant provide a good eat-out. The road side stalls (laari in local parlance) provide some really tasty and inexpensive food. You can find people parking luxury cars and eating in these laaris.
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Surat is famous for its diamond industry and textile industry, along with silk and chemicals. It is at the heart of India's thriving diamond-polishing industry, which in 2005 cut 92% of the world's diamond pieces and earned India $8 billion in exports. Gujarati diamond cutters emigrating from East Africa established the industry in 1901 and by the 70s Surat-based diamond cutters began exporting stones to the US for the first time. Though a majority of polishing work takes place on small weight stones, Surat's workshops have set their eyes on the lucrative market for finishing larger, pricier stones in the future. It is a major production centre for synthetic textiles in India.
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Swaraj Ashram at Bardoli, about 34 kms from Surat has become a place of pilgrimage in India. Gandhiji had launched a farmer' satyagraha in 1921-22 under the leadership of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
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There are a number of tourist attractions in the Indian destination of Surat. In 1546, the Sultan of Gujarat built a castle in Surat on the banks of the Tapi. Nowadays, this place houses several government offices. There are English, Dutch, and Armenian cemeteries around the Kataragama Gate. There is a massive mausoleum of Baron Adrian Van Reede, who died here in 1691. Sardar Patel Museum was established in 1898 and originally named as Winchester Museum.
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It took a major epidemic some 11 years ago to shake Surat out of its stupor and transform itself from the country's most shabby city to the second cleanest. But, the city is once again edging towards yet another urban disaster, with the place bursting at its seams in the same haphazard way as it did then to invite the plague.
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