28 Nov 2025
Situated right in the coastline of Gujarat, this is probably the western most point in India I have travelled to. Deepa and I landed in Rajkot and drove for about 2 hrs 45 minutes to reach Jamnagar. The Dzire taxi was converted to CNG which meant the huge CNG storage tank filled up the entire boot. We loaded our 2 big suitcases in the front seat and both of us sat in the back.
The reason we were in Jamnagar was to attend the wedding of Het (daughter of Chaya and Sanjeev Sutaria. Chaya is the cousin of Deepa. That night after checking in we drove to Sanjeev and Chaya’s home where they had a Fuleku function, essentially where women were getting henna on their hands, while the men sat around and gossiped. It was packed and one had to squeeze one’s way around, grab a plate and eat some good home cooked food. We also met Urmila Kaki and her brother. Whilst Chaya and Sanjeev were busy, Urmila Kaki was warm in her welcome. Het’s younger brother Paswa came to get us from the Summair Sports Club. He has just completed his Level 3 CFA and is looking to join a good finance role.
An opportunity to meet relatives
It was almost 8 pm when we arrived and checked in to a room at the Summair Sports Centre. It looked like a British style club at night and could not make out much other than the fact the club had seen more prosperous days. But it was set out on a large property and the next morning’s walk revealed its true value. More about that later. The room itself was big enough, functional but non-existent room service except some tea in the morning (that too only after 8 am).
The different functions of the wedding took place over 2 days – Nov 26 and Nov 27. The highlights were the Haldi ceremony which was punctuated with many games that ensure audience participation as well as the Sangeet on the evening of 27th. It was set in a very large lawn area, in a facility with an unusual name “Kitchen Age” . There was a space that could hold 1000 people. The dance floor was huge, and the food area was spread out. We celebrated Deepa’s birthday there. Also, I discovered that my Kurta pocket had a hole as my room key had fallen out and could not be found. Luckily the guest house had a spare one.
After the evening function we came back and slept. The next morning, we took a walk around the Summair Sports Centre, It is a huge place and could be kind of compared to Bangalore Club or Century Club, for Sports facilities, but it does not have restaurant or other services. Perhaps because it was undergoing renovations in the main building. It boasts a swimming pool, a squash court, 3 tennis courts, 2 badminton courts (indoor) and a pickle ball court and some open lawn areas and a main building with Greco Style columns in its façade has a huge meeting hall, where at 6-7 am there was a prayer meeting ongoing. We walked daily around the place. The tennis court was also in good use as was the badminton court.
The next day after the wedding got over by 3-4 pm we got a bit of time to explore Jamnagar. We went to a 400-year-old Jain temple, with intricate paintings (no photos allowed). Then we walked around Chandni Bazar and walked into a Bandhini saree shop and ended up buying 4 sarees.
Then we took autos to a lake called “Lakota lake” and walked around the lake along a beautiful, paved path.
There we accidently bumped into our cousin Jitu’s childhood friend and ended up going to a “Bholanath Gola Shop” and had Golas. From there we took autos back to the Guest house. Jitu-bhai went out with his friend and bought Meetha Paan to finish the day in style.