Essential Gujarati phrases

How are you? The universal Gujarati opener. The reply is 'majaa maa' — in good spirits. Surti Gujarati is blunter and faster than Ahmedabad's and locals are proud of it.

From the old saying 'Surat nu jaman, Kashi nu maran' — eat in Surat, die in Kashi. The city's self-image is built on food, and it is not a boast anyone here considers arguable.

A soft, deliberately under-set steamed gram-flour batter eaten with butter, sev and chutney — supposedly a failed khaman that Surat decided to keep. It exists here and essentially nowhere else.

Tender green jowar, roasted and eaten with garlic chutney and lime, sold only from roughly November to February. A genuinely seasonal Surat-only food that the city queues for.

A dense ghee-and-mawa sweet eaten on Chandi Padvo, the night after Sharad Purnima, when the whole city eats it at once and the shops sell it by the tonne.

The liquor permit. Gujarat is a prohibition state and alcohol without a valid permit is a criminal offence, not a fine. Foreign nationals and non-residents of Gujarat can apply through the Prohibition and Excise Department.

Not a bypass — the textile market district. Thousands of wholesale fabric shops packed into a few streets, and the reason a large part of India's clothing passes through this city.

A craftsman — used here overwhelmingly for the diamond polishers of Varachha and Katargam. Hundreds of thousands of people in Surat hold this job title.

The river that splits the city and floods it. Ask any long-term resident about 2006 and you will get a very precise answer about water levels on their own street.

'Right?' or 'isn't it?' — the Surti verbal tic that ends half the sentences you will hear. Picking it up is the fastest way to sound local.

112 is the single national emergency number. 108 is the free ambulance service, invented in this part of India and genuinely fast in Surat.