def create_records(data_dir, to_path='data/train.tfrecord'):
    annotations_dir, examples_path = get_fun_paths(data_dir)
    writer = tf.python_io.TFRecordWriter(to_path)
    labels = {}
    examples_list = dataset_util.read_examples_list(examples_path)
    assert len(examples_list) > 0, examples_path
    for i, example in enumerate(examples_list):
        path = os.path.join(annotations_dir, example + '.xml')
        data = xml_to_dict(path)
        assert 'object' in data, data['filename']
        labels[i] = [k['name'] for k in data['object']]
        try:
            tf_example = dict_to_tf_example(data, data_dir, label_map_dict)
        except Exception as e: #TODO(SS): remove me
            print(e)
            import pdb; pdb.set_trace()
        writer.write(tf_example.SerializeToString())
    writer.close()
    return labels  # to inspect a bit