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Published: December 4th 2012
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Not on many tourist itineries, Chandigarh's made for an interesting stop on our way to Delhi. On arrival, the first thing that was very apparent from the minute we got in a tuk tuk from the train station was that, unlike any other Indian city we'd visited, it followed a gridplan. It was designed in 1947 by Le Corbusier who felt that it should represent a modern Indian city, being the first to be designed and built post-independence. Having lost Lahore, the former state capital of the Punjab, to Pakistan at independence, Chandigarh was to become capital of both the state of Punjab and the state of Haryana, but as a union territory was to be part of neither. Why, when it was felt that Chandigarh should be marked out as being representative of a new and independent India, they got a frenchman to design it, we're not sure, but there in lies one of the many ironies apparent in the city. The city is planned so that each block (or sector) of the grid measures precisely 1200m by 800m and each sector is numbered. Different sectors serve different purposes and were planned in order that the city represents a 'living
system'. For instance, sector 17 in the centre of the city contains the shopping and commerical district and as such is thought to represent the 'heart' of the city. Closer to the outskirts, there are designated green sectors (without cows) with parkland and trees serving as the city's 'lungs', and then around the city, the wide boulevards, with different lanes for different types of vehicles, represent the city's 'circulatory system'. As you enter the smaller roads going into each sector, there are often several maps of the sector to ensure you don't get lost (although given the city's layout you wouldn't be lost for long). If that wasn't unusual enough for an Indian city, it was also very clean, there were dustbins actually being used, traffic was not ridiculously congested and motorists pulled over to answer their mobiles. As far as cities and town planning go, Chandigarh is indeed unique.
We managed to get a room in a prime location on the edge of Sector 18, but since the city has the highest income per capita in the country, even though we had a small flock of pigeons nesting outside and a rat in our room (who we called
Reginald), it still stretched the budget. It seems that owing to restrictions on space for expansion, rooms, houses, internet and food are all double the price in Chandigarh; and as such, there seem to be a fair few rich people living there. Wandering through some of the residential sectors, we saw the houses of some of India's rich, incredibly beautiful buildings with manicured lawns and 24 hour security. One sector appeared to be exclusively made up of lawyer's houses, but in the absence of anything close to a minimum wage, the rich-poor divide is stark and you can't help but wonder what the rickshaw-wallah is thinking when he drops people off at some of these addresses (or indeed when he gets lumbered with 2 thali-filled Western tourists on his backseat).
The Rock Garden, Chandigarh's main attraction, seems to be a contradiction against everything that Le Corbusier was trying to achieve; although it was ironically constructed by someone within the Chandigarh town planning department. Started secretly in the 1950's by Ned Chand and lying to the East of the city, it comprises a Gaudiesque labyrinthe of pathways and open spaces connected by hobbit sized doors and lined by sculptures constructed
of industrial rubbish and unused every day items with walls made of light fittings and mudguards, animals made from bangles and models of people decorated with broken china, to name but a few of the attractions. By the time the garden was discovered by the town council over 10 years later it covered more than 12 acres. Fortunately, in their wisdom, Chandigarh's powers-that-be recognised that the gardens were quite impressive and started paying Ned Chand and gave him a small workforce to continue to the work which continues to expand to this day. Very much populated by Indian tourists, we featured high on the must see and photograph list of the Rock Garden and had various photoshoots arranged for us with a multitude of families, groups of men (Emma) and school parties, one of which delayed our visita little as each school girl in the group of about 300 insisted on shaking our hand and greeting us as they passed.
Escaping our newly found fanclub, we left the Rock Garden and headed to Sector 17 to see what a commercial district in the centre of India's richest city might look like. The answer is a concrete monstrosity (although still
without cows) with expensive shops that you'd find in London, New York and any other rich city. However it was all a bit industrial in design and so wasn't that much fun to wander round - probably just as well given our budget issues!
For dinner we went to one of the few cheap joints in town, a cheap vegetarian thali place in Sector 21 that is run by followers of the late Indian Guru, Sai Baba. This was followed by a trip to Sai's sweets next door where we somehow ended up with yet another box of barfi. Emma reckons that every city has different specialties when it comes to sweets and so insists on buying an assortment at every stop.
Needing to get on our way after a couple of nights in Chandigarh, we said goodbye to Reginald and caught an early train to Delhi. Having had enough of the cold weather in the north, Emma has somehow managed to persuade Chris and Bob that they need a couple of weeks designated beach time in the south and so we subsequently had an overnight stop in Delhi during which Emma managed to eat her own weight
in cheese, before heading out to the airport to fly south to Trivandrum in Kerala ready for some serious relaxation time.
Things we have learned travelling from our time in Chandigarh Anyone who thought that town planners were dull, boring folk who lack imagination should take a trip to Chandigarh.
Sai Baba was a funny fellow (have a look at wikipedia if you don't believe us). He died the day after Chris and Emma got married and sounds to be a meld of Indian versions of Robert Maxwell, Uri Gellar and Jimmy Saville.
The number of cows in a city is inversely proportional to the number of green spaces.
The levels of cleanliness of the toilets in a restaurant is inversely proportional to the tastiness of the food.
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