Chandigarh trip

It happens very rarely in life that you here any good things about a place and place lives up to your expectations or even exceeds it. Chandigarh would be one such place. Anything which comes close to Chandigarh in being a planned city and a pleasure to live and commute is Mysore but once again it has been hurt by usual land sharks and it still has small town feeling with no disco, mall or multiplex but Chandigarh offers best of both worlds. An immaculately well planned city, where even an outsider can easily make sense of directions and roads, sector wise shopping arena making life easier for shopkeepers and shop goers alike, absence of urban poverty or at least not in its visible form, roads lined with trees , lots of green space, wide roads …. What else can one ask for in urban india?
Public transport is scant though but welcomes change over gurgaon or noida or Delhi was people were less pretentious and there was healthy number of two wheelers on road. even auto wallas charged reasonable fares and I must say girls of Chandigarh have a completely justified reputation. It seemed as if you are among so called apsaras of heaven. Right from my receptionist, to lady on counter, to someone driving on road you could find both decent and naughty looks.

One interesting sight was a couple sitting on bench and doing hanky panky just near police beat box. I am note sure if they were aware of what they were doing and what was the place and as expected a policeman came and slapped guy hard. Rock garden is a refugee to love torn couples as well .There one could see married couples seeking some privacy, college or school going students bunking classes and looking for corners to some hanky panky. One such couple was carrying book of engineering drawing which I followed in my IIT first years as well and it suddenly struck me that what was I doing in that age apart from exchanging mails with prerna.

Now at wrong side of 20 what I can do apart from observing things and ruminating.
But even after planning there are some obvious eye sores e.g. planning and deciding areas for commercial activities is good but all buildings look alike .I do not know if this is by default or design.
Traffic islands don’t have carefully maintained lawns like in west but yes there are rickshaw lanes but still safety of pedestrians take a back seat.
Ubiquitous gajar ghaas can be seen populating these traffic islands as well as sprouting in rock garden , major part of which is closed but still it is a place worth visiting and so is the sukhna lake.

Overall a nice trip will love to have a chance to work in this city for longer times as this was first time in my life that heavy rain did not create any problems ( it always creates if I am in indore, KGP, Mumbai, Bangalore or gurgaon)