Chandigarh
I visited the city on work for a day this week. I had been to Chandigarh some years ago as a tourist staying with the family in the Haryana Tourism hotel inside Pinjore Gardens.
This time around the Shatabdi Express from New Delhi on Sunday proved to be slow train reaching an hour late on a journey which should have taken three and a quarter hours. The train did not seeem to have any energy when it started its journey and inched its way for an hour until it picked up speed. My colleague was on the train in another compartment.
We were greeted a by a large group of taxi and autorickshaw operators at Chandigarh railway station. A typical reception which generally await tourists who are strangers to the place. Unsolicited advice followed astronomical trasport charges for the ride into the city. We took an autorickshaw to a good hotel where we had reservations. The "transport" guys at the railway station were puzzled as the type of hotel where we were booked to stay and autorickshaw ride did not go hand in hand as far as they were concerned. Their logic seem to be that clients should spend an amount which has a decent proportionality to the hotel tariff.
I should say that even the deep discounted room tariff we got at the hotel was a bit too high. The rooms were good and I decided to take full advantage of the stay by spedning time at the swimming pool. I could spend a few minutes with a leading journalist who is the editor of a leading newspaper and also hosts " Walk the Talk" on a news channel through self introduction at breakfast at the coffee shop. He had some business to discuss and fortunately I was aware of it.
The official part of the visit went off without a hitch. After I dropped my colleague at airport in the evening, I had time on hand as my train was after dinner. I went around the famous rose garden which is the largest in Asia. Sprawling over an area of 42 acres , it has 47000 plants of more than 1500 varieties of rose. Shanti Kunj in the memmory of martyrs next door was also a beautiful garden. The crowd increased in size as the shadows lenghened.
Chadigarh is a planned city with broad roads and traffic round abouts. Planning also brings regimentation. Most of the offices are in particular sector, banks in another sector and all the shops were in the sector where the hotel we stayed was located.
Our business was in Punjab just outside the border of Chandigarh. The boards in the government offices were all in Punjabi and we had a tough time locating the officials whom we wanted to meet. Our driver was also talking Punjabi- Hindi mix with all numbers in Punjabi ! As with all cities in India, the major difference from the previous visit is the increased crowd everywhere.
When are we going to get a grip of population growth ? All our cities are impossibly crowded with bludgeoning vehicular tarffic leaving very little room for pedestrians
This time around the Shatabdi Express from New Delhi on Sunday proved to be slow train reaching an hour late on a journey which should have taken three and a quarter hours. The train did not seeem to have any energy when it started its journey and inched its way for an hour until it picked up speed. My colleague was on the train in another compartment.
We were greeted a by a large group of taxi and autorickshaw operators at Chandigarh railway station. A typical reception which generally await tourists who are strangers to the place. Unsolicited advice followed astronomical trasport charges for the ride into the city. We took an autorickshaw to a good hotel where we had reservations. The "transport" guys at the railway station were puzzled as the type of hotel where we were booked to stay and autorickshaw ride did not go hand in hand as far as they were concerned. Their logic seem to be that clients should spend an amount which has a decent proportionality to the hotel tariff.
I should say that even the deep discounted room tariff we got at the hotel was a bit too high. The rooms were good and I decided to take full advantage of the stay by spedning time at the swimming pool. I could spend a few minutes with a leading journalist who is the editor of a leading newspaper and also hosts " Walk the Talk" on a news channel through self introduction at breakfast at the coffee shop. He had some business to discuss and fortunately I was aware of it.
The official part of the visit went off without a hitch. After I dropped my colleague at airport in the evening, I had time on hand as my train was after dinner. I went around the famous rose garden which is the largest in Asia. Sprawling over an area of 42 acres , it has 47000 plants of more than 1500 varieties of rose. Shanti Kunj in the memmory of martyrs next door was also a beautiful garden. The crowd increased in size as the shadows lenghened.
Chadigarh is a planned city with broad roads and traffic round abouts. Planning also brings regimentation. Most of the offices are in particular sector, banks in another sector and all the shops were in the sector where the hotel we stayed was located.
Our business was in Punjab just outside the border of Chandigarh. The boards in the government offices were all in Punjabi and we had a tough time locating the officials whom we wanted to meet. Our driver was also talking Punjabi- Hindi mix with all numbers in Punjabi ! As with all cities in India, the major difference from the previous visit is the increased crowd everywhere.
When are we going to get a grip of population growth ? All our cities are impossibly crowded with bludgeoning vehicular tarffic leaving very little room for pedestrians
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