#FixOurRoads: Opp. Comfort Banquet, Zirakpur

The Old Kalka-Ambala Road, that led from Zirakpur to Ambala used to be an abandoned road for a long time.  It had agricultural land on both sides and lay green but forlorn. Now the place is humming with activity.  All thanks to the various housing societies that have sprung up adjacent to this road. An overbridge that leads to Kalka from Zirakpur light point cuts free access to this road from the Chandigarh end.  People commuting to Dhakoli or Peer Muchhala from Panchkula have to take this road.  Their numbers grow day by day.  Comfort Banquet is a well known landmark right at the Panchkula end of the road.  It is a busy hub.  You see, there are two daaru ka thekha (alcohol shops) here. There are some small joints selling food here, a few shops and a shanty market selling vegetables.

I have to commute along this road everyday as I live in Dhakoli and work in Panchkula.  I drive a scooter and leave office by 6 PM in the evening. It is dark and bitterly cold by that time.  The drinking population rejoices at the early darkness as it means they can ‘party’ early.  The atmosphere is of happiness for a few and fears for some.  If everything was good, one could pass by this little stretch of barely 5 or 10 meters in the matter of a second or two.  But things are not good here.

The bit of road in front of Comfort Banquet always sags.  It has been filled with pebbles and built over at times, but within a few weeks it is back to its pockmarked self.  There are huge cavern sized pot holes on the road.  Two wheeler drivers have to slow down and find a good patch to drive on that will not upset the scooter.  On dry days it is still possible, as the cavern is visible and one can slowly pass it by.  But on rainy days everything gets waterlogged and it is harder to spot a good bit of road to use.  By the way, whatever light we have in this spot is thanks to the shops and the Banquet.  Move up the road and you are left in total darkness.

I have no idea who I should contact for this.  But I am putting these pictures here and in social media, hoping that someone wakes up to the difficulty the population of Dhakoli face on a daily basis.

Pretty Panchkula

It was a short while ago that my office shifted to Panchkula.  Living on rent, it did not make too much sense for me to commute so much, hence I started looking for houses closer to my place of work.  Alas, Panchkula had already been beset by cash rich IT professionals who were willing to pay good bucks.  The houses that went for ridiculous rents were now beyond reach for me.  I moved into a less popular place, more populous nevertheless, thanks to the numerous housing societies that have sprung up here, turning a green periphery into a concrete jungle.

Now that I was closer to my place of work and took a route through Panchkula, I started noticing how pretty Panchkula is.  Indeed, it is prettier than its more famous cousin Chandigarh.  A tiny little dot on the map, it nestles close to the foothills of the Shivalik mountains that loom in the background no matter where you are.  From Chandigarh you can spot them in the distance, blue and hazy.  In Panchkula you can see the green bushes and the exposed earth and rocks that dot the Morni hills and the hills close to Nada village. The roads are broad here and kothis are more individualistic and opulent than in Chandigarh.  More on these later when I have pictures to back my claim.

This post is about the view of Nada Sahib from atop the  flyover that is built for the convenience of travellers from Ambala-Delhi route who want to rush towards Shimla without being caught in the bottleneck of city traffic.  More on this too, later.  At the moment, enjoy the pictures.

Nada Sahib shines amongst shrubs and rocks of the hills that  are just starting out.

People flock to the Nada Sahib Gurdwara on Puranmashi  days.

Devotees ask for boons here.

Cities grow and overtake everything. Chandigarh airport was once in wilderness, Now it is in the centre of Pabhat (or Bhabat) village.  Visiting Nada Sahib used to be a long drive through a quiet town, now it is a busy road and a thriving Nada Village that dots your road.

New Roads - Inroads into a tiny city

Sector 17- Heart of Chandigarh

I have always believed Chandigarh to be a tiny city.  15 minutes and you could traverse it from ends to ends.  Landlocked from all sides, it had no scope to grow any further.  Its roads were tree lined and designed for leisurely bicycling.  Le Courbusier could not imagine a city that could require a road wider than 10 feet in future. His rectangular city with independent sectors and parks and shopping areas were charming, are charming still, but inadequate for future times.

Scenic Village Kansal where many big banglows have come up

To begin with, Chandigarh Panchkula and Mohali were stringed together, had a similar character and were called a Tricity.  Now it seems to me as if the Tricity has spread, like butter in the sun to include Kharar, Zirakpur, Naya Gaon and Rampur.  Tiny villages that were the 'outside' slums like Khajeri,  Colony No 1, Ram Darbar, Naya Gaon, Kansal, Hallo Majra, Mullanpur, Dadu Majra have blossomed into prime properties with a mix of old style shanties and grand kothies.  Village Kishangarh is drowned by magnificent edifices built thanks to the SEZ endowed IT Park.

DT Mall in IT Park

So the city grows, shanties shrink and there is suddenly a crying need for roads to get to places.  The side roads and small lanes that hardly ever saw a bicycle whizz by are now beset by all kinds of vehicles, all trying to get to point B from point A, in a tearing hurry and wanting to mow down anyone who comes in their way.

Necessity takes me down roads I never knew existed.  I think this every time I take a road  between Baltana and Mouli Jagran,  cross the railway fatak, turn right and take the narrow curving road that passes the railway station and take a left to reach the transport chowk.  From here it is a straight road to  Browser, my much frequented spot, in quest of new books to read.

Chandigarh sits like a Koh-i-noor amongst a more modern setting of sometimes crass, sometimes showy borders of noveau localities.