New Home

The thing about renting a place is that your landlord gets antsy if you hang on too long in one house.  So you know that within 3-4 years you will be getting marching orders.  The thought that my landlord might soon give me marching orders, gets me all antsy after 3 years in one place.  I start preparing myself mentally for the move.  During my three years in Baltana, I was constantly looking for another place.  When we first moved there, electricity was a huge problem.  If the power went off, we were never sure when it would return, it could be within two hours or two days.  The water supply was good to start with, then all the people around installed motors to fill their tanks overhead, it pulled the water supply away from non-motor people like me.  So faced with the bad approach roads, narrow lanes where I could barely navigate my scooter, the water problem, I decided the time was ripe to move.  Before I leave the topic of Baltana, let me mention that the market was awesome.  I could get everything there from handkerchief to quilts,  all sorts of services were available, from fixing a loose wire to .... anything.  From 9 in the morning to 9 in the evening. I love these kind of thriving shops a lot.  Baltana is not too far away from where I live now, and I can visit it anytime in case I need to visit my old addas.

Ok, so a friend recommended this flat to me.  It is about a mile away from the previous location, not the one I was looking for.  I was looking for someplace more within the city, but the rents... they are forbidding... and my salary... it refuses to move northwards.  Hence I snapped up this flat when I found it.  It was in a decent area, things of immediate need are available within a 200 meter perimeter.  My drive to my office is non-bumpy which is essential when you riding a scooter.  This place is on one of the edges of the city, which still has the view of mama nature in its semi-pristine splendour.  There are farms adjoining the flat where I see a tractor plying, things growing.  There is a cluster of greens and trees through which a train screams past now and then.  For some reason its 'Mere Sapno ki Rani' that plays in my head more than the forlorn screams of the train in Pakeezah.  Maybe it denotes that my heart is in a happy place, which is good.  I can see the Shivaliks in the distance, green fields; so it is like living in the lap of nature.  Ideally, I would like to own a house in Kansal, with the Sukhna Lake and the Rock Garden close by.  But I am not Richie Rich, I have to do with what I have.

Look at the few pictures that I have taken with my cell phone camera.

Lights glittering in the night...

A train passes by this way.

The fields to my left, I wish I had a zoom lens

Again the view to my right, to be enjoyed for a few months more till  the  new flats block my view

Cars lined up tidily by the side of the road

Camera does not zoom, but my eyes see the hills in the distance

Look at the fields in the distance

My Balconey

My doorway

Good Hair Day and Indian Coffee House

I use the pink one

I missed my swimming class and hopped over to Tina's Blue Heaven for a haircut last evening.  Getting a haircut is such an upper.  I feel 20 degrees smarter instantly.  Tina has a magic touch that makes your hair look feminine and cute, even if it is just a layered bob.  It was late already and there was no time to hang out in Sector 17.  So I just rushed over to Empire Stores to pick up some soap and shampoo.  I like Herbal Essences, but I couldn't find it on the shelves.  Disappointed, I pick up a Pantene which my son uses.  I will have to go to some other shop now.

I couldn't resist hopping into Indian Coffee House, I was hungry and a dosa-coffee looked appetising.  There is really something about this place that brings out my creativity.  I must go there sometime with a laptop, when I finally own one, that is.  There were a couple of boys seated opposite me, tucking into hot dogs and a strawberry shake.  I know I am being horrid, but it seemed so girly somehow, sipping a pink drink through a straw.

There is a motley crowd around me as usual.  A group of men in their fifties, suitably bald and overweight, being as rambunctious as they can get over cups of coffee; some shoppers clutching bags, looking tired and sorely in need of sustenance; the heretofore mentioned sippers of strawberry shake; a couple of other youngsters not sipping strawberry shake.

My coffee drunk, dosa eaten, half hour spent in contemplating my surroundings, I leave.

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.