Chandigarh

Everyone says Chandigarh is the "least Indian" city in India, and they are correct...to a degree. I would respond that it is very Indian...just a particular side of India that by no means represents the norm or the average. Chandigarh is one of India's wealthiest cities. As the capital of the Punjab, the second richest state (after Maharashtra) in India and home to the Sikhs, who are known for their wealth, this comes as no surprise.

Chandigarh was a new city built after Independence when the original capital of the Punjab - Lahore - became part of Pakistan. The new Punjab needed a new capital, and a great drive was begun to find an architect of world reknown to design the new city in the image of the new, modern India Nehru and India's leaders wanted to project. I learned at the 4-floor City architecture and planning museum that the original architects were in fact American, but when the died in a plane crash, Le Corbusier (the famous Swiss architect and planner) was brought in.

The resulting city is indeed unlike any city in India. It is made up of rectangular, numbered sectors laid out on a rigid grid. Each sector contains residences and services. Broad, tree-lined boulevards divide the sectors, the result being that traffic is smooth and free-flowing. None of the chaos and pandemonium, noise and pollution, normally associated with roads in Indian cities. But I don't know if the city is really better off for it. It is so spread out that driving seems to be the only practical way of getting around. Or maybe bicycle. But this is not a pedestrian's city. There is no real center. What they call the "city center" is just a big outdoor shopping plaza with fancy stores. The city has no sense of being urban. Instead, it resembles so many bland suburbs. Oh, the parks and greenbelts are all very nice. But you can have a dense, urban city and have parks. You don't need the city itself to resemble the park. I walked through residential neighborhoods that must be the Indian version of Beverly Hills, or Marin. Grandeose, architecturally distinct (and ostentatious) mansions sit side by side. The main difference between this and Beverly Hills is that the houses are relatively close together. There are no large yards and not a lot of privacy. But they say Indians like to be around other Indians.

Chandigarh is also the most expensive place I've spent the night. I had to spend $11. My room did come with cable TV, however....which included several channels in Engilsh. I caught up on world news through BBC, and even caught an episode of Seinfeld. I find it amusing that BBC does a one-minute "world weather forecast". Talk about macro-scale!

Why do news programs need additional people to read the weather? Why can't the anchor just read the weather? It's not like the TV personalities who read the weather are actually scientifically trained meteorologists...are they?

An Indian news show devoted 30 gushing minutes to the arrival of the USS Nimitz - the world's largest warship and aircraft carrier - in Chennai Harbor. All bombast and fury.

Not many foreigners in Chandigarh. A couple of architecture students from Italy, come to see their hero's work. There seems to be a lot of official ooing and awing over Chandigarh, but I don't buy it. Le Corbuier built a nice, clean city for rich people, but it hardly addresses the pressing social needs that a good, planned city should address.