Guest Column: Through my eyes, Chandigarh at the cusp of change

Under the seemingly unchanging laid-back life in Chandigarh lies a slow transformational change that the city has undergone as it continues to grow in every aspect

If I can correctly recall the first memory of that I have of Chandigarh as a preschooler, it would be watching a centipede at creeping up one of the pillars at the Rock Garden’s main entrance.

Over the years, the sleepy town of Chandigarh has turned into a major city, an urban agglomerate that now finds itself at the cusp of becoming a metropolitan. (HT File Photo)

Somebody from the family turned around and warned me, “Stay away! It bites its way into the body through the skin”. That is it. I do not remember marvelling at any anything else for the rest of the day; walking around the garden, I was just looking out for any centipedes.

Besides, I also have a vivid, but somewhat compact memory of the Sector 17 market plaza. Vast. All concrete. Only a handful people walking around. A softy corner. Pink scoops of ice cream on an orange cone.

Fading frames of sepia

As I grew in years, so did Chandigarh. By the time I was a teenager it had transformed into a completely different city. I would sometimes visit my cousin in the city during my vacations and the impressions made were different now. Straight roads, rows of trees that looked like big green umbrellas dotting them. Art deco houses. Stucco wall at the facade of some. Books and art for evening conversations. Accompanied by tad bit small talk for some refreshment. Cousins giggling somewhere in the corner.

Surely, it was a sophisticated, progressive and slow life that most led living in Chandigarh. The city was being shaped and altered by the presence of some of the top educational institutes of the region had to offer. Although I sometimes think that running and streamlining the economics of the city must have been a major labour in its initial years. But then it was the capital city of two states and the government, the main employer, served as a form of back up from an economic perspective.

Having said that, I know some of the families who settled here in the city’s nascency would often say their private investments were one of the biggest risks they took in their lifetime; for no one believed how businesses would thrive in the vast emptiness here that was mostly covered with mango orchards.

Little did they know that this risk and uncertainty would turn out to be the best decision of their lives. Over the years, the small sleepy town had turned into a major city, an urban agglomerate that now at the cusp of being a metropolitan.

A perfect city?

In 2015, architectural critic and writer Jonathan Glancey declared in an article for BBC that “Chandigarh is the only successful perfect city in the world.” But with greater recognition, if I may say so, comes even greater responsibility. right?

Now that the preschooler has grown into an adult and the urban agglomerate has become a home, I get to witness and feel this same city in a different way. Perhaps like any other city taking rapid strides towards growth would feel like.

So, I see the same big green umbrella trees, but now they shade massive traffic jams underneath.

There are fewer tete-a-tete at home and more “catch-ups over coffee” and mummy- papa turning 40 birthday bashes outdoors.

It is not merely a ‘pensioner’s paradise’ anymore. The population is much diverse, on both professional as well as cultural front. Art deco houses are now renovated into French maison de maitre or modern cubist residences. There are now beautiful stretches of scaling skyscrapers, but sadly, they stand next to huge garbage landfills. Some of the city’s waste disposal plants are lying defunct. According to Swachh Survekshan 2022, Chandigarh has come down to 12th position in matters of cleanliness and efficient waste disposal.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, meanwhile, showed a 23% rise in rape cases and a 10.68% in crime against kids between 2021 and 2022.

The truth is that every emerging metropolitan faces such set of challenges, but there is always a solution. The need of the hour is a collective effort towards making the city great again from the administration and the city’s own. Chandigarh has always been clean, green, well organised, we just need to go back to the roots. The vibe of the city has always been a strong stimulant for the people here. And I hope it continues to remain so.

(The author is Mohali-based freelance writer.)