close_game
close_game

Chandigarh’s Sector 24: Where time stands still

Hindustan Times, Chandigarh | By
Sep 24, 2018 02:20 PM IST

There is little private accommodation and you would come here if you wanted to meet the mayor at his official residence or visit a temple, standing here since 1812.

Earthen pitchers and moneyboxes, VIP rich moms, a mini Rose Garden, a medical hall for pets and a diagnostic laboratory, the tests of which the PGI considers valid, mark this sector. There is little private accommodation and you would come here if you wanted to meet the mayor at his official residence or visit a temple, standing here since 1812.

Nestled in a quiet corner with Sectors 23, 37, 15 and 25 for company, Sector 24 is welcoming and open. It is known for its temples and celebrations.(HT Photo)
Nestled in a quiet corner with Sectors 23, 37, 15 and 25 for company, Sector 24 is welcoming and open. It is known for its temples and celebrations.(HT Photo)

Nestled in a quiet corner with sectors 23, 37, 15 and 25 for company, Sector 24 is welcoming and open.

The first thing you notice is the amount of open space the sector affords. Entering from the road opposite the Children’s Traffic Park in Sector 23 can be a bit tricky in the mornings (the traffic signal breaks down sometimes) with heavy traffic headed towards Sector 15 or the PGI, but once in, you are simply amazed at the feeling of openness that envelops you.

Humble beginnings

First settled into by migrant labourers from parts of the then undivided Punjab and even western Uttar Pradesh starting 1950, the year Rs 50 lakh were sanctioned for the Capital Project of Punjab, the sector today houses the city’s elite. Doctors from the PGI, high court judges, IAS and IPS, all call this their home.

Another unique thing you will find only here is hens and even goats as pets in some homes. A couple of streets to the rear of the main market look like a movie set from a film on rural India.

The village that was shifted out to build the sector was called Kailad, and its remnants remain. The most prominent is the Mata Basanti Temple, which is family-run, and dates back to 1812.

The well-maintained Mini Rose Garden was inaugurated in July 2006 and has different varieties of the flower in its 40-odd beds. The park also acts as a walking shortcut to cut through the sector.

Market needs a purpose

As you walk around the sector, admiring its uniform facade of houses, the market is the first stop. Rajesh Kanojia, owner of Shimla Drycleaners, opposite the police station, was one of the first to set up shop in the 1970s. “Residents here are busy in their lofty government jobs. They don’t frequent the market,” he says.

For him, the four attractions of the market are the flour-mill near his property, his own shop, the recently-opened Prime Diagnostics and a pet shop, Ramal Medical Hall, near the Himachal Serai at the fag end of the sector, marking the T-point that leads to Sector 25. The sector also has a plethora of coaching institutes.

Wrestling under a tree

Old-timers remember that a huge tree inside the compound of SD Senior Secondary School, here, used to be the epicentre of wrestling matches. “The Convent school opposite the Mata Basanti temple was a ‘Toba’ (common village land) full of water. I used to bathe there,” recalls Harphool Chander Kalyan, the former city mayor, a resident of the sector since the 1950s.

Kalyan, a former Punjab government employee, has seen the city grow and is a veritable authority on it.

For Prem Nath Shammi, a social worker, the city has given him everything. Also here since birth, he remembers the sector as the one that gave the city its first Ram Lila.

He recalls, “During the 1965 war, I rendered my services in civil defence as sector warden. I was responsible for ensuring a complete black-out in the sector during the war.”

‘Ram Lila scripted in Urdu’

For social worker and PGI employee OP Dravid, the USP of the sector lies in its communal harmony. “Possibly, the first Ram Lila in the city started here and director Gulshan Rai gave the script in Urdu and I acted in it.”

His father came to the city in 1958 and in 1961, got a job with the PGI. “Twenty one villages were uprooted for Chandigarh and this, Kailad, is one of those. The house where we were sitting was under the horse wing of the police,” he says.

He distinctly remembers that for the first power connection in homes, the government used to offer a scheme under which Rs 2 were deducted from salaries as electricity expenses. He is known for organising a cricket tournament for the underprivileged in association with the local police.

Happening cultural life

The Bhawans in the row opposite Sector-37 chowk seem innocuous, until you learn about the cultural life attached to them. Till recently, the centres used to hold wedding and other functions. After a ban from the administration, most of these are now used as guest houses for the needy, who need shelter at reasonable rates.

For patients from Himachal, who need a place to put up at subsidised rates, the Himachal Serai is a godsend. “We offer beds, starting for as little Rs 70 a night to attendants of PGI patients from Himachal,” says Mahboob Ali, the receptionist here.

Almost every resident speaks with relish about the Dandiya celebrations at the Gujarat Bhawan to mark the Navratras.

The shoemaker

For the Naths, the shoemaker family from Gurdaspur, the city and the sector were the first port of call when they moved here in the 1950s.

Today, their booth sits in a quiet corner in the market with the name of Nath shoemaster with the third generation in-charge. Owner Ravi Kant is proud of his heritage and the way his forefathers struggled to rise in life. “I stay in Mohali. People know our shop by name and we get enough customers to get by. However, the trend of handmade shoes is on the wane,” he says.

For Ramal Kumar of Ramal Medical Hall, however, the sector has been good. “We are here since 1981. We cater to medicinal and other needs of accessories of dogs, cats, fish, birds, horses, cows and buffaloes.”

The great divide

“Sector 24 comprises 30% Class-4 employees and around 60% of the population is of Class-1 officers and only around 10% are middle class. This has meant stagnation which is accentuated by the fact that the stairs to the showrooms are from the rear,” says Manish Sabikhi, owner of the flour mill, in the sector since December 14, 1979.

“This was Chandigarh’s first wholesale cement market,” he says, proudly adding that his father came to Chandigarh the day Jawaharlal Nehru surveyed it in April 1952. To revive the sector, he floats the interesting idea of shifting the car bazaar here.

Leaving with a lesson

As you roam the sector, Rajni, 24, the owner of one of the six stalls at the pavement market of earthen goods, catches your eye. Painting a flower pot, she is so eager to win customers, she thinks this writer is one. Even as her trade is humble, her marketing skills are no less than an arms dealer or a politician. You leave the sector then with the unintended message on how to be happy, always and a 50 ‘goluk’.

The ‘celebrity’ couple

As you enter the house of the Sharmas in the rows opposite the SD Senior Secondary School, you cannot help but notice that the exterior and the porch stands out in comparison to the rest of the houses around. The tastefully-done small private house has its TV blaring with the senior Sharma couple watching it attentively.

Soon, the Sharmas alight from the flight of stairs. Vijay Sharma, born in 1964, has been in the same house since.

The Sharma couple, Vijay and Poonam, remember the sector for the grand welcome accorded to them after Vijay featured in the first season of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), back in the year 2000. (He won Rs 3.2 lakh). The HT team got them to talk about it after noticing their photo with the Big B, Amitabh Bachhan, on the mantelpiece in their living room.

Before we could ask them anything, Vijay’s father, 84, listening intently, barges in, “The area around Sectors 23 and 24 was a nullah. There were groundnut fields,” he says, greatly intriguing his daughter-in-law.

Vijay, now a businessman, recalls, “When our appearance was telecast on the KBC in December 2000, this area (the private accommodation occupants) set up a big screen to watch that episode.”

For him, the USP of the sector is the Indira Holiday Home. Poonam says that the Valmiki Jayanti of the sector is very enjoyable and the festive season is celebrated here with relish.

The couple love the sector for the old-fashioned way in which festivals are celebrated here with multitudes of people just milling around. They want the sector to progress and strongly feel the need for a community centre and an e-sampark facility.

See More
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Saturday, February 08, 2025
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On