Chandigarh Railway Station (yeah those sculptures are interesting)

It was my first trip to Chandigarh/Panchkula city area.

That too not for any fun and frolic, but for an exam. Yeah another one of those competitive exams. (I’m getting used to it now, LOL)

Therefore, the trip was not supposed to be fun or exciting. But I have a habit of making mundane things exciting for my own pleasure. Yet, this time, even the higher power helped.

SATURDAY

We(me and my dad) boarded the Shatabdi Express in the evening, and made ourselves comfortable in the cramped seats of our chair-car coach(AC).

The train began its journey on the scheduled time, and after an hour or so, we were served tea with sandwiches and samosas(odd combo LOL). My dad is a finicky man, so he decided not to each sandwiches, and instead only ate samosas and had his tea, thinking that soon enough dinner would be served. Now we were assuming that they serve dinner on this route, which was an Assumption only, and not a fact. After waiting for the dinner for about 2 hours, we suddenly discovered that Chandigarh not far. We had passed the station which comes just before Chandigarh, and still no dinner. My dad was worried now, because his was still hungry, so he went to the pantry to inquire about the dinner. Turned out that they don’t serve dinner on this route, only tea is served. We both felt cheated, but couldn’t do much about it. So we waited for Chandigarh, thinking about dinner prospects.

But another funny incident happened just before our arrival at Chandigarh. There was a young lady sitting across the aisle from our seat. She was….well strange. Constantly chatting on the cellphone, covering her face with the window curtains as if to hide something, constantly shuffling around the place, dropping things, etc. She certainly had this aura of strangeness around her, with goofy smiles playing across her face. Her baggage was kept above our seats, so she came there to procure it. We were a bit bothered, because it was right above our heads. She saw my our faces, and said “ohh! Don’t worry! I’m not gonna drop it, hehe”, and after putting it down safely, she bent down and said this into my dad’s ear, “although I’m intoxicated, hehehe”.

Now, before she uttered that last sentence, we already knew she was drunk, because of her breath. But to top it all, she openly exclaimed it. (it well be a very normal thing to get drunk while travelling in the western world, but in a country like India, its just not ‘okay’ or normal, and not safe either).

My dad, the old fashioned guy he is, didn’t know what to say, or how to react. He just kept silent, and looked at her with a straight face. It was hilarious! After she went away, he turned towards me and said “WOW! We are lagging behind, the world is changing fast”. I just giggled, because I couldn’t manage to say anything else, the whole scene was just too funny. My dad was totally dumbfounded.

We reached Chandigarh on time and started hunting for food immediately. The station is located far away from the main city area, so not many places where we could have found something to eat. Moreover, it was an unknown place, we had no idea about anything. So we got some alloo patties from the refreshment room, and gobbled them up with a cup of tea.

I studied late in the night, and dad went to sleep induced by sheer boredom(LOL).

SUNDAY

The dreaded day of my exam.

I couldn’t wake up in time to revise anything. So I just quickly had my breakfast, took a shower and got ready for the challenge. We didn’t know anything about the examination centre, so in the Driver we trusted. We reached before time, about half an hour before reporting time. So I finally got some time take a quick look at my notes.

The place had been turned into a fortress! Policemen were all over, barricades had been put up on the connecting roads, and gunmen had been installed outside the exam rooms (ohh with real big guns, LOL).

my exam centre(i didnt risk taking pics of the polcemen LOL)

police barricades were installed on all the connecting roads to the exam centre

It looked as though we were going into a war zone, and not for an exam. It tickled a funny bone in me, although I didn’t dare to laugh.(that certainly was not a wise thing to do, was it? LOL)

After my exam, I suddenly felt very light, as if a load was removed from my shoulders. I was free to study other subjects now, and I was happy, as I had been struggling with it till now.

It was lunchtime, and we again set out to search for a place to eat. Out the corner of his eyes, my dad had spotted a restaurant like place near the station only, so he asked the driver about it. He said it was a fine place to eat. So we went in.

That was an understatement actually, it was a beautiful place.

the cow looked so real, lol. but its not a real cow haha

beware of the guards!

i still cant figure out what it is, but looks interesting nonetheless

water buffalo! looked as real as the cow

pretty wall hangings decorated the staircase passage

view from the roof-top restaurant

areas to relax

the beautiful ornate walls of the village

It was more like a pic nic place, made on the village concept. Everywhere, you could find scenes depicting the rural life. The food was also nice, and I enjoyed my time there, taking random pics and roaming around. It was a good place to relax myself.

After having our fill, we set out for a road tour of Chandigarh. We saw the Hgih Court building(its huge),the other administrative buildings, houses allotted to the governors,CMs, Punjab Uni campus area, etc. blah blah LOL all the boring places otherwise. We saw man made lake also-Sukhna.

It was not the ‘places’ as much that had my interest, but the sights and sounds of the city life. As an student of urban planning, I was interested in the way the city was laid out. It was awesome.









Pure beauty of planning. Wide roads, simple ways and routes, cleanliness, greenery surrounding the roads, with well pruned parks here and there.

Another thing that always piques my interest is the Auto-Rickshaws. Every city, yes every city in India has a different breed of auto-rickshaws. It amuses me actually, to see the different colours and shapes of these vehicles in different cities.

the bright blue autos

the weird looking black or yellow autos

As far as I have seen it, no two autos are the same, which belong to different cities. Chandigarh has 2 types, the blue ones and the grotesque looking yellow/black ones. (I really wish to travel the whole of India and make a documentary on this subject. LOL)

We returned to Delhi the same day.

It was an interesting trip. I never expected it to be remotely interesting, but I enjoyed myself immensely. (but I think my dad got pretty bored LOL)