SECTOR CITY

Chandigarh is unique. It is a city as well as a union territory and the capital city of two of the three neighboring states, Punjab and Haryana. It seems to be one of the only cities in India (if not the only city) established by a city planner— the combined effort of a few, to be exact: American planner and architect Albert Meyer, Polish architect Matthew Nowicki, and a Swiss-French architect by the name of Le Corbusier. As a result of their planning, the city is divided up into symmetrical, rectangular sectors which are numbered 1-56. Each sector is divided up into four areas, A-D and market areas are in C and D only leaving A and B for residential. From my understanding, all sectors are required to have a grocery store/market, dispensary (medical clinic), a park, and school among other things. Every sector also has a specialty; for instance, if you need to get your car fixed you would go to Sector 28 or 49. Sector 17 has no residential, retail and hotels only.

Sunil is my chauffeur to and from work every day. On our daily commute, he tells me more about the culture, demographics, politics, geography and economics of Chandigarh compared to other areas of India. I also get a few anecdotal stories or jokes throw in there. One of my personal favorites is as follows: “A young man gets pulled over by a policeman for running a red light. [You know this is a joke because it starts out with a policeman pulling someone over.] The officer asked the young man if he saw the red light. The driver responds with, ‘Yes, sir. I saw the red light… but I failed to see you’.”  It is also said that in India, green means “go,” yellow means “go fast,” and red means “look for police while going faster.” I will say that in other areas of India, this seems to be the truth; but in Chandigarh drivers obey the traffic laws for the most part. It was reported to me that all the traffic lights are monitored by camera and if you violate the laws you will receive a ticket in the mail… two years later. Drivers continue to drive in whatever lane/space is most advantageous for them and completely disregard the dotted white lines fading on the road surface. Speed limits appear to be “however fast you can go without actually coming into contact with the car ahead” which seems universal throughout India.

Chandigarh’s location at the base of the Himalayas means that winters are a little colder than the southern area of India which I typically visit. When I first told Sunil that I could come for a visit the last two weeks of January, he cautioned me that it is very cold here this time of year. A quick look at the temperatures made me chuckle to myself while reporting back to him that it shouldn’t be a problem for me… I was 24F in Spokane and 42F in Chandigarh at the time. The average temperature while I’ve been here is a high of 60-64F and a low of 40-43F. These lower temperatures have me wearing a sweatshirt or my down vest during the day, while my poor Indian friends are bundled up in parkas with fur-lined hoods.

Within the past decade Chandigarh was ranked as the happiest city in India. I’m not exactly sure how one collects data for that sort of survey, but it’s unique culture and structure certainly set it apart from other areas of India that I have visited. And I, for one, am happy here.