Chandigarh

Souvenir from Chandigarh

When I reached Chandigarh, I didn't have any hotel room booked. I didn't exactly know what I was going to do. I just packed up my bags, tied ‘em up on my bike and arrived there. One might think that I was trying to escape, but if I really had to escape, I would have locked myself in a room and binged on books, TV shows, and alcohol. I was doing the opposite of escaping. I was trying to find a home or at least a place that would feel like home.

Also, many people asked me why I chose Chandigarh, to which I had no answer. I always wanted to live in Chandigarh and for me that was a good enough reason.

So, after riding my bike for 284 kms, I reached the city beautiful. The first thing I did after reaching Chandigarh was to call my friend Sheen, surprising her that I was there. I took advice from her about which sectors to look for an accommodation first. Unluckily, all the rooms I looked for were not even remotely as good as I expected them to be, and the ones which were good enough were out of my budget. I roamed the whole city from one corner to another with the entire luggage on my bike from 5-6 hours and finally when I didn't get any suitable place to stay, I decided to dedicate the next day for room hunt and take rest for the day. I found the cheapest hotel I could, ate some food, and slept. I liked the hotel room where I stayed so much that I asked if I could stay there on a monthly basis on a discounted price. They refused saying that it will be priced on per day basis only. It was worth the try.

I stepped out again to find a room and after some aimless roaming, found a place. Honestly, the place wasn't that great, but it had more or less everything I wanted. A separate room and a bathroom, own terrace, and park on both sides. There were some compromise on my part too. The major one was that the way to my room on 2nd floor passed through the landlord's living room.

It started, my second day in Chandigarh with a place of my own. The first night was funny. I got myself a bottle of whiskey, some quick munchies, and came back to my room to celebrate the commencement of my journey. The moment I made a drink and was about to take the first sip, there was a power cut. So there I was sitting in a room, full of darkness, temperature 40 degrees, with whiskey in my hand, and wondering what the hell. This was the point when I realized that I have to live my life one moment at a time. If I only concentrated only on the very next task I was gonna do and not think about anything else, it would help me survive, and be happy. So, I just took my charpai outside on the terrace. It was a clear night with plenty of moonlight. I drank and I slept on the terrace that day.

For the first few days, I cursed myself for choosing to do what I was doing. Also, did I mention that I had actually started working as a freelancer, instead of a full time job? I thought that would give me the freedom to go wherever I want. Next few days were spent arranging basic necessities like groceries, internet connection, a second hand study table etc to make the place feel like home. I even got some posters for the wall to brighten up the room. It worked well.

The Wall

Sheen guided me well about the city. She showed me a lot of places, a brewery (The Great Bear) that served awesome beer, a local Chinese food market (Sector -15) which served the best Indian Chinese food, Garden of Silence (this place turned out to be my favourite in the whole city), and many local places. She even introduced me to her friends and we hanged out every now and then. I became good friends with one of her friends, Shailja. I also met another friend of mine, Ashman, but somehow we managed to meet only twice during my three months stay.

The first thing you’ll notice about Chandigarh is its amazing roads with trees on both sides on almost all of them. Being from Noida, it was pleasure to ride my bike on such amazing traffic-less roads. I often went on aimless bike rides around the city. I also went for long walks every evening.

Roads of Chandigarh

If I think about the memories I made in Chandigarh, most of them will be pretty trivial to a normal person. I tend to like and remember trivial things, and sadly, forget all the important ones. There was a Gurudwara near my place. I used to go there and sit quite often. Not for any spiritual purpose to be honest. The music that played there was nice (I think it’s called Gurbani), the place was well air-conditioned (Ha!), and I loved observing people that visited there. I cooked random stories about them in my head like where they came from, what were they praying, and what’s it like to be them. The Gurudwara also served Chabeel (a sweet drink) during certain days which tasted amazing.

Another incident which I have a fond memory of is when I visited Japanese Garden. There was a beautiful statue of Buddha built under a tree. It looked amazing and that was the first attraction of Chandigarh which went to my “worth remembering list”. The other things which were later added to the list were, a squirrel I saw at Rock Garden, my 1 hour nap at Garden of Silence, the local pizza shop in Sector-19 which served some real good and cheap pizza, the burger point from where I ordered food whenever I drank in the afternoon, sweaty boating session at Sukhna Lake, one hour jogging on the Sukhna-Garden of Silence track, golgappe at Sector – 34 market (told by one of my anonymous friend from Twitter whom I call by the name DD aka Donnie Darko), sandwiches and shakes at StuCy, bowling at NCM, Mohali, Egg Uttapam at Indian Coffee House in Sector -17, and cigarettes with Sheen at Botanical Garden on one rainy day.

Garden of Silence

Squirrel at Rock Garden

Buddha Statue at Japanese Garden

Apart from the places, I tend to make memories of specific things I do during my stay at any place. I read the book Karna’s Wife, watched Gravity Falls, Game of Thrones, Flash, and Friends, and learnt to drink whiskey with nothing but salted peanuts. I also learnt what it feels like to not speak to anyone for days and understood the true meaning of being alone.

I had the chance to have company of one of Sheen's friend, Dhruv, for one evening. Dhruv was going to Shimla with Sheen and he needed a place in Chandigarh to crash for one night. We went for a walk at the Sukhna Lake and talked about cartoons, animes, TV Series, and movies.

During my three months stay, I went to Kasauli and Dholanji as well. These are nearby hill stations at a distance < 150kms from Chandigarh. Trip to Kasauli was with my friends, Keval and Naveen, who came to meet me from Delhi. I remember the first night they stayed at my place we ordered food at 12 in the night and since I didn’t want to disturb my landlord at this hour (remember way to my room went through their living room), we made a long rope by joining whatever we had on the terrace hung it down through the terrace, and asked the delivery guy to tie the food to it so that we can pull it up!

Sunset on the way back from Kasauli

My small trip to Dholanji was with Sheen, which was also her birthday treat. There was a monastery named Menri Monastery in Dholanji. Since, I have never been to a monastery, we decided to go there. To be honest, more than the place, I liked the road which led to it. Pin drop silence, sunshine on the mountains, and negligible vehicles on the way made us feel like we were on a completely different planet. On our way back to Chandigarh, it started raining and we had to take shelter for an hour. This gave us the chance to watch a rainbow which appeared after the rain stopped.

Menri Monastery

After my three months stint, it was time for me to go home and prepare for my next journey. And here I am, sitting in Kausani, a small hill-station in Uttrakhand, writing this blog. My stay in Chandigarh will always be special for me. It was the first time I stayed away from home, completely on my own, with big life changes I made for myself. I had my moments of happiness, anxiety, peace, and sadness, and I am grateful for everything.

Thank you Chandigarh!