Chandigarh...

...is perplexing, is something almost un-Indian. Where do I begin? On my ride from the train station to the hotel, I noticed the wide setbacks and wondered why people weren't taking up every inch of space out on the streets selling fruits, chai, samosas, saris, idols, strings of marigolds, and peacock feather fans. The extra-wide roads, too big for normal traffic have encouraged a different class of vehicles, the SUV. The traffic lights have countdowns and the rickshawallahs actually follow the rules of the roundabouts. My hotel is in a strip mall with a large parking lot out front. I was suprised to find that I had to go looking for a rickshaw... there weren't a dozen waiting outside my hotel ready to take me sightseeing. It's like culture-shock back to US culture, but still in India...
I admit, it's nice, cleaner, quieter. The people who live here are affluent, speak English well, and seem to be enjoying the parks and open spaces...
The City Museum exhibits old photos, maps, sketches, models, newspaper clippings and quotes that give an in-depth look at the planning of the city. After the trauma of partition in 1947, India needed to house the overwhelming number of refugees and Chandigarh was conceived. A site was selected based on a survey of its conditions and geography; an American architecture team led by Matthew Nowicki and Albert Mayer was hired to plan the new city, Chandigarh. When Nowicki died in a plane crash, the American team was dismantled and Le Corbusier and his team was hired to replace them. Corbusier based the city's master plan on 4 primary functions: living, working, circulation and care of body and spirit.
The plan is rigid and Corbu even went so far as to write a long-winded "constitution" as to how the city would operate, down to the finest detail of who will live where and what sort of businesses would operate and in what form. He designed housing, government buildings, sculpture and carpets for the city buildings.
What I found most interesting was that all of this planning seemed to help the middle class move up and but still doesn't care for the laborers, those who literally built the city and who provide all of the service jobs that allow the middle and upper classes to live comfortable lives. Corbu's plan didn't take these people into account and they now live on the fringes of the city, where the government has allotted a sliver of land. Over the past decades, as the city has grown, families have expanded, have had to subdivide their plots, and often rent out small parcels of land to other laborers. Village land that once supported a good milk industry for the city, now cannot support grazing cattle. As development progessed, these villages have become engulfed by the city, however, villages are exempt from the architecture and sanitation controls of the city, so they constitute a problem. Their population density is high while their water, electricity and sanitation is inadequate.
India has contrasts and irony everywhere you look. Chandigarh is at once beautiful, civilized, rigid, and modern. But it's also unsympathetic, detatched from the state of their country, and self-absorbed, if I may be so bold. I've only been here 2 days....

At the rose garden in Chandigarh, a sight unfamiliar in the India I've seen.

Le Corbusier's plan for the new city of Chandigarh, capital of Punjab.
On the train platform, a man is kneading dough.