Hi Friends,

I never told you people about my short but very pleasant visit to the best planned city and cleanest city in India, Chandigarh. The architecture and urban planning has been done with utmost care that it really leaves a mark on your first visit to the city.

The capital of Punjab & Haryana (now I can say I’ve visited both the states at 1 go ) this city was actually Lahore before partition.. OMG did I go into Pak… lol.. Yep in a way I can say…

Thanks to my colleague for inviting me to his home and getting me a glimpse of this unique city. We started our day out from the Panjab University (no i didn’t do a typo .. it is spelt as PANJAB) where my friend lives.. A huge campus with loads of greenery it sure is a treat to spend your days of learning. Chandigarh as what i know is very popular for its quality of education..Affiliated to prominent universities it is one trying to jump deep into the IT world. The infrastructure of the city and its close proximity to the capital may be I assume the reason for its quick rapid growth in all fields. Well now coming back this city I must say is filled with most people having lots n lots of paper posing the Father of the Nation (Well I just meant money). Youngsters coming to college in nothing less than sedans was quite amazing to watch. Most of them involved in local politics as well so the inflow wouldn’t be a issue at all.

Stepping into the road will give you a shocker especially if you are from a city like Bengaluru. Gosh !! Which country are we in ??  Lush green lawns on either side of a 4 lane road with a divider in between.. and also an extra cycle lane on both sides… and traffic !! Ooopsies wait .. Now that must be a new term for the local population. No jams, No horning, Nobody rushing. Helmets are compulsory for even the pillion rider which is followed with utmost responsibility(Look whose talkin abt the helmet rule )… Being in UP past few months, i too had actually forgotten that RED in a signal means u gotta stop.. I was reminded about that…:-O .. Only hope such discipline will get implemented in our city sooner if not later it’ll be a great achievement.

I must tell you friends about this place called the Rock Garden. A 40 acre sculpture garden it is. The story goes that Nek Chand who is the creator collected materials from the demolition sites around the city (partition –> Pak — > lots of things to break maybe … ) and is supposedly built the garden illegally later made legal due to public demand… Hard to explain but marvels have been created from materials like broken bangles, odd shape stones, broken glass, bricks and even bulb holders.. Lesson to learn that nothing actually goes waste after use…

The whole place can be explored in a day n a half.. Smartly speaking not more than a day is really needed.

Hangouts are quite popular in the place just like ours .. though I’d say we got a better line of hangouts.. I just got a glimpse of one of the high profile ones in one particular colony… but wait I just had lunch at the restaurant and walked away.. The nite-life was not that great though…Hardly any takers even without the 11:30 shutdown notice… Finally we just went for a drive to a hill station nearby and back post mid-nite..

Coming to the malls.. Thumbs down. These are just forgettable structures compared to the ones in NCR.. But the insiders are just incomparable to any place. THE KUDIS !!! Are clothes stitched to cover or to uncover. A BIG QUESTION MARK ?? Some native of Chandigarh only must answer this. Too much uncensored talk will make a bad reading but GUYS expectation levels go beyond saturation level in this place… Nothin more…

Chandigarh is completely smoke free, plastic free. Buy anything from a shop and you will get it in a cloth or paper bag. I had heard of this before and its actually true. So many imported cars.. Man!! BMW’s,Porshe,Lexus,Audi… name it and you will surely find it parked or zooming somewer.

Hey BTW yes the Gol Gubba was tremendously delicious and so was the kulfies and so was the well I forgot all those Punjabi names… Unique varieties of snacks.. Not a great relief from aalu & paneers but Punjabi’s have their own touch of enjoyable cuisines…

I couldn’t make it to Mohali and Patiala(Hehe !!) however hoping i can go there sometime again… A memorable first time experience to one of the corners of India… As of now a rough road ahead with deadlines looking like demons approaching… Signing off .. Ciao till the next blog…

FRIDAY NIGHT @ TECHM in DELHI NCR

Moved into a new project which is in the initial stages so lots of errors happening backend.. yet to get into the groove so we’re working overtime to make up for errors along with making up for the new work packet which keeps arriving every 20 hrs…  Read the whole blog at one go .. sit back with a glass of … well whatever you like and respond after your done… No one on the floor except we stupids,playing songs in system with max volume and no one listening to them they are just to keep me awake. Punjabi, Hindi…well what happened to my taste!!! .. No kannada songs at all… God!!!  Pretty amazed how an atmosphere around you could influence a person to forget what was once a default pick in the mind….

Ohh, some of my team mates are taking sofa breaks… Now what did I mean by that ??? The faithful client far away in the west has requested the fatefull company to make sure the employees are provided with utmost comfort… so what do we get ??? Big Cushion Sofas… So here are my pals resting on sofas provided for our team to rest. Literally dozing to glory but how long will that last anyways…  Poor guys I will be the bad boy to awake them from their glorifying dreams soon to do some regression .. HAHA… Thanks mister Satan ..  Oh Oh wait a min… Team lead(He gotta live upto the repu of being calld so) is only guy working (slogging would be the word )and coordinating with the client (Hinglish mix on the call)… common a call scheduled at 12:30 where literally the whole subcontinent would be in a drugged state and here he has to do a $$$ worth of discussion … Any suitable explanation for this.. I’ve just not been able to figure out .. When a person is in full flow there are chances of making so many mistakes and here we are coordinating a wholesome deal in a weird state of mind.. lol…  Well ok so u are totally bugged up …. Here only just to do work which could have been done in normal shifts but client is following agile methodology and so we are as per company policy…. What are our onsite counterparts doing ??? Well I guess enjoying the aisles in the weekends and going downtown on Sat nite

Well the western culture of working nite outs has been taken up so casually in a country like ours where people tend to slog all thru the nite for an extra allowance which by far is of no significance considering the amount of stress the body actually puts in… Coffee/Tea… well caffeine is bad for health so fresh fruit juice now… jus does’nt work right once the threshold point is crossed… Right… The day dreaming concept is now becoming true… Hmm too many complaints.. then wat the hell am I doin out here would be a knock on the head question !!! What is the boost to work like this… Is it the fact that u get a hefty pocket at the end of the month or just having  job in recession something that gives a bit of console…  Haa pretty weird feeling !!  Well no answer .. The grey matter just got pretty gloomy…

Oh no I missed the torture of cabs…  Firstly thanks to the people behind the transport for having arranged a door drop beyond midnight else half the employees would go missing in a State like UP if they tend to go out alone in the night.. This is a state where we can open the morning paper and read nothing beyond rapes and murders for the first 3 sheets…  Well hope the governance will be better sooner if not later…  coming back to the cab story..  We would complain so much about transport in Bangalore but frankly guys ours is a jem of a place I assure you that… I go out and stand waiting for my cab ticket to be cleared and well here come 2 ladies(we’l discuss about them some other time) and two of us already waiting in queue. A single car and four employees means no space for a security guard… So what follows.. “Ladkiyo ko pehle choddho.. phir bhawan sector khatam karo” … Sirjee hamara sirf paanch min ka drop hai .. Well that was me and there is no point explaining the answer given to that…  Ladies first Ladies safety.. yup rules are rules we will follow that.. get into the car… and we drive on n on .. the journey is worth a explanation really .. but that’s only for the first time you venture into the gallies of north india which you have only been watching in movies all these yrs… Haaa yes yes the narrow streets,  rot iron cots outside the house and people half asleep on them, old grandpa on the mocha (remember the MG rd hangout right.. hehe) smoking away to glory … Gosh its nearly 45 mins since we left TechM right and dear lady where is your house… Bai Saab idar hi aagayi.. and when we actually get there it’s the pleasure of a treasure hunt game won … phew !!!! now wait a min .. how long are we taking to go back home now.. the driver looks half drunk literally… he needs a smoke else he’l never get us..  Get my friend to take his tobacco gut out and give him a few puffs else we’l never get to sleep … and we zooooooooooom away home in the next 20 odd mins..  Finally home sweet home..  next 10 mins your out into dream heaven..