"Eccentric City with an A ..." a Chandigarh Travel Page by lachydragon

I have to admit that Chandigarh was not high on the list of places that I was dying to visit in India. I had read that it is one of India's most planned cities - the brinchild of a European architect Le Corbusier - that was enough for me to rule it out.

My trip was one which was to take me from Haridwar Westwards towards Chandigarh, North to Kalka then the Toy Train to Shimla and across to Dharamshala. I was trying to avoid staying in Chandigarh to save the time for the mountains but as always with unplanned travel our experiences changed our track slightly. We arrived in C'garh late in the afternoon by bus and were to catch another bus early in the morning to take us to Kalka for our train connection. We booked some accommodation and went out for dinner, and when we returned to our hotel met up with the wonderful Narinder Singh - self appointed ambassador to Chandigarh and a a true gentleman! Narinder showed us that there was more to Chandigarh than meets te eye!

Narinder Singh has made it his life's mission to show people the city that he is so proud of. In his late 60's Narinder Singh gets around town on his trusty bike and usually meets travellers at the bus stand. If you don't know about travel in India - bus stands can be pretty frenetic places, there are lots of people and many are trying to push a really hard bargain! Narinder saves bleary-eyed, worn out travellers from the clutches of auto-rickshaw drivers and helpfully guides them to their hotels or the sights of Chandigarh, all for the love of it!!

We met Narinder in the evening at our hotel when we were returning from dinner and we read some of his treasured notebooks, filled with wonderful stories and thanks from the multitude of travellers that he has assisted over the years. A fascinating man, we headed to his favourite chai stop to chat and when he discovered our Hindi was delighted to help us along with conversation practice!! Over a few chais we re-jiggled our itinerary so that Narinder could show us the delights of Chandigarh the next morning. Plan was, an early start to head across town for some cheap and filling breakfast and then on to the Nek Chand Rock Garden via Narinder's local Gurdwara (Sikh Temple) for a look.

We had a wonderful morning with Narinder the next day and made the bus and train connection to get to Shimla in the afternoon!!

His favourite line was "Aap se milkar, mai bahut khushi hai" Having met you I am so happy! ... All the way to Shimla we were thinking the same!