Grew, but not too well

Vinai Chakravarty

IT  was on a chilly morning of January, more than 50 years ago, that my late father, an Army man, along with his family arrived at Chandigarh from Lucknow to join his new place of posting. The first impression I had at that time, after setting my feet on the platform at the railway station, was that my father had blundered by choosing Chandigarh as his last place of posting before retirement. The hullabaloo and razzmatazz we generally  associate with  an Indian city was missing. It appeared that a pall of gloom and despair had descended on the city and someting worse was going to happen.

However, the seventies and eighties brought drastic changes in the landscape and we gradually started enjoying the new-found aura that compelled us to fall in love with this charming city. 

The tree-lined vistas, large green meadow-like gardens, fresh and aromatic air emanating from the foothills of the Shivaliks, and the enchanting, colourful and romantic surroundings of the Sector-17 piazza, friendly and caring nature of its inhabitants, no crime — cast a spell on our mind and soul. 

A daily evening, or late-night stroll, at the Sector-17 piazza with friends and an occasional cup of authentic  and richly brewed coffee of the Indian Coffee House often transported me to a world of eternal happiness and heavenly bliss. 

Today, I am a young man of 65 years of age. Down, but not out. I still sing old Hindi classics loudly while driving my car on city roads. I still visit the piazza, Leisure Valley and Rose Garden. But it gives me unsurmountable pain when I see city residents clamouring for clean drinking water, routine and unscheduled power breakdown, insanitary conditions, chaotic traffic, frequent incidents of road rage, snatchings, robberies, murders, insensitivity towards fellow citizens, crumbling medical facility... The list is unending, and alarming. 

I wonder sometimes how a city of just Rs 10 lakh population can deteriorate so  quickly whereas a city of 20 million people, with 300 years of glorious history, situated on the banks of the river Hoogly, is still vibrant, alive and bubbling with excellent quality of life.  

Obviously, something is wrong somewhere. Many things have to be set right fast, lest ‘City Beautiful’ turns into ‘City of Chaos’ and is known as one. The following Urdu couplet adequately sum up the state of affairs in the city: Sine me jalan aankhon me toofan sa kyon hai/ Is shehar me har shaks pareshan sa kyon hai?