Tag Archives: Panchkula

Chandigarh Boys

I loved living in Chandigarh and still miss it terribly. There’s something about the well planned, laid back nature of the city that attracts me to it. But it was after I left that place that I began to notice that the boys of Chandigarh were somehow different from the boys in the rest of India. Especially the ones who have stayed there their entire lives and never moved out.

Chandigarh Boys, PC: Youtube
Chandigarh Boys, PC: Youtube

Chandigarh Boys

  1. Consider themselves superior to the rest of Indians.
  2. Don’t have much exposure to the world outside their tri-city area. For them everything beyond Delhi is “South India”.
  3. Brag about their “kothis” and discuss their sizes in “marla” and “kanals“.
  4. Plan whose farmhouse they will take girls to, on the weekend.
  5. When going to Sector 17, park their cars in the parking lots at the outer peripheries of the market, where parking is ₹5 cheaper.
  6. Drive scooters/motorcycles/cars starting at the age of 12.
  7. Take the above vehicles on the Gedi Route in the evenings & weekends.
  8. Call Discos and clubs as “disc”.
  9. Those who cannot afford clubbing, drink with friends in the car (Also applicable to West Delhi boys).
  10. Brag about which discos in South Delhi they have visited.
  11. Even if you are from Mohali/Panchkula/Zirakpur, tell people you are from Chandigarh. I myself have been guilty of this.
  12. If you stay in Chandigarh, look down on the people from Mohali/Panchkula/Zirakpur.
  13. If you go to one of the Catholic Boys Schools (St. Johns, St. Anne’s), look down at kids from the other schools.
  14. Casually throw around the name of Le Corbusier to visitors.
  15. Make out with girls in your car, parked in the narrow unpaved road behind the lake.
  16. Always know influential people via someone’s father or uncle. For events, ask these people for free passes, because Chandigarh Boys don’t pay for shit. Also pull favours when caught by police for traffic/underage drinking violations.
  17. On Sundays go to pray at Nada Sahib or Mansa Devi to absolve yourselves of the sins of the week; organize “bhandaras” if sins are especially serious.
  18. When asked where they are from, answer with “The City Beautiful” as if the entire country/world is familiar with this phrase.

Durga Puja

Durga Puja (Worship of Durga) is the ultimate festival of the Bengali people. Although you cannot deny the religious nature of Durga Puja, it is as much a cultural and a social festival as it is a religious one; which explains my interest in it. Being an Atheist, it is the cultural part which draws me. It is my favourite festival of all time and is something I look forward to, all year, every year.

Durga Puja is celebrated in Autumn, on a date decided by the Hindu calendar, either in late September or early October. It coincides with the North Indian concept of Navratri, but unlike Navratri, we don’t punish ourselves by restricting our diets or eating vegetarian food. Unlike Navratri, Durga Puja is a time to meet people, feast like there’s no tomorrow & gorge on your favourite food, mostly meat.

Durga Puja
Durga, PC: Indiatimes

The Origins (For me)

My memory of the festival from when I was young is that I had no interest in leaving my house to go and see it. In fact, when I lived in Panchkula, one of the Puja committees even awarded me a prize (Set of Sherlock Holmes books, which I treasure to this day) for academic performance. I refused to attend and someone later brought it home for me.

The first time I remember attending a Durga Puja in earnest was when Ritwik Mandal took me to one in Nagpur. I remember he insisted that we have the puja lunch (bhog). They didn’t have cutlery; you were expected to eat rice with your hand. I was struggling and an elderly couple sitting next to us started making fun of me in Bengali, not knowing I could understand them. I took the higher ground and didn’t abuse them.

Slowly, as I attended more and more Pujas, my interest went up. I remember going to the Maddox Square puja once with my cousins when I was in Kolkata. We reached the venue well past midnight; still the atmosphere was electric. There were thousands of people there, chatting with family and friends. The smell of food being prepared wafted through the air. I hung out there for a few hours and headed home. I had not seen anything like it before.

Regular Patron

Eventually, I became a regular patron of Durga Puja, when I moved to Gurgaon and my parents moved there, too. My father had no interest in it, so me and my mother explored the city in search for new Pandals. After marriage, I drew my wife into the mix, too. Slowly we developed our favourite Pandals, although we would go Pandal-hopping to all the major ones in Gurgaon as well as Delhi. When our daughter was born, we got her hooked, too and we developed a predictable schedule.

  1. Few weeks before the start of the Pujas, we would go to Slice of Bengal in CR Park to begin our shopping. My wife and daughter would both get Bengali sarees and other clothing.
  2. We would attend the pre-Pujo fest at the Chittaranjan Park Bangiya Samaj.
  3. On day 5, we would go to the Pandal at Kashmere Gate, see that it is not ready yet and return home disappointed. By next year we would forget this and do the same thing again.
  4. On day 6, we would cover some of the Gurgaon pandals.
  5. Day 7, we would go Pandal Hopping at CR Park in the morning (Including Navapalli, my daughter’s favourite), then go to Oh! Calcutta for lunch and then return home stuffed. In the evenings, we would go to some more pandals in Gurgaon, including my favourite at the DLF Phase 1 community center.
  6. More of the same on Day 8
  7. On the 9th day, we would go to all our favourite ones once again and then bid a tearful goodbye till next year.

I much prefer Delhi & Gurgaon Durga Pujas to Kolkata ones (which are complete carnage).

Disappointing 2021

Durga Puja in 2020 was a subdued affair because of COVID, but there was something, at least. This year’s Durga Puja was a big disappointment. Normally there’s one Bengali group organising it in Bangkok, but this year, there’s nothing. There are no Bengali restaurants in Bangkok either (There are Bangladeshi, but its not the same). So we are sitting at home, watching it on TV.

Hope I am able to enjoy my favourite festival next year, again.

What is my Hometown?

When I was making a Facebook account recently, it asked me what my Hometown was. I thought about it for a while, but didn’t have an answer. Looks like I have had such a nomadic life, I don’t have a Hometown.

Here’s a list:

YearsCityDuration
1985-1985Bhubaneshwar, Odisha<1 year
1985-1985Kolkata, West Bengal <1 year
1986-1989Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh~3 years
1989-1990Dhani, Madhya Pradesh~1 year
1990-1990Dewas, Madhya Pradesh <1 year
1990-1994Indore, Madhya Pradesh~4 years
1994-1997New Delhi, Delhi~3 years
1997-1998Durgapur, West Bengal~1 year
1998-2002Panchkula, Haryana~4 years
2002-2007Nagpur, Maharashtra~5 years
2007-2008Kolkata, West Bengal~1 year
2008-2021Gurgaon, Haryana~13 years
2021-CurrentBangkok, Thailand
Nomadic Lifestyle
Not my hometown
Sucks, indeed

This list just covers the cities I have lived in. Even within these cities, I have sometimes lived in up to 3 different places. What is my Hometown, then?

Bhubaneshwar, because I was born there, but lived only a few months?

Kolkata, because that’s where my parents are from, but lived only a year?

Gurgaon, where I lived the longest and have my own place but don’t ever plan to return to?

Thankfully, I am off Facebook, so don’t have to answer this question anymore.