South Chandigarh: A journey from a desolated island to bustling communities

Year 2001, I was driving around in Sector 47, Chandigarh, looking for a friend’s house. After navigating a few streets on my scooter, I was able to locate her flat. We sat and had a chat over a cup of tea. I shared my concern about my inability to find a suitable home to settle down after my marriage, scheduled in a few months. I had been on a house hunt for quite some days. As I was posted in Chandigarh and my fiancé lived in another city, the responsibility of finding a home fell on me. At that time Sector 47 seemed to me the farthest edge of the city but my friend told me that new high-rise flats were coming up in the adjacent Sectors 48 and 49.

Encouraged by this new information, I decided to push my boundaries. I embarked on my Odyssean quest along the deserted road connecting Sectors 47 and 48, wondering if there was any human habitation. As I was beginning to doubt my venture, I saw a row of flats. Just two blocks of houses overlooking a moorland. Eureka! The area was desolate, the bustling and bursting locality of today was beyond anyone’s imagination. We lived there for two years but it seemed like two long years of living on an island. I felt disconnected and rootless despite the fact that the housing units were joined like Siamese twins.

Years later many new blocks mushroomed, jostling with each other. The character of the city changed making room for more immigrants.

As luck would have it, we later bought a flat in Sector 47 and made it home. I came back where I started from, settling in the quiet, green neighbourhood, my unease of initial years having disappeared.

Navdeep Kahol, Chandigarh