Low pressure shops, cool cafes and good for people watching
Disadvantages:
Pretty much the same stock you'd see anywhere else
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Chandigarh is a unique Indian city that's entirely unlike anything else you'll find anywhere else in the country. It's often referred to as India's first (let's say ONLY) planned city. It was created in the 1950s to provide a home for hundreds of thousands of people displaced as a result of the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. From an empty piece of land in the shadow of the Shivalik Mountains, a new city rose to become the capital of two states - Haryana and Punjab - as well as the capital of the newly formed Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier inherited the job of chief architect after the death of the original American architects and he set about creating a bizarre place of broad boulevards, superior housing stock and a home for museum collections that were split by the Partition. He threw in a smattering of excellent public spaces and didn't forget that one thing we love, the world over, is shopping. The city is an experiment in utopian living - a place designed for and around people and their needs rather than a city that evolved over many centuries and forced people to adapt to their environment. Le Corbusier wanted everything to be on what he called a 'human scale' and with human needs fully in mind. It's a tall order and a fascinating place to visit.
I will probably get round to writing reviews about some of the other attractions over the next few weeks but want to address the topic of shopping and the heart of Chandigarh's shopping district. The so-called Sector 17. The entire city is layed out in American-style 'blocks' called 'Sectors' which give it a sense of some sort of 1960's futurist spaceman film.
If you tell an Indian that you are going to Chandigarh, they'll almost certainly recommend a trip to Sector 17.This is the sort of area that people come from all across the Punjab and Northern India just to stroll, window shop, spend their money and see and be seen. But how does it line up as a tourist attraction?
The thing that makes Sector 17 so unusual for India is that it has a multitude of big brand stores in shopping streets that look remarkably - I hesitate to say it - European. So if you ARE European, you can easily find yourself wondering what all the fuss is about. It's just a bit too much like being at home - with a touch of pre-bombing Arndale Centre thrown in.
We took an arduous auto-rickshaw journey into the city from our hotel and were amazed at how un-Indian Chandigarh looks. The streets are wide and open and, most unusually, really clean. The housing is dull but pleasant with individual properties and neat little gardens. There are no slums, no street communities and it's no surprise to learn that the city is one of the wealthiest in the country - and property prices are driven sky-high because it's just such a nice place to live. It's the sort of city where things get done.
Arriving in Sector 17, our friends, who'd been before, told us we were in for a treat. But it's not a coincidence that Chandigarh is often described by British Asians as the 'Milton Keynes of India. It has the same over-organised, highly structured, concrete-dominated architecture and layout as England's most famous 'new-town'. The only things missing are the roundabouts and the concrete cows. And the pedestrianised shopping zone of Sector 17 is a lot like the centre of MK although I'll confess it's not a town I know well.
Sector 17 is a convenient and easy place to be - the pavements are clear, the slabs are unbroken, you won't fall down a man-hole and break your neck or trip over a small child begging for rupees. But you may well feel as if you are in a grotty, grey concrete, post-industrial parallel universe not entirely unlike a 1970s sink-estate. It reminded me of the worst bits of Moss Side and Hulme in Manchester before they knocked them down and gentrified them. If this architecture were in England you'd be watching your bag, trying not to look anyone in the eye and praying to get a transfer out to somewhere less aggressive where your neighbours didn't have rottweilers and sell drugs. Even the fountains, flower beds and sculptures don't do much to detract from the unremitting greyness of the place.
But I digress because this isn't like that at all - it just looks like it could be.
The shops are large, airy and laid out in western style - lots of racks to browse on, prices marked up clearly and non-negotiably, electric cash tills and everything you'd expect. The assistants won't follow you round the store looking at you as if you are either a wallet with legs or a potential shoplifter. We were on a hunt for a couple of Indian team cricket tops and trawled round Nike, Adidas and all the other stores that you'd expect to find in Europe or North America but wouldn't normally come across in India. And the prices? Well they were pretty much the same too - for India this is an expensive city.
We found a Punjab state tourism shop where I banjaxed the manager by being quicker with my calculations than him and failing to fall for his sales pitch - but the pressure was low by Indian standards, the banter was pleasant and non-aggressive and he did grudgingly take 'no' for an answer. I bought a bunch of cushion covers and turned down repeated attempts to engage me in discussions about bedspreads. It's easy to do this if you find yourself in India trying not to buy things - just tell the shopkeeper his stuff is beautiful but would look ridiculous in an English house. I've not met a shopkeeper yet who can counter that argument.
There were relatively few of the pokey little shops I like to rummage through - the sort you would find in Delhi with everything a tourist could ever imagine wanting as well as plenty he couldn't. But there are good reasons for that - tourists don't go to Chandigarh so why fill your shops with tourist junk? We found shops selling fabrics, bedding, furniture, clothes, household appliances, books - in short, everything you need for everyday life and would find on your home High Street.
Scattered amongst the shops were plenty of places to eat and drink. Indian cities have leapt on the trend for coffee-bar culture so we took some time out to sit and watch the world go by whilst waiting for the slowest ever delivery of a couple of diet cokes. These wide clear pavements and pedestrian zones would be ideal for street cafes in the summer but as we were there in November I don't know if that happens or not.
Out on the streets, street traders set up large stalls selling clothes, fast food and other goodies but there was little of the 'individual trader with their handful of wares' scenario that you'd see in most parts of India. As sunset approached, the streets started to fill with people just wandering around and taking in the atmosphere. Let's be fair, it's not a classic strolling and window shopping street like Barcelona's Las Ramblas, or Paris's Champs Elysees but it has a similar buzz.
We were there just a day before Diwali, the festival of lights. Although the celebrations in the mostly Sikh state of Punjab are relatively low key compared to more Hindu areas of the country, we still found enormous displays of tiny lights being laid out in the main plaza of Sector 17 with little children fighting to light them. It was very moving.
If you go to Chandigarh, you really should take a look at Sector 17. But if you want tourist-related shopping and you aren't in the market for everyday stuff, you won't need to stay too long. If you've been out in the wilds you may well appreciate access to a double espresso or a chocolate muffin and a little reminder of home. But from my perspective, interesting as Sector 17 is, there's something just not 'Indian' enough about the place.
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