chandigarh posh shoping arena--irresistable sector 17---humorous essay---bhupinder udhas

chandigarh posh shoping arena--irresistable sector 17---humorous essay---bhupinder udhas

***************************

Irresistible sector 17, That is how I describe it. I am addicted to a walk on its pavements for the last thirty plus years.


As a student, I remember the bus that would pass in front of Neelam Theatre and we would alight to see the movies. Later the road was converted into a plaza.


Why I love seventeen ! One—modernity — a cross-section of glamorous people moving from one shop to another. It is really a cosmopolitan joint.


Second—The long stroll !
One gets all the friends at around 7.00 p.m. in the evening. One of them is a landlord Arun, Another owns a big eating joint but loves to have coffee, three are university professors and four are college lecturers among strollers.


Luckily ten of my students own shops.

So it is delight to have long walks with my friends Gobind, Kuku, Prem, Jasvinder, Manik and Ashok. In a gregarious group one, indulges in badinage covering all the topics from DVD’s of western movies to the self help book.


Third reason for my stroll in Sector 17 is quality of eatables. First of all the ubiquitous Coffee Houses. I remember the day when first coffee house started in Sector 22. 25 p for a cup of tea—now it is Rs. 18/- but who doesn’t love aroma of coffee. As poet Pope applauds coffee in his famous poem.AND TS E liot mentioned in The Waste Land


So all my group invariably takes coffee—I prefer tray coffee - separate concoction, milk and sugarfree pills. My average is 3 cups a day.

Sometimes I, after discussing TS Eliot in my MA classes—who in one of his poem said : ‘I have measured my life with coffee spoons’ — I used to go from college to Sector 17 only for a cup of coffee.


And at 12.30 p.m. all my colleagues who have retired from college job collect together.

First for a long walk and then for dosas and idlis.


Fourth reason for my stroll in Sector 17 is books shops. Right on the pavement one finds books on Vikram Seth, Rushdie, Dale Carniege, Agatha Christie and Omar Khayyam.

The four famous books shops of Seventeen have the latest fare. I spend about one hour moving from one book shop to another.



One find magazines on Internet which is also one of my hobbies.



The fifth reason for my visit to the Coffee House is Saturday evenings where some or other music programme is held, I love the Punjabi folk music shows.




Sector 17 is a great leveller where rich and poor, fashionable and simple, scholar and the ignorant all jostle together.


It is really Chandigarh’s heart-throb——my beloved Sector 17.
Sector 17