Chandigarh

This is going to be quick, because I don't have much time for things like blogging these days. Work has been keeping me busy, so much so that I even put in some overtime last week. Unfortunately, eMi doesn't pay time-and-a-half. :)

This past weekend, I went on a weekend excursion to the city of Chandigarh with my roommate and fellow intern Nate. We both had some wanderlust and felt like getting out of Mussoorie for the weekend. I had high expectations, since I had heard Chandigarh is unlike any other Indian city – architecturally distinct, very organized, with streets arranged in a grid, and somewhat like a Western city. Basically, I expected to enter the Chandigarh city limits and magically be transported into America...which wasn't the case. Unfortunately, the city was planned in the 1950s & 60s, a time in which some pretty bad architecture was produced, so there were a lot of boxy concrete buildings.

Despite Chandigarh the city being a letdown, we had some unplanned fun that made it a great weekend. Highlights:

We found some government workers playing a cricket match in a parking lot and, after watching for less than a minute, were invited to play with them. We played a full, hour-long match, and Nate hit the winning run.

We toured the “Fantasy Rock Garden”, an outdoor museum full of one man's bizarre artwork, all fashioned from recycled junk and organic materials.

We stumbled across the most amazing produce market ever.

...after which we stumbled across a wedding processional with the groom on a horse. There was lots of dancing, so we watched the festivities until someone spotted us white folk, and then we were dragged into the middle of the dancing. And then I was hoisted onto some shoulders, after which we were asked to leave because we were stealing attention from the groom. It was surreal.

Great mustache.