(Dedicated to my (BIF) Fellow friends)
नमस्कार दोस्तों (Namaskar Doston)!
I know you all are comfortable with Hindi now, so…..
I am sharing one map with you. This has helped me navigate my (Fellow)ship. You can say—if you don’t want to, it’s okay, but—I am sharing my heart with you.
Hmm! You know—well, actually you don’t know it yet—, I am talking about the heart that I have sometimes lost and sometimes found at these locations. I am very hopeful that at any point in your journey, if you visit these places, you will feel the same as I did.
My God! I am so excited to visit these places again. Well you can join me. I don’t mind.
Come on!
Let’s go! Put your GPS (Going Probably Somewhere) on.
Signal and Survival
- Look at the top-left corner—no, no, no, don’t look beside that. I know that’s interesting, but we shall go there later. Where was I? Yes, top-left corner! This is my workplace. You can also get exposure here: you have to apply for a Professional Development Grant for this. It’s a multi-storey building, and the staircases are awesome, but you will have to go to the sixth floor, if you are here to work. Don’t panic! There are two elevators too. First, mostly reserved for officials; second, mostly overcrowded. People have enough time here. आराम से. Be comfortable, we can wait.
(Picture: A self created map of Panchkula-Chandigarh to visualise spots)
Oho! I forgot to tell you, if you need good wifi, go to the sixth floor. However, I cannot guarantee that you will find it empty. In such a case, you’ll have to go to the third floor. Sorry! Again, I can’t guarantee that it will be empty. Now, in such a case, you will have to go to the first floor. Don’t worry! It is always empty: you will get a place to sit and work. It is such a relief, but you will not get wifi or a charging point
2. You must be tired and want to grab a coffee now. Let’s go to the nearby mall. There is a coffee house there. The smell of the coffee… it’s so good, right? Wait, don’t go inside. Do you know why? Because my senior told me that it does not serve good coffee. But my senior and the team come here daily because the washroom is good. अरे! Wait, where are you going? If not the coffee, at least you can use the washroom.
3. We can eat now, and for this we don’t have to go too far. You will get rajma-chawal here. You will not get another option here. I swear! I eat this every day, when I come for work, and I am ready to get a Guinness World Record made for this.
Evening Thoughts
4. I want you to come to my place. I love this place because it is surrounded by trees, and there are a lot of dogs and monkeys. I also belong to them, being Mick(e)y Mouse here. The fact is that I have lived at this place for more or less 8 months, but these dogs that live here——I don’t know why they bark at me every time I return in the evening. And you might not believe me, but I bark too! I mean, I shout twice as loud as them to save myself.
5. In the evening, we can go to a park near the place I live. The park is so big that when I start running, it takes me a minute to cover its perimeter. When I get tired during this one minute, I sit on one of the several benches in the park, and reflect on how my day was and whether I learned something.
Streets that Lead to Peace
6. You are in Panchkula Sector-7. Can you see that street? Yes, straight. This street goes towards peace. When you go left, you will find a temple to seek peace of mind, and when you turn right, you will find a food market to satiate your hunger. I highly recommend this as a break from work and from the rajma-chawal monotony.
7. You can visit Chandigarh with me; it’s very easy to go there, because I live in Panchkula, and Chandigarh is behind my building. On weekends, we can go to ‘Sector-17’. It is such a cool place. I promise! You will find everything here, but the things that stand out are the ice cream, books, and the gardens.
8. You will get amazed at your ability to say ‘no’ to the shoe cleaners who will find you everywhere in this area, compelling you to look at your shoes, and wonder if they are really dirty. Don’t believe me? Ask Gursimran. Now, don’t embarrass me by saying that you don’t know him.
9. Dussehra Ground is famous for any kind of gathering: fairs, concerts, or festival celebrations. The whole city gathers here, and I assure you, you will never miss your family. Usually, it happens in the late evenings, so you can easily go and enjoy it. But if you are enochlophobic, it is better to miss your family.
Journeys Beyond Map
10. I love this city, especially when it comes to safety and cleanliness. I don’t want you to be upset with the fact that all the restaurants, theatres, salons, and malls are tremendously far, but quick-commerce is very active here, and you will receive your needed and favorite things within ten to twenty minutes. Because I am smart, I choose to shop at the nearest store, which is a measly 2 km away from my location. The quick-commerce option is good if you want to put on weight, but god knows why I am still 48 kg.
11. You have traveled enough here and there; now it’s time to go to the field. Let me show you my second workplace. I have finished school, but I have to go to school again. I will share the location with you. Keep an extra half hour in your schedule when you start your journey, because it is a treasure hunt: there are multiple schools with the same name, sector number, and so on. For this, you will have to put on your GPS (which stands for Going Probably Somewhere, just like I said earlier).
12. Thank god! Here, it feels like a weekend because I have both Saturday and Sunday off. On top of that, I am surrounded by lovely places like Chandigarh, Punjab, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The cherry on the cake is that you will get government buses and intercity trains to these states at a very cheap rate. For instance, the fare for a bus run by Himachal Transport to Kasauli is less than INR 150, and the journey is so short that you can go there every weekend. But you will have to spend INR 200-400 for intra-city distances, such as to reach the bus stop (ISBT Sector-43), railway station, or airport.
Apologies, my lord! In this piece, I have referred to this place multiple times as a city, but it is a tri-city (Chandigarh + Mohali + Panchkula).
I rest my case…and maybe my heart too.
