‘The quality of life in Chandigarh is great’

I am pursuing my BCom (hons) from DAV College, Chandigarh. Affiliated to Panjab University, the college has a list of illustrious alumni. I belong to Shimla where I was born and attended DAV Public School,

New Shimla. After Class 12, I decided to move out to some other city where I could get good exposure.

It is very important for personal growth and Shimla does not have very good colleges. The two colleges which are known for good academic standards are St Bede’s College (for women) and Centre Of Excellence, both affiliated to Himachal University. But colleges affiliated to Delhi University and Panjab University are many steps ahead in terms of standard of education and extra-curricular activities.

I believe that besides academic excellence, other activities such as debate, drama, literary events, annual competitions play a great role in shaping your personality. So, I first applied to Delhi University colleges. My percentage was good as I could get admission to Shaheed Bhagat Singh College in Delhi but I did not like Delhi as a city.

I studied there for almost a month but soon I realised that Delhi is not a city for the kind of person I was. People say a lot of positive things about the national Capital but I couldn’t get used to the lifestyle.

Another reason was that I was far away from my parents and relatives. I was sharing a PG accommodation with some other students.

After a month it became difficult to continue in Delhi. So I took my friends and relatives’ advise and they suggested me to chose DAV College, Chandigarh.

There are several reasons why I preferred Chandigarh, one being its proximity to Shimla. Some of my distant relatives stay here so I didn’t feel as lonely as I was in Delhi. Initially I had a lot of problems in finding out suitable PG accommodation as homeowners are quite apprehensive about renting out rooms to bachelors. PG accommodation for girls are aplenty but very few people rent out houses to boys.

When I was in Delhi, there was no dearth of PG accommodations for boys. But while Delhi is extremely crowded, polluted and unplanned, Chandigarh scores better on all these counts. It is a well-planned city with well-defined residential, commercial and industrial pockets. Another advantage of staying in Chandigarh for me is that my home is just four hours from here. So whenever I miss delicious food that my mother cooks, I take a break and go to my city.

The quality of life in Chandigarh is far better than any place in Delhi. The whole city is divided into various sectors, each with residential and commercial belts. For shopping requirements, people can go to the Sector 17 market. Of late, lots of malls have come up. Elante is said to be the biggest mall in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Places worth seeing in Chandigarh are Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden, Botanical Garden, the largest Rose Garden in Asia, etc. My college, DAV College, itself is a destination for tourists as many come to see it due to its rich historical and cultural past.

I have heard from my friends and seniors that when DAV College was only for men, it used to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. Students used to fight over petty things and academic activities suffered due to violence inside the campus.

But today it is a co-ed college with a reputation of being among the top colleges in Chandigarh.

Besides regular studies, we have a lot of societies for educational and cultural activities. I am a debater and I regularly take part in all these events.

We have an annual Youth and Heritage Festival where various colleges affiliated to Panjab University ­participate. Overall, my college experience has been quite good.

Love

* Chandigarh is a well-planned city well-defined residential, commercial and industrial pockets

* There are some lovely spots here - such as the Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden, Botanical Garden, the largest Rose Garden in Asia

* Home - that is Shimla - is just four hours away from Chandigarh

* The quality of life in Chandigarh is far better than any place in Delhi. The whole city is divided into various sectors, each with residential and commercial belts. For shopping requirements, people can go to the sector 17 market

Don’t like

* It’s difficult for boys to get paying guest accommodation. There are options aplenty for girls, though

* It's getting a bit congested. Families here have their own transport - at times three to four cars per family - so things get a bit tricky during rush hours and parking is getting to be a little difficult, too

* Public transport is the pits. Try to get a bus from one part of the town to the other, and you might have to wait for hours

* Chandigarh is an expensive city. Rentals are very high when compared to Delhi. Also, because it is so planned most houses look the same and it gets a little boring at times