Chandigarh

In addition to having a cool name, Chandigarh is one of the only planned cities in India, and was build almost entirely in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
From the day I spent there was very pleasant. The air was clean, the ground was largely uncluttered with litter; a striking change from Amritsar. Of all the cities I’ve seen in India so far, it seems the most hospitable.
The city is structured in sectors, which measure 1200 by 800 meters. In each sector is a small community that contains most of what is necessary for daily life: schools, shops, houses, businesses and green spaces. The idea is residences spend most of their time in their own sectors, which have the feeling of small towns, only venturing to other blocks for external things they require. All in all, it seems to work pretty well for the Chandigarthians. It has the highest literacy rate of any city at 90%, and is the only city in India with a population that is more than 50% female. From what I saw the green spaces do not suffer from the tragedy of the commons problem I mentioned earlier, all the parks I saw were filled with people just enjoying the day.

If you decide to go, it can be done in a weekend from Delhi. Its about 5 hour bus ride from Delhi, stay overnight and drive home the next evening. Make sure to see the Rock garden, the City Museum, the rose garden and the lake. All are worth a stop.