Chandigarh - the Milton Keynes of India. Built following the partition from Pakistan. As the new capital of Punjab, it would be a town planned from scratch that would have pedestrian piazzas, tree lined avenues, houses facing traffic-quiet roads, public gardens and an artificial lake. It would signal a new India, a democratic, community based idyll with a grid-like road layout separating residential sectors. Each sector having its own schools, community resources and places of worship....in theory. The sectors have degenerated and developed organically into the the same old, same old - only the cows are missing. Chandigarh was a refreshing change though, after Dehli, a very civilised city. Helpful tourist police approached us at the bus station. The transport system was government run and easy to work out. The grid system was easy to navigate with helpful maps at regular intervals, once you entered a sector though it was maze-like. It is mainly an overnight stop for tourists who are on their way to the hills. We had a potter about the town. The town was culturally different to others we had visited with lots of 'English' wine and beer shops, the first bars and clubs we have seen in India and with seemingly a minority Sikh population. Despite being a minority group, the Sikhs definitely had the top government/management and administrative jobs. Chandigarh as a concept and as a futuristic vision for India has not been nurtured by successive local governments, nor has it been emulated anywhere else in India and so it has ultimately failed. No photos here, like any manufactured city it lacks any genuine aesthetic qualities and retains only function. Shimla summer retreat of the British Raj in the hills of Himachal Pradesh would be our next and most welcome stop!!!