From Open Hand to Golden Land

Direct flight to Dubai from Chandigarh would be a reality in a couple of months. Looking at the preparation that the Panjab government is making the international flights would be taking off soon from here. A great boon to all those Chandigarhians living, working and studying abroad, to fly in straight into their home from abroad.

Your Planet Needs You

Tomorrow, June 5, is the World Environment Day. How are you going to contribute to lessen the global warming? To start with UNEP has launched the campaign to plant 7 billion trees, one for every denizen of our planet earth, during the year. In this effort, many NGOs are joining in to contribute to this cause.
Environment Society of Chandigarh is launching a campaign to make people paint their roofs white which can effectively impact the heating of the planet.
Surya Education World would be distributing over 2000 plants in Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Ambala and Patiala to encourage people to plant trees. It is also seeking ideas from the people as to how they think they would contribute in saving our environment.
Various schools in the city are sharing the kind of planet they would like to live in future through their paintings and sketches.
It is a massive effort. Yet only we can bring about the change we desire...the kind of planet that we want to leave for our children. Let's join the mission.

The Mall culture

We in Chandigarh had been perhaps one of those lucky ones who were exposed to the culture of mall early on, while the Indian retail was still toying with the idea. Our Sector 17 had always been an open atrium with all brands, eating joints, and cinema houses clustered in one central place, and there had never been an evening that one could not quitely stroll through the central plaza, enjoying a dual-flavour ice cream, and window shopping.
The advent of malls recently has made many of the old cine landmarks in the city vanish. Though DT Mall in IT park was the first one to come followed by the Centra Plaza in Industrial Area, Paras Down Town Square in Zirakpur, and many more in the offing in Panchkula and Mohali areas.
However, we shall miss the round canopy of KC Theatre, and the grand facades of Jagat in 17, and Piccadilly theatre in Sector 34, which has also been demolished to give way for a shopping mall and a multiplex. Batra, Kiran, and Neelam are also in the queue to get their old structures replaced with swanky new malls. Will they succeed? But aren't you missing the good old theatres? Only thing is that these theatre owners never did anything to improve the ambiance or customer experience there, which has led to their downfall and low footfall.

Express Yourself

What are the key problems that face our city? As the city is growing and population swelling, we have perennial shortage of water, the drying Sukhna Lake, the inadequate tree cover, the traffic issues, and road accidents, and what not.
Please list out the key problems that you feel our city faces which need to be resolved and taken care of.
I shall appreciate your response.
CJ