Bhopal - the city of passion

Living in Mumbai, its not difficult to find people who have no idea even about neighbouring cities like Nasik, leave alone cities like Bhopal. It pains even more when people are all praises for cities like Chandigarh (which is a good city, but to be frank a little hyped) and treat Bhopal akin to a village. 

Being born and brought up in Bhopal, one knows that this is a city with many positives; to enumerate a few:

1. A beautiful landscape dotted with parks, ponds and lakes. The hilly terrain on which the city is built gives it a unique ambience - roads rising up and down the slopes, formations of row houses on ascending tracts, long winding roads along the lakes and parks ... 
2. Superb infrastructure compared to the size of population it supports. Unlike most old cities in India, Bhopal has very good amenities - whether it is underground drainage or roads and traffic signals.
• Smooth roads in most arterial tracks
• Cleanliness in most of the new Bhopal areas is a lot better than other cities
• Well maintained squares and turns
• Roads lined up with trees all over the city 
• Widely distributed residential colonies leading to non-congested roads and removing the need to create too many flyovers and subways to manage congestion
• Enough subways and flyover to criss cross railway lines 
• Many good schools and colleges of repute which have churned out many a scholar who have been at illustrious positions in India and abroad
3. No dearth of places to go on outings in an around Bhopal
4. Decent number of good restaurants and food joints and equally good number of places to simply hang out ... 

However, what separates Bhopal from most other small cities is not its infra, neither its beauty - it is the culture of the city. Unlike other small cities which seem to sober out on most days after 7 or 8 PM in the evening, Bhopal is a place that has, since my childhood, been lively till late into the night. 

Whether it is lakeside, the restaurants or the markets - the city definitely does not sleep till 10-11 in the night. And this liveliness gets a further boost during the festive seasons - especially Navratri leading up to Dussera. This lively culture which permeates the city may be a complete antithesis to the 'night life' as it is known by people living in Metros, but is a passionate celebration of human society nevertheless. 

There are many cultural traditions local to Bhopal which date back centuries like the Ijtima but post independence, Bhopal also emerged as a boiling pot giving rise to new festivities (like the Durga Puja at BHEL Kali Bari or Navratri Jhankis at New market) which are celebrated by all Bhopalites without their own ethnic/regional affiliations.

[to be continued]