Raipur… the non-tourist trip
My first sight of Raipur was huge blocks of brown with no mountains to break the view. I woke up from deep slumber and was glad that this was not a train so I would have to scramble to collect all my stuff before the train took off again. Even as I struggled to coherency, I was told that this was not Raipur but Bhubhaneshwar.
I shook my head, freeing space for other images. I always like that moment when I can pick something out from the sky of the city and in this case it had been this one orange house.
Raipur, however, was a bit of a disappointment. Banal planes of brown… acres and acres of it without any green for diversity or mountains to break the view. I tried to remember where exactly on the map I was…
I did not know what exactly to expect from Raipur. This is a city that is growing in leaps and bounds. I do not know where the place was a decade ago (and to be honest, I did not know till recently either). But there is the smell of development in the city.
When a friend called me recently asking if I would be interested in doing a project in Raipur, I agreed. Then I immediately googled the city. Wikipedia told me that the city was in Chattisgarh, which is one of the newly formed states in the country. The state is a decade old and despite problems with the Naxalites and things like that, it has grown considerably.
The roads were wide and surprisingly clean, even if they were a little dusty. There were barren forests by the roadside and new, big houses enclosed in tall walls, indicating new money.
I was surprised by the extent of development, though I was not really sure what I had to expect from the city. These new developments in India is where the real progress is happening, the real development. It is not cities like Bangalore that are an accurate measure of development.
I’m not really sure how much of infrastructure Raipur has in terms of international development. But these are the cities that form the base for the development of other cities. Coal mines, sugar factories and other commodities provide quick money for development.
The city retained some of its rural attributes. The buildings were not completely sparkling new but still were cleanly maintained. They lacked the weariness of a city but did not have the freshness of a new development as well.
My opinion that the roads were wide and well developed was soon shattered. The main road was… but the rest still speaks of a little settlement converted into a city. Huge houses with multiple cars were housed in roads that were barely wide enough to fit those cars.
There were boards of hotels that wouldn’t be flashy in a city but against the sobriety of Raipur, stood out quite a bit. Stereotypes were shattered and errors were comic.
There was a ‘Veg Empire’ that made me laugh considering the ‘Empire’ hotel in Bangalore is famous for its grilled chicken.
I also saw a board stating ‘Madarasi’s Grill’ that struck me as hilarious. The Madarasi or the Tamilian has been the poster boy for South India for decades. And they are as vegetarian as you can get. And a Grill being associated with them… I was quite tempted to check that place out.
Here is a question that I should have asked – is Raipur vegetarian? It seemed so with the number of places advertising ‘pure veg food’. Of course, there was also an Oasis, Tequila and Lime something.
The people, however, remain the epitome of Indian hospitality. As much as I resent the intrusive questions, I always love how welcoming they are and make sure that you are comfortable.
A girl travelling alone is still a bit of an oddity. But they welcomed me and the questions were held off till they had fed me. And then the questions were quite normal… business dealings in India, particularly the family-run, place importance on your family background as well. Who are you, what your parents do, your religion, your caste and your marital status among other things.
There are stereotypes, of course, of south Indians. But maybe because it was a work thing, I did not particularly resent any of it.
It is a different trip, this one. Work-related and in a small town. I realised that I have rarely travelled to small towns. Small airports, yes. But rarely a small town. And a booming one at that. Makes me wonder what else is happening in the rest of India.
