Jamshedpur

Nov. 13-16
I took the train from Kolkatta to Jamshedpur and spent several days in the Ginger Hotel, a really well-run chain owned by Tata. It makes me happy to know that I always know what to expect here. The staff is so friendly, speaks English so well, and efficient. I wanted to go to this city in the state of Jharkhand because it is also a new, planned Indian city, actually Otto Koenigsberger who worked on Bhubaneswar also had a hand in this city. The big difference though between the origins of Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, and Bhubaneswar, and Jamshedpur is that the latter planned privately instead of by the government. Because of the mining there, the Tata company planned the city as a company town, and therefore the city is also known as Tatanagar.

The layout of the town is interesting; it is definitely not reminiscent of Chandigarh or Gandhinagar and definitely feels more 'Indian.' The whole city is kind of developed as a big ring around the enormous Tata Steel plant in the center. There are a number of housing colonies for each of the big companies there, and overall the housing and roads seem well maintained.

There is a big park - Jubilee Park which was given to the city by Tata on its 50th anniversary. It appears to be very well-used with a big lake, a zoo, gardens, and more. You definitely realize what is important in designing a park in India! Although there are elaborate gardens, no one was sitting in these areas. Instead if you looked around, there were people scattered around the park, but they were located only in the shade of a tree. Despite the nice gardens, if there was no shade, the people wouldn't sit there.

There was a really amazing Sunday market in Birsanager. There were so many people there - I couldn't believe it! I traveled around the various neighborhoods in the town. Sakchi was one of the biggest and supposedly nicest. I also went up to Mango to see Dimna Lake, and the Agrico colony.