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Your Guide
Hi, I'm Rusty!
Journalist. 3rd-generation Chandigarh resident. Hilariously unfiltered.
Journalist. 3rd-generation Chandigarh resident. Hilariously unfiltered.
Before doing this full-time, I've been a lifestyle journalist for 11 years with publications across several leading national newspapers and international digital media companies. I am a 3rd-generation resident of Chandigarh, a city that is itself only three generations old.
I went to a High School designed by Pierre Jeanneret, lived through the university designed by him and grew up in public socialist housing designed by him in the 1950s. The first date of my life was in a building designed by Corbusier, the first beer of my life in a Corbusier cafe and both my parents worked inside Corbusier-designed buildings. Through my experiences growing up here with my family history, I live, breathe and exist as Chandigarh's spirit.
With a master's degree in communications and my journalism experience, I started conducting these tours as I witnessed tourism and travel guides here run a monotonous self-glorifying script. The industry lacked a real human touch, a base of secular objective facts – not coated in nationalism and battered in rabid religious fervor.
I have explored my city's architecture, urban planning and modern heritage through my work and personal experiences. I have participated in significant Googleable activism for my city – against its deforestation, for preserving its heritage and fighting against its gentrification. I am loud about my political and social commentary on the changing landscapes of the city – from its classism to its delicate balance between a metropolitan futuristic city and a retirement playground for the ones with generational wealth. I've also travelled extensively, and half a decade of conducting these tours gives me a unique perspective on tourism and on being a travel guide.
Secure. The vast majority of guests have been solo female travellers. Chandigarh is one of the safest developed cities in India.
Real and raw – but no glorifying poverty tourism. No performative dancing, no garlands, no exaggerated traditionalism.
No dances – but the real modern India. No exaggerated traditionalism. No religious indoctrination.
Everything on Rusty tours, from the designing of this website to the tours themselves, from driving, pickups, narration, ideation, each and every photograph you see here, to the tours themselves, is a one-man show.
No third-party agencies, no middlemen, no cost-cutting. This ensures each tour with me has the same quality you've known to love.
Rusty tours feature real human experiences – the good, the absurd and the hilarious. Thank you for being vocal for the local!
