The Millennium Park's pièce de résistance is the sculpture by Mumbai-born, London-based and internationally acclaimed architect, Anish Kapoor…. His mammoth bean-shaped creation baptised 'Cloud Gate' - which Chicagoans with a singular lack of imagination call 'The Bean' - is a tribute to this city's past and future.

Having lived in 'The Windy City' for two years, Rukhmini Punoose catches herself in time from succumbing to Chicago's New York hangover. And instead pitches for all the scores on which this classy city, showcasing some of the world's best art and architecture, comes up trumps over the Big Apple

Rukhmini Punoose

Living here for two years now, I promptly picked up on Chicago's Big Apple complex. Which is nonsense, because it's far superior, in all the ways that count, anyway. Chicago is a cornucopia of gardens, as opposed to the concrete jungle New York has planted. It has litter-free streets, instead of open sewers and garbage dumps out there.

Here you'll never find crabby cabbies scornfully tossing back what they perceive as a lousy tip, saying, "You keep it, you look like you need it." But you will find the best jazz and blues belted out in the tiniest bars that have inspired the likes of Aretha Franklin and Muddy Waters.

Alas, disgruntled Chicagoans often say that the city isn't as fast-paced as New York. But this is true. You won't find New York's hardcore bustle, manically paced lifestyle, cut-throat competitiveness and matchbox apartments here. Instead, Chicago has an old-world charm that comfortably nestles with its modernity. It has quaint neighbourhoods time seems to have bypassed. Gone are the days when Chicago's neighbourhoods were associated with Al Capone's rowdy 'gangsta paradise'. Richard Daley, the city mayor, has incorporated his own brand of gangsterism. One of the most colourful political figures in the US, Daley considers himself above the law. And he is. After all, for him, running the city is a family business. His father (also Richard Daley), the mayor before him for 21 years, is best remembered as being the last 'Big Boss' of Chicago.

Daley's last project, the controversial $4.3-billion Millennium Park, has been completed four years after the millennium at three times over-budget. The park itself has been the crowning jewel in Chicago's lauded architectural tiara. Its pièce de résistance is the sculpture by Mumbai-born, London-based and internationally acclaimed architect, Anish Kapoor. His mammoth bean-shaped creation baptised 'Cloud Gate' - which Chicagoans with a singular lack of imagination call 'The Bean' - is a tribute to this city's past and future.

From Cairo to Kolkata, Rukhmini Punoose has constantly been on the move. Formerly with Verve, she is finishing her Masters in magazine publishing at Northwestern University, before she ups and leaves yet again for the lean mean world of magazine journalism in New York.