The City Beautiful

Chandigarh was created after Partition to serve as the capital of the state of Punjab because Lahore, formerly the Punjab capital, went to Pakistan.   It is India’s first planned city. 

Our original plan was to drive straight to the airport and fly out but we decided to take things easy and spend a night, and we enjoyed the city so much that we ended up spending a second night. 

Chandigarh is a lovely break from the madness that is India.  The wide tree-lined boulevards are not overcrowded with cars crawling over every inch of tarmac, and we found the drivers far more respectful of traffic signs and each other.  The city doesn’t see many tourists so Marina elicited a lot of stares and a few people wanted to take her picture, which she didn’t mind. 

Chandigarh is famous for being designed by Le Corbusier, and a few of his buildings are still in operation today.  Like much of India, you have to go through a bureaucratic process, but we managed to skip it somehow by talking our way past the security guard at the courthouse and then asking someone from the Protocol office to take us around to the front of the building to get some pictures. Stupidly, the views in the pictures below are accessible only to judges and tourists who get past the bureaucrats.  The public enters through the back of the building, which looks like a gray monolith. 

  

Courthouse designed by Le Corbusier

Detail of Courthouse

Detail of Courthouse

Courthouse view

Courthouse alternative view

Le Corbusier's Open Hand Monument, which is found everywhere in Chandigarh

By far our favorite attraction in Chandigarh was the Rock Garden.  It was created by Nek Chand, a road inspector involved in the creation of the new city, who collected a lot of the waste that was being generated by the tearing up of villages to build a new city.  He created sculptures out of these waste materials and started building the garden out of rocks on public forest land.  He managed to keep his project a secret for 18 years.  When authorities discovered it in 1975, it had grown to a 12-acre complex of linked courtyards filled with hundreds of pottery and concrete sculptures.   Originally slated to be demolished, the work was saved by public opinion and became a public space in 1976.  Nek Chand was given a salary and a staff of 50 laborers to work on the garden full time.  Today, the project continues to grow, and is still made out of recycled materials.   The sculpture collections of different groups of people reminded me of "It's a Small World" at Disneyworld.  The garden is truly fantastical, with trees and roots made of concrete, walls of carved rock and electric fittings, man made waterfalls, an amphitheater and colorful mosaics. 

We spent a few hours wandering the grounds, stunned by the vision and labor of what a single person could create.  I highly recommend a trip to this place if you want to be inspired and motivated by art.

Wall of electric fittings

Wall of pottery

Moment of reflection in the amphitheater

Bridge over quiet water

Concrete miniature house

Creator of the Rock Garden

Wall of rocks

Fantastical shapes of concrete

Concrete sculptures embedded in wall

Wall of electric fittings and pottery collection

Some of Nek Chand's original sculptures

Detail of sculptures

Path leading to waterfall

Sculptures made of recycled materials

Man made waterfall

Enjoying the swings of rubber tires

Horse sculpture of concrete and ceramic shards

Elephant "trees" made of concrete 

A moment of reflection

"Trees" made of concrete

Like almost everywhere else we went in India on this trip, the place was swarming with Indian tourists. Maybe because we came around Diwali, which is celebrated in a big way here, and people take time off much as they do for Christmas and New Year's in the West.  One troubling thing in the rock garden was the camel in the courtyard who remained standing in the sun for hours while his handler sat on a chair waiting for people who wanted to take a photo or a camel ride.  The whole business of using animals for people's pleasure is very distasteful to me, especially the ridiculous horse and carriage rides where a horse, usually in poor condition, has to haul around a huge heavy carriage and 5 or 6 people in traffic at a brisk pace, just so people can say they've experienced this novelty.  I will be so happy when people are banned in all countries from using animals for their own pleasure.

 

 

Camel has to stand up for hours in the sun while his handler naps

Indian tourists captivated by the camel