Dec 9th, 2007
Charming Chandigarh
We’ve been up-rooted and re-planted in France! The modernist architect Le Corbusier built this town and based it on a typical grid system. There are pavements, cycle lanes and wide boulevards for the cars and rickshaws. The avenues are lined with trees. One of the first things you notice is how few cars are beeping! Guy was right earlier when he posted that all India needs to do is provide pavements for the pedestrians! It seems to be a lovely middle-class environment; all the streets are clean, all the houses are big.
The only reason for coming here (and the only reason Chandigarh is famous) is to see Nek Chand’s Rock Garden. Now 80 yrs old, the refugee Pakistani built it in the years following Independence. As Chandigarh was being built, villages were cleared and waste was generated; Nek Chand took this rubble and junk and turned it into Gaudhi-esque sculpture frenzy. Everything he’s used is recycled. When the local council stumbled across it in 1973, they helped turn it from a man’s back garden in to a tourist attraction. It was a great afternoon fix of art inspiration!
See the pics