Delhi - 3/26/1999
| TRAVELS WITH MOM - Table of Contents |
Email sent from Delhi, India on March 26, 1999:
Friday morning, we went to the rock garden in Chandigarh. To understand the role of this rock garden, you have to know how Chandigarh came to be ...
In 1947, India became independent from British rule, and there was much idealism and hope for the future. One of the ways that certain people (politicians) in India thought they could set a good tone and example for the future was to design and build a futuristic planned city, one that wouldn't have some of the congestion and similar problems they were experiencing in most big Indian cities. The famous French architect Corbusier was commissioned to design this bold new city, and its name was Chandigarh.
Each "sector" in Chandigarh (there are about 40, I think) is a self-contained urban unit. For example, there is a school, a post office, one or more banks, a laundromat, etc, in each sector. That way people don't have to travel between sectors for common daily needs, reducing traffic. There is also lots of parking space in each sector (a rarity in most Indian cities), and the streets have actual lanes and traffic lights, which people actually obey much of the time. And there are some nice parks and public spaces, with actual garbage cans and similar amenities.
Chandigarh is in the Punjab, and it's now the capital of that state. The capital used to be Amritsar (the Sikh city), but a decision was made to move the capital because Amritsar was too close to the Pakistan border. Chandigarh has been the scene of much tension and violence between Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus, and there were lots of machine-gun-toting military types running around while we were there. We were also told that bomb-sniffing dogs would check out our luggage at the train station, but I'm disappointed to report that this didn't actually happen.
In order to build Chandigarh, they had to demolish several villages that were in the area. And in the demolition of those villages, and the subsequent construction of Chandigarh's sectors, huge quantities of construction debris were created. And this gets us back to the rock garden ...
A guy named Nek Chand, a worker in the construction of Chandigarh, started building sculptures from the pieces of construction debris he found. For example, men and women figures made from pieces of wire, or crushed pipes. Or animals made from old electrical outlets, set against a backdrop of twisted pieces of rebar. This project has grown for 40 years, and now spans 40 acres, and that's the Rock Garden we visited this morning.
It's on such a large scale that you can only see a small part of it at a time, but we took many rolls of photos. There are tiny walkways between sections, and he gave much thought to the presentation -- you come through a little doorway (he must be a tiny guy, from the size of the doorways), and then there will be a world of new colors and textures, with a whole new type of sculptures. There's a very whimsical tone throughout, too. For example, there will be a group of 50 similar sculptures, but one or two will have weird expressions and be looking at the others. Or in one place, you look up and there's a row of waiters and waitresses with trays on a balcony high above (I think they're made from clay pipe). There are also swings in key locations, and local kids seem to love that aspect. And there are several waterfalls, with sculptured people standing in the water which sparkles as it splashes off their heads. Very unusual, and an amazing piece of work.
People in Chandigarh don't seem to be proud of the rock garden, though. We had several people try to convince us it wasn't even worth seeing, and this morning our taxi driver insisted on taking us to "the lake" first, which he felt was much more impressive. Lake Michigan it wasn't, believe me. And the manager of our hotel in Shimla actually said "go to the rose garden instead -- the rock garden is just like many things you probably have in Chicago." I don't know if old Nek was from the wrong caste or what, but it's a strange attitude. And there are NO souvenirs of the rock garden to be had, not even a single postcard depicting it. Very weird.
After that, we took the high-speed Shatabdi Express from Chandigarh to Delhi. It's a 3-hour ride, and they serve you lunch in "AC chair cars," which are basically cheap airplane seats bolted into a train car. It was more comfortable than any train ride we've had so far, and the Chandigarh train station was hassle-free -- nobody approached us about anything! Oh well, we got back to the Delhi train station this afternoon, so we got to have a little bit of train-station fun but now we're done with the trains for this trip.
We're in Delhi tonight, and I'll post more in a couple of days.
- ### -
Friday morning, we went to the rock garden in Chandigarh. To understand the role of this rock garden, you have to know how Chandigarh came to be ...
In 1947, India became independent from British rule, and there was much idealism and hope for the future. One of the ways that certain people (politicians) in India thought they could set a good tone and example for the future was to design and build a futuristic planned city, one that wouldn't have some of the congestion and similar problems they were experiencing in most big Indian cities. The famous French architect Corbusier was commissioned to design this bold new city, and its name was Chandigarh.
Each "sector" in Chandigarh (there are about 40, I think) is a self-contained urban unit. For example, there is a school, a post office, one or more banks, a laundromat, etc, in each sector. That way people don't have to travel between sectors for common daily needs, reducing traffic. There is also lots of parking space in each sector (a rarity in most Indian cities), and the streets have actual lanes and traffic lights, which people actually obey much of the time. And there are some nice parks and public spaces, with actual garbage cans and similar amenities.
Chandigarh is in the Punjab, and it's now the capital of that state. The capital used to be Amritsar (the Sikh city), but a decision was made to move the capital because Amritsar was too close to the Pakistan border. Chandigarh has been the scene of much tension and violence between Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus, and there were lots of machine-gun-toting military types running around while we were there. We were also told that bomb-sniffing dogs would check out our luggage at the train station, but I'm disappointed to report that this didn't actually happen.
In order to build Chandigarh, they had to demolish several villages that were in the area. And in the demolition of those villages, and the subsequent construction of Chandigarh's sectors, huge quantities of construction debris were created. And this gets us back to the rock garden ...
A guy named Nek Chand, a worker in the construction of Chandigarh, started building sculptures from the pieces of construction debris he found. For example, men and women figures made from pieces of wire, or crushed pipes. Or animals made from old electrical outlets, set against a backdrop of twisted pieces of rebar. This project has grown for 40 years, and now spans 40 acres, and that's the Rock Garden we visited this morning.
It's on such a large scale that you can only see a small part of it at a time, but we took many rolls of photos. There are tiny walkways between sections, and he gave much thought to the presentation -- you come through a little doorway (he must be a tiny guy, from the size of the doorways), and then there will be a world of new colors and textures, with a whole new type of sculptures. There's a very whimsical tone throughout, too. For example, there will be a group of 50 similar sculptures, but one or two will have weird expressions and be looking at the others. Or in one place, you look up and there's a row of waiters and waitresses with trays on a balcony high above (I think they're made from clay pipe). There are also swings in key locations, and local kids seem to love that aspect. And there are several waterfalls, with sculptured people standing in the water which sparkles as it splashes off their heads. Very unusual, and an amazing piece of work.
People in Chandigarh don't seem to be proud of the rock garden, though. We had several people try to convince us it wasn't even worth seeing, and this morning our taxi driver insisted on taking us to "the lake" first, which he felt was much more impressive. Lake Michigan it wasn't, believe me. And the manager of our hotel in Shimla actually said "go to the rose garden instead -- the rock garden is just like many things you probably have in Chicago." I don't know if old Nek was from the wrong caste or what, but it's a strange attitude. And there are NO souvenirs of the rock garden to be had, not even a single postcard depicting it. Very weird.
After that, we took the high-speed Shatabdi Express from Chandigarh to Delhi. It's a 3-hour ride, and they serve you lunch in "AC chair cars," which are basically cheap airplane seats bolted into a train car. It was more comfortable than any train ride we've had so far, and the Chandigarh train station was hassle-free -- nobody approached us about anything! Oh well, we got back to the Delhi train station this afternoon, so we got to have a little bit of train-station fun but now we're done with the trains for this trip.
We're in Delhi tonight, and I'll post more in a couple of days.
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/// thoughts on the above; see callouts in the original web version
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