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Published: February 12th 2009
The story of Narinder Singh:
Chandigarh is a modern city, created as the new capital of Punjab following partition from Pakistan. Designed by Le Corbusier, it really doesn't feel as though you are in India anymore. Wide, clean, tree lined streets, modern apartment blocks, rose garden's, plumbing and even room for growth!
With a modern city however comes a modern budget. Ours was therefore spent all too soon, so we wandered towards home. Nearing home an elderly man cycled in between us, jumping off his bike and simultaneously reaching out to shake our hand and introduced himself as 'Narinder Singh'. Stating he didn't want to bother us, he was just happy to meet us and would we like to have Chai with him. Normally you believe no-one offering anything on the streets of India, but he had kind eyes and a nice smile, so we followed. He told us that since he retired his hobby was to meet tourists and show them 'his Chandigarh' for free. He was an overactive retiree that cycled 40km a day and had too much energy for his wife so she was happy for him to get out.
Our evening begun here as we
Jaisalmer Fort
Sunset over the wall, from our rooftop residencetraipsed around town eating sweets, cooking chapattis and viewing the cities lights from the roof of a 5 star hotel.
We arranged to meet 8am next morning and another mission begun, this time as his guest of honour to the famous rock garden of Nek Chand, who happens to be a personal friend of Narinder Singh.
In 1954 Nek Chand moved to Chandigarh from Lahore shortly after partition where he worked as a road worker. However he was overcome by the amount of waste generated as old village's were cleared to create the new city. He therefore collected tens of thousands of tonnes of waste and commenced his sculpture garden, that wasn't found until 1973. It is still one of Asia's most significant recycling programmes and an enchanting place to visit.
An unexpected adventure left us in high spirits, we said farewell and continued our journey onto Amritsar's Golden Temple and Sikhs holiest shrine. It was incredibly useful meeting Narinder prior to this as he gave us insight into Sikhism.
Amritsar it self is not pleasant, however you do not need to experience it, as there is no reason to leave the peaceful temple grounds. There is even an
The Thar Desert
Glen with his new friend Moni eating hall equipped to feed 40,000 pilgrims a day, for a donation.
But
The highlight for us on this part of our journey was the desert! Meandering all day on the camel, collecting firewood to cook and sleeping under the stars on the dunes......
Much to our amusement the latest advertising campaigns are:
'Whisky is Risky whilst driving'
&
'It's adviseable to wear a helmet whilst riding a motorbike'
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Simon
non-member comment
WOW!
Guys, These photos are amazing! Would love to see more..... Am I being a glutton, wanting more? Simon