Chandigarh

---

The drive back down to Chandigarh from Shimla was lovely. We left fairly early in the morning, the air was crisp and clear and there was very little traffic. The trip down took only 3.5 hours this time (an hour and a half less than going up).

Chandigarh is a large modern city with wide tree lined avenues. It was planned and designed, starting in 1947, to be the new capital of the Punjab, after Lahore the previous capital was allocated to Pakistan. There are lovely parks ad gardens, a beautiful lake, walled communities and the whole apperance is very tidy and clean. The city is set out in sectors.; there are street maps, and apparently a ban on industrial activity (and home businesses?) which seems to have been effective in limiting the air pollution.

We expected Chandigarh to simply be a stopover on the way to Delhi, with a few interesting sights such as the Rock Garden. What we didn't expect was the sheer delight, whimsy, beauty size and imagination of Nek Shan's Rock Garden.. Reading up the book we puchased, it is the second most visited sight in India after the Taj Mahal. It is a sheer delight to walk through and enjoy and all because of the passion and imagination of one person collecting stones and bits and pieces of everyday material - electrical connections, broken china, sandbags etc, and making them into something quite beautiful, with winding walks through water and sculpture gardens. The park is still being extended. Its a really lovely family park!


From the Rock Garden (which we spent almost 3 hours walking around, we went to the Lake - again a lovely area for townspeople, families and tourists to enjoy - it must be a wonderful place for people in the hot summer.

---