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Published: December 31st 2007
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Delhi was a change to the towns and small cities we'd been visiting the past few weeks, it seemed so big! Not quite sure where to start we did a bit of shopping, finding the glorious Anokhi store. Which specialises in real wood block printed textiles, that are all created in the traditional way. The company was founded to generate a new demand for work by Indian crafts people.
Deciding that Delhi would be an easy place to visit again in the future we opted to spend most of our last week in a town called Chandigarh. Now Chandigarh really was different from the rest of the India we'd seen so far, mostly due to the town being designed and planned from scratch by Le Corbusier. It was one of the wealthiest and by far the cleanest and greenest places in India. Catching the train there and back in first class allowed us to meet some of the residents who were certainly well off by Indian standard. The city was very spread out with huge blocks laid out in a grid of numbered 'sectors', with plenty of parks and trees (including many native Australians). The only con was that it
Please leave your camera here!!!!
One scary man he was actually very nice was too big to walk around easily.
After waiting more than an hour for an open top bus to show up to show us around, we found out that it did not operate in the month we were there, so we were forced to seek out other forms of transport. First destination was the famous High Court also design by Le Corb. With interest in taking some photos we were directed to get a letter authorized by the official in the protocol office. Seeking him out we were signaled to sit infront of a group of men, one, the director, another, his assistant as well as his assistant who was the only one who spoke or acknowledged us. Passing a typed letter across the desk to be proofed, checked and sign by each, we eventually received what we came for. We felt please with our achievement - we got through the kind of bureaucracy that is so famous in this country.
The High Court was a very important place and it was amazing how accepting the government must have been to it, and the surrounding city's design. Walking through the building, it didn't take long for us to
Lots of space!
An officials car approaches in front of the government buildings attract the attention of a local. A young lawyer came and introduced himself asking us if we were French (Im guess many come to see the work of their country's most famous architects). We continued to chat hours, plus were shown the inside of many of the court rooms. It was our best chance we'd had in the whole visit to have our questions answered by somebody who was just genuinely interested in being nice. He had many questions too about how western countries compared with India as well as what we do at home and what the law and government systems were like! Eventually we left together and met his father (also a lawyer) after finishing work in the car park where we were given a lift to other attractions. We were so blown away by the generosity of these kind men giving up their time to show us around and talk with us.
One of the next places we visited was the rather quirky Rock Gardens. The Rock Gardens were created by a man who was once employed as a garbage collector. Every night he would disappear, not telling anyone where he was going, to the worry
of his family. He turned out to be a mad collector, and very piece of rubbish he recycled to create sculptures. When everyone found out what he'd been up to, there were a few troubles with the council as all his work was on public land. The the community supported him and eventually they made it into a park. It is such a strange place where you just walk around in wonder, not believing that it could all be made from trash! Birds made from broken mugs, women from broken glass bangles, all fascinating.
At the end of the day we wandered around the Sector behind our hotel to get a sense of what local life was like. Each townhouse, numbering thousands were based on designs of Le Corbusier. Each had been built over 50 years ago yet still seems so well adapted to the lifestyles of the locals. Obviously many additions and alterations had been made, including a different bright paint colour for each. We couldn't help wonder if the people living in them knew of the importance the buildings were to modern architecture.
Back in Delhi we spent our last day relaxing and doing a last
Sculture by Le Corbusier
Adopted as the city emblem bit of shopping (mostly buying textiles) before getting up very early for our flight to London. After making it through customs and passport control I (J) realized that Id left my ring (one Kate had given me) on the bed side table!!! Without time to go back we made a desperate call to our hotel and had them hold onto it. Never really sure it would be kept safe, we were were very happy when we heard it arrived safely back home in the post!
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