Chandigarh, which is also known as the “beautiful city”, was one of the first planned cities after India got its independence from Britain in 1947.
The city’s planners opted for a grid system with each area called a section rather than having a neighbourhood or district name.
Our hotel here, for instance, is in Section 17, close to a lot of the city’s key tourist areas and highlights that we are interested in seeing.
Chandigarh is technically a “union territory” which means it is its own individual space, but it is also the capital of the two key neighbouring states, Haryana and Punjab.
In Vancouver, I am always running into people from Punjab, so it will be fun to be able to tell them I have been to their homeland when I see them next time.
To start our first day in Chandigarh, we went to Sector 6 and walked along the banks of the lovely Sukhna Lake.
People can rent funny little duck pedal boats to take out on the lake. There is also a cute little ferry that takes people for a ride on the water.
As I strolled along the path next to the lake, enjoying beautiful beds filled with dinner plate dahlias – who would have guessed dahlias would be so popular here – I ran into a group of students.
They told me they were a mix of Hindu, Sikh and Christian and all got along terrifically. They were curious about Canada and were very keen to have their photo taken with us.
From the lakeside, we next visited the famous Rock Garden of Chandigarh, a project that was secretly started in the forest ravine by Indian artist Nek Chand in the 1950s.
The story goes that Chand decided to start recycling “thrown away” items into works of sculpture and displaying them within the rock and grotto-like spaces.
He worked quietly and unnoticed for 18 years. Apparently, even his wife had no idea where he kept disappearing to for hours on end.
He used scrap materials, including bottles, porcelain toilets, tiles, terracotta pots, broken electrical sockets, broken pipes and discarded electrical wiring to create hundreds of small sculptured figures – dancers, musicians and a variety of animals, including monkeys and geese.
In 1975, city officials stumbled upon the garden and were shocked to find how extensive it was. It had grown to cover 12-acres with a complex network of interlinking courtyards and paths.
Initially, the officials insisted Chand dismantle the whole garden, but news got out and there was a public outcry and the garden was eventually saved.
It is a good thing it was because it has since become world-famous. England’s celebrated garden guru Monty Don has even praised it as one of India’s top gardens.
Once the garden was saved, Chand was allowed to involve more people. He ended up being given a salary by the city and an official title (Sub-Division Engineer, Rock Garden) and got to supervise 50 workers to further enhance the garden. In 1983, the garden was honoured by being featured on an official Indian stamp.
Today, more than 5,000 people visit the garden each day and more than 12 million visitors have walked around it since it opened to the public.
Inside the garden, we were surprised to find some courtyards contained impressive waterfalls and cascades.
As we walked around, we ran into a couple of groups of school children who were very happy to be having such an entertaining field trip.
At the end of the garden, we found a performance area with seating elaborately decorated with a wildly colourful tiled mosaic.
An indoor gallery space nearby featured a set of dioramas featuring figures made from recycled materials in a variety of familiar traditional Indian scenes such as a wedding and market day.
This garden gets a high rating because of the overall quality of the installations as well as the cheerful, upbeat and colourful style of Chand’s sculptural pieces in addition to the beautiful curving footpaths and gritty textures of the grotto walls.
The sound and sight of thousands of gallons of cascading water also give the garden an impressive atmosphere.
I would have no hesitation recommending this as a worthwhile place for tourists to visit.
We all emerged, refreshed and inspired and feeling very upbeat, and we found we had still only walked about three kilometres, although it did feel like we had walked a lot farther.
Later in the day, we visited the Zakir Hussain Rose Garden, which covers more than 40-acres in Sector 16 of Chandigarh, right next to our hotel.
Here, we found more than 825 varieties of roses and a total of 32,500 plants grouped in dozens of island beds.
The garden was created in 1967 and was named after India’s former president. Today, it is considered Asia’s largest rose garden. It will be the site of an upcoming rose festival.
We walked the garden and while we did find hundreds of roses in bloom, we found many were not doing well and we were surprised that some of the newer, more reliable flowering varieties are not being used.
We also were a little shocked to see some people plucking roses to take home. I guess it is hard to see such beautiful flowers without wanting to snip one or two.
Before catching the train back to Delhi, we visited the Yadavindra Gardens, formerly Pinjore Gardens, which dates back to the 17th century and is located in the city of Pinjore in Haryana state.
It was built in the foothills of the Himalayas as one of the summer garden retreats for the Mughal prince Aurangzeb.
Apparently, the women of the prince’s harem were scared by stories that the water in the area caused goitre and insisted on moving.
This was good news for the local Raj and his people who were happy to see the back of the Mughals.
Today, the garden is not as opulent but still has a great deal of charm and retains a wonderful exotic atmosphere with majestic lines of palm trees and orchards of mango trees.
We enjoyed walking in the sunshine and watching families with their families on a Sunday outing.
Outside the garden, there were two camels giving rides. It was immensely popular. For only 150 rupees two adults could also go for a ride.
Travelling back into Chandigarh we noticed how many families were out going for a ride on a motorcycle or scooter. It was very common to see a mother sitting sidesaddle, holding her infant, while her husband concentrated on driving.
It struck me that perhaps one of the lessons India can teach the world is how to relax and have fun even while times are not perfect. After all, these people certainly know poverty and danger and difficulty and yet they still get out and have the courage and daring to get into life with energy and enthusiasm. Very impressive when you see it taking place all around you.
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