Delhi to Chandigarh
Our First Train Ride
After 4 crazy days in Delhi, we are taking the train to Chandigarh. Above, Cindy waits on the platform that we finally found after asking a few people how to navigate our way to the right platform and the right part of the train that would be coming. We purchased AC executive class tickets, for $24 a piece and it was quite comfortable. I had 3 hours of time to work on photos for the blog and just get a rest. When leaving Dehli, we got our first real glimpse on what some might refer to as slums, along the tracks. They were mostly brick buildings and people seemed to utilize the space well and, from my understanding, are still living well. The images you’ll see below of this experience are quite colorful and telling.
The Planned City
The city of Chandigarh was the first planned city of a free India. Nehru was very interested in modernizing India and so called on architects from abroad to create these beautiful spaces. In this case, Le Corbusier was hired as the modern architect to plan the city. We visited a few different areas of the city, some a part of the plan but some were more colorful and created by local artists, like the Rock Garden of Chandigarh which was designed by Nek Chand Saini and reuses industrial and domestic waste (broken ceramics, bottle caps, plumbing fixtures, etc.) to create varied and unique structues. You walk through mazes and small doorways to enter in to new visual experiences, including an area that has cloth dolls situated to tell the stories of India. Before the Rock Garden, we went to Sukha lake/park and had a 4-5K walk from one side the other. We walked on a nice shaded walkway and experienced stone and natural sculptures and wildlife. We saw eagles, crows, dogs and monkeys. Monkeys are everywhere! We saw a large number in one area of the Rock Garden, I took a few photos and I think made the monkey king quite unhappy because when we went to cross the area, he and another larger monkey charged me…it was quite scary. We also walked around the Rose Garden but it was a bit off season and very hot, but we put on a few extra miles, nonetheless. Finally, we went to the bird sanctuary but that was closed. There we ran into a family who wanted to get a photo with us. See that also below. The reason I wanted to go to Chandigarh was to see the city of Le Corbusier but we missed the Capital Complex because of the limited hours and the entry was hard to find. I did include copyright free images of that below.
Click on the first image below to look through the gallery. More images to come.
The image to the left is showing three college friends who also visited the Chandigarh Rock Garden. We have a photo of them because they had paid the 60 rupees for our entry (not even 1$ in US) because we didn’t have the small change. There is also an image of Cindy and I in front of these pots. You also see some images from our hotel and many from the Rock Garden in the post gallery above. See my next post for our visits to Virasat e Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib as well as the Sikh temple and the Daastan e Shahadat museum.