This blog is about the lesser known but beautiful, wonderful, huge, unique and sometimes bizarre places around the World. Started on January 1, 2009, it is an outcome of my association with Google Earth Community, which I joined in July 2006. Since then I have been regularly flying to almost all the corners of WWW (Whole Wide World) and have virtually adopted the age old motto - Perfect time to see the World is after retirement.
Google Earth Community Forum is full of information which ranges from, but not limited to; history, geography, nature, environment, architecture, military, transportation, beliefs, festivals, huge, unique, bizarre items, current happenings etc etc.
My favourite section in the Community is "Fun and Games" - in which members post riddles and puzzles on almost all subjects and generally give hints for searching and locating the relevant places and or events on Google Earth. I have made several hundred posts in this forum and must have solved about the same number, though several were beyond my grasp. Believe me it is not easy to solve these riddles - Finding the answer is 90% perspiration (research) and 10% inspiration but it is pure 100% joy and sense of exhilaration.
This forum provides a stimulus to my brain and keeps it active. I strongly recommend this for those who have time and penchant for solving puzzles, but a word of warning – it is highly addictive.
My travels around the World are not limited to Fun and Games only, however many of the places being covered in this travelogue were found as a result of my researches for making posts in Fun and Games or trying to solve the riddles given therein.
The Original Google Earth Community was frozen by Google in April 2015 and finally killed in April 2019. However the dedicated moderators of the defunct Original GEC created a new Board for the GEC enthusiasts and the new Community is known as "Google Earth Community Forums". This new community continues to function as the old GEC but is independent of google.com
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The Rock Garden at Chandigarh, India, is unique in the sense that it was clandestinely created by one man, in a reserved jungle land, over a period of 18 years, before it was discovered by the authorities. By the time of its discovery it had grown to a size of about 12-acre (49,000 sq. metres) and had a vast collections of statues and figurines built from scrap and pilfered material.
Its creator, Nek Chand Saini, a young refugee from the recently created Pakistan, joined Punjab State Public Works Department (PWD) in 1950 as road inspector. At that time the city of Chandigarh, India's first planned city, was being built, based on the designs of famous architect Le Corbusier and Nek Chand was looking after the stores.
In 1957-58 he set upon to create statues from the waste material like broken ceramics, bangles, rubble stones etc and installed these secretly in a small patch of jungle adjoining the store depot under his control. He used to work in spare hours as well as in the night. As his collection grew he started pilfering the store for construction material and also utilised the labour working in store for clearing the jungle and constructing platforms for his artwork. He escaped detection because at that time the stores were set away from the main road and the quantity of Government material pilfered by him was peanuts as compared to massive construction activities which were going around in creating the Chandigarh city. Perhaps he balanced his books by showing the items pilfered as wastage.
Upon its discovery 1976 the authorities were in a dilemma. Some officials wanted it to be declared illegal and demolished alongwith punitive action against Nek Chand, while others felt that it should be preserved. Ultimately opinion of the public and art lovers prevailed. The Rock Garden as well as its creator were spared. The Government took over control of the Garden and officially made Nek Chand its in-charge so that he could openly work full time. Later Rock Garden Society was established to look after the Garden. The Central Government also honoured Nek Chand and bestowed on him Padma Shri (4th highest civilian award) and a stamp was also issued in 1983 depicting a sculpture from the Garden.
The Rock Garden is now spread over forty acres (160,000 sq. metres) of land with several thousand sculptures set within large mosaic courtyards linked by walled paths and deep gorges with waterfalls. Even after official recognition all the later additions were made out of recycled materials. Nek Chand with the help of local authorities has established collection centres all over the city to collect waste material especially rags and broken ceramics.
The Rock Garden has achieved a fame and tourist traffic reportedly second only to the Taj Mahal. About 5000 persons visit it every day.
Thanks for sharing these picture. I really liked your post. A living monument to Picasso’s adage “Everything you can imagine is real”, the breathtaking garden is a place of superlatives. Designed and established on a conserved land, it was the creator and artist Nek Chand’s own secret garden that he worked on in his spare time, beginning 1957, and it was about 2 decades before anyone discovered its existence. Check out more about Chandigarh Rock Garden also.
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3 comments:
Lovely Post with amazing pictures.
Thank you. Appreciation from my readers is an encouragement to do better.
Thanks for sharing these picture. I really liked your post. A living monument to Picasso’s adage “Everything you can imagine is real”, the breathtaking garden is a place of superlatives. Designed and established on a conserved land, it was the creator and artist Nek Chand’s own secret garden that he worked on in his spare time, beginning 1957, and it was about 2 decades before anyone discovered its existence. Check out more about Chandigarh Rock Garden also.
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