As a teenager, I used to read a travel magazine called 'Treasure' that my cousin, Samson dada, subscribed to. It was in one of these issues that I read about Nek Chand, the man who built the Rock Garden in Chandigarh.
Nek Chand inspired me immensely at that impressionable age. I found it very interesting how he gathered bits of colourful bangles, tiles and other such recyclables during the day and how he sneaked away to his hidden garden in the evening to sculpt a spectacular display in a forest clearing.
I wondered what inspired him. He worked secretly and apparently had no aspirations to fame or fortune. Was it purely his creative genius that prompted him to work on the sculptures after a hard day at work? Whatever it was, it did eventually bring him fame as one of the most selfless artists of India who brought joy to the community.
His life reads like a story.
Wikipedia informs us that he hailed from Shakargarh region (now in Pakistan) of district Gurdaspur. His family moved to Chandigarh in 1947 during the Partition. At the time, the city was being redesigned as a modern utopia by a Swiss/French architect. It was to be the first planned city in India, and Chand found work there as a roads inspector for the Public Works Department in 1951. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1984.
In his spare time, Chand began collecting materials from demolition sites around the city. He recycled these materials into his own vision of the divine kingdom of Sukrani, choosing a gorge in a forest near Sukhna Lake for his work. The gorge had been designated as a land conservancy, a forest buffer established in 1902 that nothing could be built on. Chand's work was illegal, but he was able to hide it for eighteen years before it was discovered by the authorities in 1975.
Eighteen years!!
By this time, it had grown into a 13-acre complex of interlinked courtyards, each filled with hundreds of pottery-covered concrete sculptures of dancers, musicians, and animals. Made from recycled materials, Chand build up the mass with a cement and sand mix before adding a final coating of smoothly burnished pure cement combined with waste materials such as broken glass, bangles, crockery, mosaic and iron-foundry slag.
His work was in serious danger of being demolished, but he was able to get public opinion on his side, and in 1986 the park was inaugurated as a public space. Nek Chand was given a salary, a title ("Sub-Divisional Engineer, Rock Garden"), and a workforce of 50 labourers so that he could concentrate full-time on his work. It even appeared on an Indian stamp in 1983. The Rock Garden is still made out of recycled materials; and with the government's help, Chand was able to set up collection centres around the city for waste, especially rags and broken ceramics.
When Chand left the country on a lecture tour in 1996, the city withdrew its funding, and vandals attacked the park. The Rock Garden Society took over the administration and upkeep of this unique visionary environment. The garden is visited by over five thousand people daily, with a total of more than twelve million visitors since its inception.
Chand's statues have found their way into museums across the world.
There is a Nek Chand Foundation in London founded to raise funds for the garden.
Nek Chand passed away last Friday at the age of ninety.
This humble self-taught artist has inspired many people around the world with his selfless art. This is his most precious gift to the world.
Rest in peace, Nek Chand, O creator of an imaginary garden!
(Pictures courtesy: Google images)
