Dadu Aur Madak
| The
first day out of Delhi was a way of getting our feet wet in Indian
driving--literally. We left town very early to avoid city traffic. This
is actually fairly easy because most businesses in India don't open
before 10am. We actually found this a bit odd considering the heat,
thinking it would be better to get work done in the morning. What we
found, though, is that the vegetable markets are actually open very
early. This was not that fortuitous in that our route took us right
past Delhi's largest vegetable market--an area about a half kilometer
square--that was coincidentally situated by the first construction
diversion we would encounter. This muddy mess was exacerbated by the
throngs of people in trucks, on foot, with pushcarts, three-wheel
bicycle carts, hand-carts, ox-carts, and any other conveyance you could
imagine. Once clear of that it was smooth sailing until we were within
twenty miles of our destination. Within that last twenty miles there
were probably another thirty of those diversions. Once in Chandigarh,
however, things were relatively easy to find. Chandigarh is perhaps
India's only planned city. It was designed in the Fifties following
India's Independence by the French Architect Le Corbusier. Laid out on
a grid
system--with streets that are actually marked--it was one of the
easiest towns we've encountered to find your way around. One of
Chandigarh's
premier attractions is a labyrinthine rock garden designed byNek Chand.
We found the ticket booth amusing. |
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| The
maze-like structure employs not only rock as a medium, but also clay,
ceramics, concrete, and even salvaged electical
insulators. Water features also take on an important role. |
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| The
multi-level structure even takes on an organic form. Here these "trees"
and their root system are actually concrete. |
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| Some
of the sculptures are amazingly life-like. |
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