Sukhana Lake, Chandigarh

As it is in the vicinity of the Rock Garden our next stop was the Sukhana lake. The moment we entered we overheard someone say that currently boating is not allowed. Sure, that was disappointing but I was looking forward to walking along the shore of the lake and thankfully that was still allowed.

Note to future visitors – you can walk right by the shore but I suggest you take the road that runs at the back of the grass. It is narrow but there is ample shade and you get to walk with trees on both sides. Even a walk till the public restroom (you will smell it before you see it!) will take upto half an hour, depending on your speed. But believe me, it will be worth every minute of it.

 
Another tip - don’t get lured by the shop that sells chaat items there. We ordered BhelPuri and asked if they have sevpuri on menu. A guy near the counter said they didn’t but the lady sitting there promptly said that they do. I realized that we were going to be served a hodgepodge of chaat items thrown together as sevpuri just so that they can make money. We should have cancelled the order but we were hungry. And I really didn’t believe that one can mess up making simple chaat.

As it turned out, I was wrong. The bhel was served first. The guy who made it had either forgotten to add the tamarind chutney or was clueless that it is part of the recipe. The sevpuri, as suspected, was a mix of chaat items hastily thrown together and smothered in dollops of curd. Totally tasteless and waste of money! You are better off starving. :-(

The Rock Garden, Chandigarh

When our driver said that we will need more than an hour at the Rock Garden I thought he was exaggerating. How much can be constructed out of waste? Plenty, as I found to my surprise and delight.

There are very few places that make you feel that we should have had more than just a single pair of eyes. This rock garden easily makes it to that list. At every twist and turn and bend of the carefully laid-out narrow path that the visitors are supposed to follow, there are better and better sights to be seen. I cannot describe it in words so trusting the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, I will leave it to the photos to do the honors.

Hats off to Nek Chand, the government official who built this out of waste like bottles, bangles, glasses, ceramic tiles and more!

Note to future visitors – please be courteous to your fellow visitors and make sure you step aside as soon as your photo session is done. Also please make sure that you leave plenty of room for others to pass as you try to cover as wide an area as possible in your photos. If you don’t, sooner or later people are going to lose patience and end up being forever a part of your family album.

The Rose Garden, Chandigarh

The first three tourists stops were, of course, the Rock Garden, Sukhana Lake and the Rose Garden. But for the reasons best known to him (and perhaps God!), the driver of our hotel car was very reluctant to take us to the Rose Garden. ‘You will need at least an hour in the rock garden. What is there to see in the rose garden?’ that was his reasoning. Looked like he had never been to Mumbai where the only roses that you ever get to see are on the plants that grow in your balcony – if you have the time, energy and enthusiasm to cater to them. “That’s okay. We want to see the Rose Garden” we said firmly and he turned back from the road that was going to take us to the rock garden.

Okay, I am not sure what size I had in mind when I read that practically every sector in the city has a garden to boast of. But it hadn’t been certainly this big. The garden was huge, I mean huge. One look at it and I realized that we won’t be able to cover it fully during whatever time we had on our hands. For anyone who has grown up in a crowded metro, the sheer idea that so much of city space can be used for a garden is simply overwhelming. Wiki tells me that this garden, named after the former president Zakir Husain, is Asia’s largest and was constructed in 1967.

I felt like a kid in a candy store. Roses of practically every hue were in full bloom. I worried that I will run out of space on my digicam and phone right at this first spot. The air was crisp with a hint of bite, the birds twittered, the blue sky was full of fluffy white clouds and the most important thing was that I had the time and luxury to enjoy all of this. I was glad I had prevailed upon the driver to get us here.

Note to future visitors - When you find yourself in this garden, it is possible to feel compelled to just click away. But do take some moments to sit on a bench under the lush green canopy of creepers. Watch the squirrels dart in and out of the foliage as they play. Listen to the sound of falling water and watch the dance of the water droplets near the fountain. ‘Smell the roses’ – literally and figuratively. And then count your blessings. Drop me a line if you don’t feel energized and refreshed. And please, DO NOT LITTER.