Padma Shree awardee & creator
of world famous Chandigarh Rock Garden Sh. Nek Chand alias Nek Chand Saini passes away on
12th June 2015 during the midnight
of Thursday-Friday. He was 90 years old and was suffering from diabetes,
hypertension and cancer. Nek Chand was earlier admitted in a private
hospital & thereafter shifted to Post Graduate Institute of Medical
Education & Research (PGIMER)
Chandigarh where he died shortly past midnight after suffering
cardiac arrest. His son, Anuj Saini, who
helped him in maintaining Rock Garden, and his UK-based daughter Neelam Saini
were present there when he passed away at PGIMER Chandigarh.
Nek Chand was a
Self-taught Indian artist, known for building the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, an
eighteen-acre sculpture garden in the city of Chandigarh, India. He was not
only a man, but an Institute also, who found an important idea & present a
master piece place for the people.
After partition of the
country into two countries India & Pakistan in 1947, his family migrated in
India at Gurdaspur District of Punjab State.
During the partition, he walked for 24 days to reach India. Thereafter
he came to Chandigarh in 1950 to get Govt. job, where he got the Govt. job as
Inspector in the Public Works Department. At
that time, Chandigarh was being designed as India’s first truly modern city by
Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier. He
serve the job in Chandigarh in the 1950 to 60. During his service career, Nek
Chand had a big dream to develop a creative work in the art of creating figures from waste
material discarded by people & started the work to achieve his aim. He
secretly set up his laboratory in a forest area in north side of Chandigarh to help his creations get into
shape. He used all kinds of waste material like broken bangles, cutlery,
chinaware, electrical fittings like switches, plugs and tube-lights, marbles,
tiles, household junk, stones, building material waste etc.in his art creations.
It was in the early 1960s
that he began to clear a little forest patch near Sukhna Lake to create a small
garden. He set stones around the little clearing and then create a few figures
from discarded and recyclable materials he found at hand. His creation grew
covering several acres and comprising hundreds of sculptures. Riding his
bicycle after dark to a state-owned forest, Nek Chand spent night after night
clearing patches of ground and transforming the landscape into a majestic
garden. When his secret was finally discovered in 1972, authorities threatened
demolition, claiming he had violated strict land laws. But an amazed public was
after his creations. Inspite of threatened, Chand continued the work regularly
as he was wanted to complete his creations at any cost. Nek Chand used old
material & built 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. He worked
silently for 18 years to create the Rock Garden. During this period, he faced
many problems. Although, the various problems came into this project, but he
did work with his full devotion with the grace of ‘GOD’.
At last, the Govt. took a decision in his favour to give him a salary
to help him work on his project fulltime, besides a workforce of 50 labourers,
was taken. The garden was inaugurated as a public place in 1976, bringing him
glory that would last a lifetime and beyond. It has comes to know that some
Officers liked his creatibility & support him. Perhaps, it was not possible
without his hard work & support of public & Govt. Officials. That day would be very happiest day in his life, family
members & his associate members, when the Govt. agreed & approved his
theme of dream the ‘Rock Garden’.
The Rock Garden, located in
Chandigarh's Sector 1 on a sprawling 35-acre campus can be best described as a
'kingdom' created by Nek Chand which depicts the life and ecology of India,
including rural settings and palaces. It also has waterfalls, an open air
theatre, and pools etc.
Now over 25 acres of
several thousand sculptures set in large mosaic courtyards linked by walled
paths and deep gorges, Nek Chand’s creation also combines huge buildings with a
series of interlinking waterfalls. The Rock Garden is now acknowledged as one
of the modern wonders of the world & become source of income of the Govt.
as the visitors are allowed to visit this ‘kingdom’ after paying little money.Foundation website
Nek Chand was the most-exhibited
Indian artist ever with his creations being part of leading cities like Paris,
London, New York, Washington DC, and Berlin, and numerous books in different languages
being written about him. He had been offered the honorary citizenship in
various countries.
Sh. Nek Chand
Saini has constituted a registered foundation named ‘The Nek Chand Foundation’
during 1997. The main object of foundation is for betterments of the Rock
Garden & hope will be always well cared for in the future. In 1983 the garden was pictured on an Indian postage
stamp, and a year later Chand was honored with India’s Padma Shri award (India’s
highest civilian award) in 1984, on account of his distinguished service in the arts
region. The Rock Garden has gave a major roll to become more beautiful city
Chandigarh. . The man, who saw beauty and
art in what others said was junk, continued to work on the garden even in his
last days.
His interview based programme focus
on Rock Garden was recorded in ‘Zindginama’ programme & broadcast from FM
band 107.2 Mhz AIR Chandigarh on 13th January 2013. The audio recording of this programme is
available on this blog. This recording can be listen by click on video. He had
celebrated his 90th birthday on December 15 last year. During his period of
life, he settled in this Chandigarh city. He left behind his wife, daughter & son. The
Chandigarh Union Territory administration had declared the holiday in its
offices on his demise on 12th June 2015.
His body was kept in the Rock
Garden on Friday to enable people to pay their last respects &
cremated on Saturday, 13th June 2015 in the presence of huge
gathering of people. Beside the various personalities from the different parts
of the countries & our Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi has
also condoled the death of Nek Chand,
the creator of Chandigarh's famous Rock Garden. Nek Chand-ji will always be
remembered for his artistic genius and fabulous for his masterpiece creation,
which is an example of his creativity & hard work. May his soul rest in
peace. We also salute to such a great craftsman (Creator).
Contributed
by : Jaswinderkainaur@gmail.com
SOME SNAPS OF ROCK GARDEN CHANDIGARH
