Nek Chand, an unassuming genius

Bipin Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 12

Nostalgia prevailed at Sector 27-A-based residence of creator of Rock Garden Nek Chand with people from all walks of life, family members, relatives and old friends recalling memories associated with the legend, today.

Soon after the news of his death spread, his friends and associates began descending upon his residence to console the family members.

Even the UT Administration deployed a police party around his house as scores of senior and retired bureaucrats, politicians and public figures began pouring in to condle Nek Chand’s widow Kamla Saini, his son Anuj Saini, daughter Neelam Saini and other family members.

Recalling their childhood days, Gurdas Saini, a brother of Chand, said that they used to play with sand and stones on a riverbed while crossing from their Shakargarh village (now in Pakistan) of Gurdaspur in Punjab. He was humble and courteous since childhood, recalled Gurdas.

“He had the habit of making things public only after giving them a physical shape and every time it used to be a surprise,” recalled the shattered brother, wiping his tears.

“I met Nek Chand in 1952 and soon became good friends as we belonged to the same  district. He was operating a raft made of empty tar drums and wooden logs in Sukhna Lake. I helped him get timber for the wooden boats, but the Administration soon seized them,” recalled Kedar Nath Mahajan, a city-based hotelier and businessman.

“Nek Chand then conceived the idea to develop a chunk of land adjacent to the lake and one day took me along to show his creation in a dumpyard of the Public Works Department, he was holding the charge of.                      

A retired Subdivisional Officer from the UT Capitol Complex, Bahadur Singh, recalled the memories when Nek Chand use to accompany him to fetch stones and pebbles from gorges in the catchment areas of Sukhna Lake and put them together to give concrete shapes.

“After segregating the ornamental stones from sand and gravel transported by the PWD for the construction of roads, Nek Chand use to pile them together and then shift them to the 

area he had selected for setting up his ‘dreamland’, said a senior bureaucrat Rupan Deol Bajaj, the then Deputy Secretary.

“My family and relatives spent over 40 years working with sahib (Nek Chand) to give shape to his dreams. Had Nek Chand not dreamt of Rock Garden, Chandigarh would not have got such a marvelous creation,” says Rani, a labourer with the UT PWD, who hails from Tamil Nadu.