When PU had a nullah near Sarojini Hall girls hostel

The recent spell of rain has created much chaos in Chandigarh as elsewhere — waterlogging, flooding of roads, traffic jams.

The scenario was not like this in early days of Chandigarh. Because we kept on changing the original landscape and disturbing the original plan of the nature, and result is before us.  Nature is a great planner, provided humans don’t interfere.

A septuagenarian, I may be one of the very few inhabitants of Panjab University campus who has seen the original topography of the present site of university.

Almost six decades ago, the monsoon used to be torrential and rains continued for days. But surprisingly, water logging or flooding was unheard of in those days. A natural nullah, starting near the present-day girls’ hostel, Sarojini Hall, flowing straight for about 100 meters, traversed the entire campus, which did not have any boundary wall in those days. The nullah ended in Sector 24, near the present-day Navjeevan Church, where it formed a big pond, almost like a water harvesting reservoir.

When the construction of campus started, the nullah and its 2-km stretch were levelled.

Sometimes, I think that if the nullah had been in some European country, perhaps its fate would have been to become a beautiful stream traversing the beautiful university campus.

Dr V K Anand, Chandigarh