Rock Garden must be left unsullied

I must have been nine or 10 years old. The open-air amphitheatre was enveloped by the night sky, and swarms of people had gathered to watch a play. The excited din of men, women and children still rings loud in my ears.

And then the pin-drop silence as the play began. I was hypnotised by the lights, music and performances.

Our house is a stone’s throw away from the iconic Rock Garden, which was built, interestingly, for the better half of two decades in secret by Nek Chand Saini, a public works inspector.

To me, a child who like everyone else, is taught to not touch or quickly throw away broken pieces of glass or ceramic, this new world with life-size figures built from all kinds of scrap material was the Twilight Zone. It was fascinating.

Last year, I took my two boys (aged six and three) to the Rock Garden for the first time. The low archways were a delight for them. It felt like an adventure when we had to climb uncut stone stairs wedged narrowly between hilly stone walls to reach showcases of figurines made of broken bangles, pieces of plates and an amphitheatre of multicoloured pieces of broken ceramic, juxtaposed with old fort-like walkways and cavernous structures. My elder son went and sat on the topmost steps, pretending to eat popcorn, and asked, “When does the show start?” His eyes were aglow with mischief.

It was heartbreaking to read about the recent demolition of the outer wall of the Rock Garden and the bulldozing of over 200 trees to make way for road expansion and parking space. Chandigarh is known for its greenery and beautifully preserved landmarks and gardens — is it not our duty as its residents to protect our heritage?

The Rock Garden features prominently in nearly every Chandigarh resident’s story — whether it’s childhood trips, morning and evening walks, special occasions, marriage proposals or family outings. It sits like an ancestral bejewelled crown on the head of a city that has always worn it proudly — it’s an important contributor to the ethos of the city. The reckless demolition highlights the insensitivity of the administration towards the preservation of these landmarks and begs the question — why is this the only way to decongest traffic? What about multilevel parking lots, dedicated buses or other transport options for lawyers going to and from the high court? If members of a committee put their heads together, surely a gamut of environment-friendly solutions can present themselves.

When we finally reached the last archway after being mesmerised by the Rag Dolls Museum, my younger one asked, “When can we come back to this adventure city again?”

The city that houses such pieces of our heritage and allows us the honour of passing them on to the next generation is certainly worth protecting.