Creator of Rock garden is dead
It is one of the most amazing
creations you can witness. Millions and millions of mosaic, glasses, bangles ceramic pieces, broken
pots, other 'waste' even electric sockets etc. aesthetically arranged in shapes, images and immaculate sculptures that transport you into some faraway fantasy land. First
few moments as I entered the rock garden I was disappointed but then as you go
further and further in, you wonder and gasp ‘this is impossible’, for a single
person to conjure and execute this is nothing short of miracle. It’s brilliant.
I have visited Rock Garden many years
back as an itinerant cheap backpacker, early this January I was back in Chandigarh,
ofcourse with ubiquitous and irritatingly intrusive conception called camera. I
spent more than an hour and as I was exiting I stopped at the curio shop and bought
a rock garden inspired keychain that has a rather interesting peacock (I now use
for my cycle, kind of interesting to look at it every time you take the cycle
out) and then for a fresh pomegranate juice (O they make it so well, the khatta metta thing is lip smacking and
yes healthy) and that is when I got lucky. I was talking to the juicer seller, marvelling
about the rock garden and then enquiring about Nek Chand as I had seen a banner
celebrating his 90th birthday so on. The seller said “You are quite a
lucky man” (translated) and pointed to an elderly man in the crowd and said “That
is NekChand!!”. Mr. NekChand is rarely seen and this was in one of his rare
outing, and to see him next to his creations was truly fortunate. I found him
quite agile, reserved to the point of shy and observant to the surrounding. He couldn’t
be more than sixty, I thought. Few minutes later he got in his car and left. He hid the rock garden for almost two decades as it was considered illegal, as he assiduously went on with his work!!. What
a remarkable guy, in the overwhelming mediocrity that is getting louder and louder these
days, here was a brilliant man and a rare Indian. My condolences.
It is one of the most amazing
creations you can witness. Millions and millions of mosaic, glasses, bangles ceramic pieces, broken
pots, other 'waste' even electric sockets etc. aesthetically arranged in shapes, images and immaculate sculptures that transport you into some faraway fantasy land. First
few moments as I entered the rock garden I was disappointed but then as you go
further and further in, you wonder and gasp ‘this is impossible’, for a single
person to conjure and execute this is nothing short of miracle. It’s brilliant.
I have visited Rock Garden many years
back as an itinerant cheap backpacker, early this January I was back in Chandigarh,
ofcourse with ubiquitous and irritatingly intrusive conception called camera. I
spent more than an hour and as I was exiting I stopped at the curio shop and bought
a rock garden inspired keychain that has a rather interesting peacock (I now use
for my cycle, kind of interesting to look at it every time you take the cycle
out) and then for a fresh pomegranate juice (O they make it so well, the khatta metta thing is lip smacking and
yes healthy) and that is when I got lucky. I was talking to the juicer seller, marvelling
about the rock garden and then enquiring about Nek Chand as I had seen a banner
celebrating his 90th birthday so on. The seller said “You are quite a
lucky man” (translated) and pointed to an elderly man in the crowd and said “That
is NekChand!!”. Mr. NekChand is rarely seen and this was in one of his rare
outing, and to see him next to his creations was truly fortunate. I found him
quite agile, reserved to the point of shy and observant to the surrounding. He couldn’t
be more than sixty, I thought. Few minutes later he got in his car and left. He hid the rock garden for almost two decades as it was considered illegal, as he assiduously went on with his work!!. What
a remarkable guy, in the overwhelming mediocrity that is getting louder and louder these
days, here was a brilliant man and a rare Indian. My condolences. 
