Memories of an ordinary Indian :: 30 :: Chandigarh

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Chandigarh Museum

After the stint in Union Public Service Commission I hopped on to another deputation that came my way. It was to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGI for short) located at Chandigarh to function as Deputy Director of Administration. It was basically a job that dealt with the Institute’s establishment and personnel, including the technical staff and the faculty. My post was of the level of a Dy. Secretary of the Government of India and I had to work directly with the Director whose rank was equivalent to that of a Secretary in the Central Government.

The Institute was created on the pattern of the All India Institute of

A Corbusier creation (from internet)

Medical Sciences of Delhi – the only difference being unlike the All India Institute the Chandigarh Institute did not run under-graduate courses. The Institute had a top class faculty and was headed by a rare intellect as its Director who, professionally, was a Gastroenterologist. Dr. PN Chuttani who was the Director during my time was indeed a rare intellect who had a sharp mind and had the ability to grasp problems in no time. While professionally he was considered outstanding his administrative acumen was no less. He was highly regarded in the entire northern region and the chief ministers of the four northern states were his personal friends. I happened to meet at least two of them in his room.

A poplar in Chandigarh swaying in the breeze

The Institute was replete with modern architecture. Located in Sector 12 of the “Garden City” it was a huge complex with a 700-bedded hospital, an administrative block, a college of nursing, hostels for students and nurses and a smattering of residential houses of various types one of the higher types of which was allotted to me. This apart there was a forest in the land that had remained unutilized. On many a night I could hear jackals howling in the distance. The Institute also had a few larger houses in Sector 24 which was at a little distance near The Punjab University.

My job was very largely routine personnel work, pretty uninteresting. I

Punjab Assembly, another
 Corbusier creation (from internet)

was not quite convinced about the need of a post of this seniority for the work that I was supposed to do. In the Delhi Institute my counterpart had far greater range of functions. Here in Chandigarh it was far too circumscribed, To take care of the hospital there was a medical superintendent, for civil and electrical engineering aspects there was a superintending engineer and for items of academic work there was a dean supported by a registrar. I was there merely for the personnel, supported by an administrative officer and an assistant administrative officer. I thought there were too many men and I was doing precious little. The contrast from the UPSC was stark. While there I was dealing with ministries here I was talking to heads of various departments of the Institute.

Laburnums in Chandigarh

I had been to Chandigarh earlier. In 1961 we were taken on an instructional tour to Bhakra- Nangal dams and the planned city of Chandigarh from the National Academy of Administration. The two dams were still works in progress but the two, together, were called new temples of India by Jawaharlal Nehru. He dedicated them to the nation two years later in 1963. Chandigarh was planned by Le Corbusier, a French architect of repute and his associates. The Punjab Legislative Assembly, the High Court and the Secretariat were designed by him and, to this day, have remained as markers for the city. The complex has since been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Then, a very enlightened ICS officer, MS Randhawa, intervened and had flowering trees planted all over the town in a way that one or the other sector of the city would always be in bloom right through the year. The neighbouring sector of PGI, Sector 11 had jacarandas and every March we would see purple all over when the trees would be in bloom – a spectacular sight.

It was a garden city indeed. In Sector 16 there was a Rose Garden

The Rock Garden

named after the former President Dr. Zakir Hussain, a rose garden that is considered the biggest in Asia. It was one of the very large gardens I have ever seen with hundreds of varieties of roses. The townsfolk had cultivated a gardening culture and every house regardless of its type had some land where the residents would be nurturing flowering and fruiting plants.  I too had quite a bit of land in the front and the back of the bungalow where my help would try and grow vegetables. There was a huge chikoo (sapota) tree on which we could see a large number of chikoos hanging. The Institute’s horticulturist, Shyam Lal, was dedicated to his job and he would visit every house often to ensure that the gardens, including the lawns, were properly maintained.

I

Another view of Rock Garden

t was because of the efforts of Shyam Lal that the Institute would regularly win prizes in the rose shows of Delhi. He would start preparing his plants soon after the monsoon and select the best ones for exhibitions at Delhi. A very amiable man, he was always eager to share his knowledge of gardening in general. For a man without a degree his knowledge was remarkable.     

He one day brought along one of his friends, Nek Chand, a supervisor of Punjab PWD. Nek Chand, it seems, was stationed at a place where he had lot of land lying unused. Sitting in this barren land he conceived of a garden of his own imagination and started building it with broken crockery pieces which eventually came to be known as Rock Garden. It was for these broken crockery pieces from our cafeteria that he had come to me. He did get into some rough time when the Punjab PWD would entertain none of his arguments and started taking departmental action against him. Dr. Karan Singh who used to be the Health Minister in 1995 visited his garden during his brief visit to Chandigarh. Under tremendous pressure, the PWD allowed the case against Nek Chand to die.

 He kept working on his garden, enlarging it to around a 25-acres affair

In our back yard

and adding variety to it so much so that today it is a “must see” tourist spot in Chandigarh. Footfalls in the Rock Garden are reported to be only second after Taj Mahal. Nek Chand, on the other hand literally went places, getting invites from countries in Europe and setting up such gardens in France and Germany. That he would be accorded state recognition by the award of Padma Shri was a foregone conclusion. That diminutive, rather submissive looking man indeed had imagination mixed with aesthetics and left behind a solid legacy for the city. I was sorry to see the news of his passing in the newspapers a few years back.

Another creation of Le Corbusier is the Sukhna Lake on the outskirts of the city. In the 1970s it was a very quiet place with an occasional picnicking family around. Corbusier had forbidden motorized boats to ply on this reservoir of 3 sq. kms. at the foot of the Shivalik Hills. Motorised vehicles were also banned on top of the dam leaving it as a promenade for walks. Later Punjab High Court banned food carts

Sukhna Lake

anywhere near it to prevent contamination of the waters even though till today its waters are not used for human consumption. This is in stark contrast to our own Upper Lake of Bhopal where not only motorized boats ply freely, scores of push carts assemble near the boat club on the bank of the Lake to do business without let or hindrance even though its waters are supplied to 40% of the city’s population to satisfy their basic needs. This is a matter of attitude. While in Punjab authorities are more concerned about people’s well being, the same would not seem to be the case in Bhopal.

Chandigarh has since emerged as one of the most livable cities in our country. It is beloved by people who live here who often call it “City Beautiful”. Nehru had a vision of making it something that represented India’s future – an educational and cultural hub in the midst of the bounties of nature. Whether his dreams were fulfilled would better be answered by its own citizens. I for one had a very nice time in the city,

Again, in our backyard

picking up a few very sincere friends. I also acquired a life partner while I was in Chandigarh. However, despite all the creature comforts I decided revert to my department even before my term came to an end. My people posted me to Nagpur – a station that was unpopular with my colleagues. For me Nagpur was a turn-around and I never looked back. But that is another story.

                              

Destinations :: Chandigarh (1975-78)

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Vidhan Sabha building (from internet)

Chandigarh was not new to me. I had spent a couple of days there in 1961 along with my entire batch. We had been taken there from the National Academy on an instructional tour to see the developments that were taking place in the country. Bhakra Nangal Project and Chandigarh were more or less symbols of the emerging new India. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used to be proud of them and would call Bhakra Dam a new temple of India.

Chandigarh was the first city built from the scratch in a planned manner. The government had engaged the famous Swiss architect Le Corbusier for planning the city and designing its public buildings. Chandigarh at that time had been designated as the capital of Punjab

Another view of the Assebly building (from internet)

– Haryana was yet to be born.

I am still fascinated by Chandigarh. Over the last 40 years or so it has developed into a very livable city.  Corbusier planned a low-rise city with lots of green, divided into sectors. Each sector was made self-sufficient with shopping, schools, health centres, etc. They were, as they say, also “introvert” having only four accesses into them from the main roads. The city’s biggies were accommodated in first few sectors close to the scene of official action whereas the foot soldiers were kept at a distance. It was said Corbusier wanted decision makers to be cool and hence were kept close to the Shiwaliks.

 

A sector that had only laburnums

DR. MS Randhawa, an ICS officer who was a trained botanist was appointed chairman of the committee to plan greening of the city. He designed landscapes and extensive gardens along the arterial roads. The famous Dr. Zakir Hussain Rose Garden was his gift to the city. He also had got trees of different flowering species planted in each sector. It used to be said he had ensured that right through the year one or the other sector would be in bloom. In Sector 11, the sector next to the one where I used to live, he had had jacarandas planted and in March-April the place used to be awash with purple. No wonder Chandigarh soon came to be known as the “City Beautiful”. Unfortunately, the extensions that were seen coming up were not as green and beautiful as the original Corbusier’s city, though some of the houses I had occasion to visit were indeed architecturally beautiful.

I had gone on deputation to Chandigarh to the Post Graduate Institute

On our back lawn

of Medical Education & Research, PGIMER for short, in 1975. It was a beautifully built up complex with a super-speciality hospital – a rarity in those days. It had an energetic and dedicated Director in Late Dr. PN Chuttani. A perennial bachelor, his life was devoted to the Institute. Because of his contacts his name was something to reckon with in the northern states. Apart from being a well-known Gastroenterologist, he had the sharpest of minds I have ever come across. His capacity to catch even the most complicated problems of establishment, a subject not many technical people are fond of, was remarkable. He had spread himself around northern India and had developed personal relation with chief ministers of all the northern states. It was in his office that I met YS Parmar, the then chief minister of Himachal Pradesh and Farukh Abdullah. The other two chief ministers, Bansi Lal of Haryana and Zail Singh of Punjab I

somehow missed and I have been none the worse for it

Tube roses in the garden

I had gone there as in-charge of the Administrative Wing with the designation as Deputy Director, Administration. Although the Institute was raised in the same manner as Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, it somehow could never capture the latter’s all-India character. Having been located in Punjab it remained largely as a regional institute catering to the needs of the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, but with some outstanding faculty and medicine-men.

Initially I was allotted a room in the sprawling guest house that the Institute had behind the Administrative Block in Sector 12. It had three bedrooms in two floors and a sprawling lawn in front. A British visitor was in another room. We used to meet on the dinner table. Once he heard what he thought was a weird kind of noise and asked me about it. It was nothing other than a few jackals howling. The Institute had a sizeable forest which it had left undisturbed and

An arrangement in the house

there were jackals as also other wild animals.

I was later allotted a semi-detached bungalow very close to the Guest House which was more than adequate for me. Dr. Chuttani offered me a bigger outfit in Sector 24 but I didn’t need it. The one that was allotted to me had a front and back lawn with a huge sapota (cheeku) tree that would routinely bear fruits. It has somehow become part of the Chandigarh culture to plant and nurture flowering and fruiting trees in the open space around the houses.

A section of the Rock Garden

I think that is precisely why the Institute had a fantastic man as its horticulturist. Shyam Lal as he was known would tend to the Institute gardens pick out the rose plants as soon as budding commenced for exhibitions in December at Delhi. The institute won several prizes every year all because of the dedication and the pride he had in his work. He was a constant presence on the Institute gardens whether they were in its public or private spaces.

Once he brought a very submissive looking man to me. Shyam Lal introduced him as Nek Chand and said he was developing a remarkable garden using only broken pieces of ceramic which he

A solitary poplar swaying in a squall (taken from my back verandah)

seemed to have run out of. I asked the Chief Dietician who was all for palming off all the broken crockery from his kitchens. I went to see the garden with Shyam Lal, It was nothing like what it is today. Only a few sections had been created, yet it was nothing of the kind I had seen before. The piece of land that he used was of the Central PWD and he was being asked to vacate it. He was a road inspector of the PWD and as the land was not being put to any use he, using his latent talent and unusual imagination, started working on the figures and put them up in what is now an internationally acknowledged rock garden. The then Minister of Health, Dr. Karan Singh, visiting Chandigarh for the 1975 Komagatamaru Congress session in December, also visited Nek Chand’ garden. He was so impressed that he not only leaned on the Central PWD to allot the plot of land to Nek Chand and also to have the disciplinary proceedings against him withdrawn. Nek Chand was later invited to create similar gardens in France and Germany. Thankfully he received the very well deserved recognition before he passed away in 2015.

Incidentally, the guest house that I made a mention of became an improvised jail when Jai Praksh Narain was confined there. Those of the current generation who may not know about him, he was the inspiration

An ethnic section of the Rock Garden

behind a movement that was later associated with his name and resulted in Mrs. Indira Gandhi clamping down on the country that infamous “Emergency” of 1975. Under her directions he had been arrested and was brought to Chandigarh. Overnight the height of the compound walls were raised and the ordinary-looking decent gate acquired sinister proportions with only a small opening for people to go in and out. Perhaps the entire exercise was not necessary as Jai Prakash Narain, or JP as he was commonly known as, could not have attempted a jail-break, frail and old as he was. I had met him once at the prompting of the Chief Dietician of the hospital, a very dear friend, at the hospital attached to the Institute when dysfunction in his kidneys had commenced. I found him an exceedingly handsome old man and a very decent politician – many cuts above all the politicians of that era.   

JP was being taken care of by Dr. Rajinder Kalra who was in-charge of the staff clinic and was and continues to be a very good friend. If I

One more view of the Rock Garden

recall, he didn’t hold a post-graduate degree but had terrific clinical acumen. One night I requested him to check my mother’s BP. He came with his newly-acquired equipment and was alarmed by the reading. As it was above 300 he checked it several times only to get the same readings. As it was late in the night it was not possible to get any medicines. He used my mother’s medicines in small doses at regular intervals of an hour or so and sat through the night checking the BP every hour. He left only after he had brought the pressure down to 200 or so. I am eternally grateful to him for what he did for my mother that night.  

The “City Beautiful” cannot be considered isolated from its beautiful water body. The Sukhna Lake on its outskirts was also the idea of the planner and designer of the town Le Corbusier. The 3 Kms² Lake is at the foot of the Shiwalik Hills and was created by damming the Sukhna

Early morning gold spilling on to Sukhna Lake

stream (Choe in local lingo). The top of the dam was converted into a beautiful promenade for the health-conscious, something like what one has along the Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir, only the tall mountains are missing from its backdrop. Motorboats are not allowed on the waters and so are food stalls anywhere near it – something the Bhopal authorities would do well to emulate to keep the Upper Lake waters unpolluted. In those days there wouldn’t be much of a crowd on the Promenade but now, one understands, boating and the birds of various kinds, including the migratory ones, attract a large number of visitors.

Symbolic of City Beautiful - a fantastic piece of sculpture

Incidentally, I met my current “Facebook” friend Vijay Kant Bakshi at the Institute who was working at that time, if I remember, in Pathology Department. Looking for greener pastures, he had applied and got a job in Dubai. That’s when he came and saw me and requested for being accommodated back in the event of his coming back. He had submitted his resignation. I could only assure him of my best efforts. Soon I got a cablegram from him intimating that he was on his way back. He came back and told me that he fainted at the very entry point - the airport in Dubai. The section he was in was not air-conditioned and had a tin roof resulting in the place boiling at the temperature of 51⁰ C. That was Dubai then – far cry from what it is today, having probably the plushiest of airports in the world. He gave up the whole thing as a bad job and came back. Thankfully, the Institute Chief agreed to his re-instatement purely because he had impeccable credentials. After all, he was the topper of School of Art of Chandigarh. Today, he is happily settled and producing, as is his wont, beautiful water-colour landscapes and uploading them on Facebook.

Around three years in a post that hardly posed any challenge was, I thought, too much. In 1978 I opted for coming back to my parent department. But in those three years I made some lifelong friends, association with whom was indeed enriching. Some have passed on

but some are still around and contributing to the society in any which way they possibly can.