Creativity geniuses

An eleven-hours bus journey brought me to Chandigarh on Monday night the 10th of November. After one and a half hour, Alex arrived to the bus station and we decided to go get a cheap room somewhere in the city.

Chandigarh is a very young city dating less than 100 years of existence. Designed by a French architect the city is divided in numbered blocks called sectors. There is no real center and the city is too clean, making it really something different compare to any other Indian city.
After trying 5-6 hotels in sector 22 with no luck on getting cheap price we realized that we cant avoid a high price so we will stay only one night in one of the hotels and we will leave for the mountains again next night after checking what the city has to offer. While chilling in the balcony of the hotel we saw some huge bats (bigger than fat pigeons) flying from tree to tree.

Getting out of the hotel next morning, a guy sitting under a tree making chais caught our attention. 

Best chai in Chandigarh (we returned the evening)

Alex told him in hindu to make massala chai. The guy started immediately like a pro and soon he was smashing on a stone some ginger and kardamon. In two minutes we were enjoying the best chai so far in the lowest price so far. We paid more money out of respect for this magic drink he prepared and for the happiness it brought us.

The place we wanted to see was the Nek Chand fantasy rock garden. A park made out of garbage material ( recycled useless and broken materials that were left behind from the war with Pakistan). Nek Chand never studied anything but growing up in India made his mind sharp. He started doing the park and years after when the government realized that he is occupying illegally property of the state, they were smart enough to understand that his work was unique and so the state decided to support him.

Women made out of broken bracelets

The park starts quite humble but it becomes quite majestic. It is just a wonder place, making you feel you are in a fairy-tale.

Alex next to the amazing walls made with broken dishes and tiles

We got lost inside for few hours. It is amazing how Indians can use any material that we westerns would consider as waste. Growing up in the streets and not having a lot of money can make you invent millions of ways of reuse anything. 

A kid here can create many toys to play with and an adult can fix a non-working bus engine by adding some plastic or a chord. Not to mention that they use any material until there is nothing else to be given.

After the rock garden, we spent some time sleeping on the grass in bougainvillea garden and then while heading to the rose garden we got distracted by a very formal science exhibition for kids. We got a fresh sugarcane juice (cant get enough of this delicious green liquid) and when we went in, we noticed that everybody was eating. There was food for the exhibition and we were very hungry.  We approached trying to find the way to free food. Some older guys asked us where we come from and soon they gave as some coupons to the delicious meal.

The science exhibition was something. Here you could see the work done by kids in big schools and colleges. They were creating all these impressive devices that you would expect to be made only by adults. The teachers support the kids' creativity and that leads to professionalism. That's why Indian scientists are considered brilliant minds. The bad point I can see in all this, is that the kids leave the childhood earlier and try really hard to become competitive with the higher purpose (or the dream) to become successful businessmen and rich people. Among many high-tech inventions we really enjoyed the humble bicycle-laundry-dryer machine. Doing your laundry while working out.

We became somehow the attraction of the exhibition as we were surrounded by many people, they were presenting us their inventions, taking pictures with us and in the end they even made us play music for them. When we escaped, we visited rose garden and then back to get our luggage and go get a 10 to 12 hours night bus to Manali. Chandigarth worths an one-day visit but no more.

Location: Manali
Next stop: Parvati valley