The Piccadily

Public sleeping

by Vija_v

It is really interesting how people in India can manage they sleep. They are sleeping everywhere and anytime- in railways stations, on the streets, in the parks etc.
While we were in the park with roses, almost under each bush and on each bench someone was sleeping :)

Secretariat

by Willettsworld

The law-executing monument is the largest and tallest of the three edifices in the Capitol Complex which is located in sector 1. Built during 1953-59, it is shaped like an eight-storeyed concrete slab, with its distinctive brise-soleil-louvered screen of deeply sculptured two-storey porticos in the centre, housing the offices of ministers.

Planned city ... just like home!

by oisha

My hubby was born in this town and I have visited around a dozen times now. Aside from its tourist attractions (the rock garden and Pinjore Gardens are my favourites) it intrigues the visitor with its orderliness and its unusual architecture.

Like my hometown, Chandigarh is a government town, planned and built in the modern era. It is laid out in neighbourhoods or "sectors", each bounded by arterial roads and each containing open spaces and a local shopping area. Industry is cordoned off from the residential areas. In the original plan for the city, Mayer had even proposed curving roads like we have here in Canberra, but after Mayer withdrew from the project, Le Corbusier substituted the grid shape we see today.

Even though the city has grown phenomenally in the decade I have known it, you still get the feeling you can really breathe in Chandigarh.

My father discovered that Chandigarh is home to a plethora of public buildings designed by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. He made a particular effort to visit some of these, much to the surprise of the officials working in them. Very few foreign tourists attend the law courts to admire the buildings. For more information on Le Corbusier's work in Chandigarh have a look at this website: agram.saariste.nl

The "downtown" area is Sector 17. It is a huge open area of pedestrian shopping cleverly designed to never feel crowded. My friend's brother's shop is called Gulati's. Buy your next salwar kameez from there!