CHARLOTTE TOTTENHAM

Our train pulled in to Amritsar Junction at first light and I awoke to the sound of coolies and rickshaw wallahs battling for the attention of the passengers. I shoved my way, elbows first, off the train and towards the exit of the station. Here I was greeted by a breed of Cycle Rickshaw that was new to me, one which involves a precarious balancing act, as the chair is just a solid dome atop a cart. After an ungainly struggle, two of us were seated, determinedly clutching o

On a summer’s day in Punjab in 1957, thirty three year old government roads inspector Nek Chand decided that the regimented and conformist attitudes of Chandigarh mentality suited him no longer. He began to create an illegal and secret sculpture garden on government land behind Sukhna Lake. He constructed interlinking waterfalls, pathways, walls, steps, miniature auditoriums, pools, caves, platforms and statues, totally out of scrap. His creativity extended to the use of c