10
Chandigarh
4 days
We missed Chandigharh on our first trip to India in 2022 so we decide to take the detour in 2025 since we are "in the neighbourhood". After a truly relaxing bus ride in a sleeper berth while draining our data from streaming The Bear, we arrive in the ‘City Beautiful’. Booking a bus online is impossible without an Indian debit card. I checked the timetable online and we bought tickets at the Kashmiri gate ISBT for the first available bus 1,5 hours later.
The Punjab has particularly suffered during partition in 1947. On top of the massacres that took place on its territory the British decided that its capital Lahore would be a part of Pakistan. Prime Minister Nehru pulled the experimental project of building a new capital for the Punjab.
Le Corbusier is the star architect of the city planning and the famous Capitol Complex, but his cousin Pierre Jeanneret oversaw the execution of the plans. He is responsible for many iconic buildings, most of them on the Panjab University campus.
At times it is frustrating that the architectural value of the buildings is not respected. The view of a zig zag slope in Le Corbusier’s museum is barred by a grey panel, the stairs in the museum are obstructed from view by newly added wooden walls. And on the Panjab University campus we were a little disappointed by how dirty the grounds were. Students just threw their teacups on the lawn.