The creator of an astounding world which he conjured out of waste, discarded material and household items, Nek Chand rose from humble beginnings as a Department of Roads official to become a self-taught craftsman whose genius drove the blossoming of the iconic Rock Garden here.
Born in 1924 in Shakargarh in present-day Pakistan, Nek Chand and his family settled in Punjab after the Partition as his family moved to Chandigarh in 1947.
The city at the time was being redesigned as a modern utopia by the Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. It was to be the first planned city in India and Nek Chand found work with the Chandigarh administration in 1951 as a roads inspector in the Public Works Department.
Soon, Nek Chand went to work on a small garden tucked away in a little forest patch near Sukhna lake which his efforts and dedication would turn into a magic kingdom.
In his spare time, he began collecting materials from demolition sites around the city and recycled these to fit into his own vision.
He toiled away secretly in the dead of the night for close to two decades to create the marvel that is the Rock Garden. The artist in Nek Chand discovered in the building and industrial waste, novel resources for his creativity.
On holidays, he would ignore his domestic duties and instead of spending time with family, would bicycle down to river beds or up into the mountains and jungles in search for his 'treasure'.
After 20 years of sheer hard work, the light of dawn finally shone on him when some bureaucrats woke up to his awe-inspiring creation.
It was after the laying of the Lake Road (name of the stretch on which the Rock Garden is located) and during the process to wrap up the works that the administration discovered this so called "Store Garden".
But when it was first discovered, in 1975, the authorities threatened to demolish it as they claimed it had violated the strict planning laws which protected Le Corbusier's 'City Beautiful', where everything had to be a part of the master plan.
