Chandigarh - The City of Peace


I can't even recall when I went on a holiday with my family last time. Never too late, I thought to plan one and it was supposed to be my eight month's old son's first ever trip. Since, it was his first trip, selecting a destination was the most difficult part as my wife had doubt if he will let us enjoy, how will he react outside? Where as I was fine with any destination as I knew he is a son of a traveler so it must be in his genes, but as a good husband, I addressed the concerns of  my wife and we selected Chandigarh as our destination. Given, my aunt lives there, it would be easy for my son as well to get that homely feeling.  The only concern I had was mode of transport since he feels claustrophobic in car, we chose India's most preferred way of traveling, by train.

Planning, booking etc was all taken care by my wife and with packed bags, we left for the New Delhi Railway Station. To be honest, I avoid traveling in trains and this was my first trip to the New Delhi station and as soon as I entered the station, I felt like being lost in the public. It was so crowded that it can be named as a city in itself. Struggling through crowd, we finally reached the platform and the train was already waiting for us. Without much effort, we located our seats and then I went to explore the station and bought  packed snacks and water bottles for the journey. It was five hours journey which my son spent while playing with his Grand-dad, Grand-mom and sleeping while me and my wife enjoying all the delicacies which were available in the train and at different stations on the way. 

Time flew and we reached Chandigarh at around 7 in the evening and after that half hour journey towards my Aunt's place. After dinner, we went early to bed to wake up refresh next morning. 

Morning was refreshing and with a cup of tea I felt rejuvenated. My cousin's 10 year old son insisted me to play cricket with him as he was astonished with my fake stories which I told him to cheer him up, well, we played some to make him happy and then after usual morning tasks, we got ready to explore Chandigarh.

Rock Garden
Rock Garden
Our first destination was the most talked about The Rock Garden. It was located few kilometers away from my aunt's place. We paid the nominal entry fee and entered the garden. Rock Garden was built by Nek Chand who secretly created 2000 statues from stones and debris collected from villages destroyed for Chandigarh. In 1972, this garden was discovered and then was authorized. It was inaugurated officially in 1976.





We were so amazed to see the kind of dedication and time was spent into the garden. Not only stones and debris, but other waste material such as tiles, switches and plugs etc were used to create various designs inside the garden. 




It took us 3 hours to cover the garden and after that we left for Sukhna lake which was at walking distance. Sukhna lake is a perfect hangout place for the locals where there are so many eating options, activities for kids and boating as well. We were hungry but also exhausted due to heat at the same time. So we decided to reach home and order food online. Someone had suggested me a great site for ordering food online www.foodpanda.in from which you can order food from 3500+ restaurants. I opened foodpanda's mobile application on my phone while we were returning home and with few clicks it gave me several restaurant's options available and I ordered Chinese for everyone. We reached home and after few minutes, the order arrived as per the time committed and we enjoyed our delicious lunch.

The rest of the day we spent relaxing and chatting. Next morning, my wife and me took my cousin's scooty to visit Pinjore Garden (Yadavindra Gardens).Liocated on Ambala-Shimla road, it was quite far but the road was scenic with hills all around. We were almost lost in the beauty of the nature enjoying the ride. After an hour's drive, we reached Pinjore Garden. 

Yadavindra Garden
Pinjore Garden
We paid the entry fee and went ahead. Pinjore garden was very scenic with a lot of flowers and different kind of trees. My wife got crazy when she saw variety of flowers and wanted to get clicked with every flower. After her photo session, we explored the whole garden. It was created in 17th century by architect Nawab Fidai Khan. In recent times, it has been renamed as 'Yadavindra Garden' in the memory of Maharaja Yadavindra Singh of the former princely state of Patiala. The garden is laid in seven terraces. The main gate of the garden opens into the highest first terrace which has a palace built in Rajasthani–Mughal style. It is called “Sheesh Mahal” (palace of glass), which is adjoined by a romantic "Hawa Mahal" (airy Palace). The second terrace with arched doorways has the "Rang Mahal" (painted palace). The third terrace has cypress trees and flowerbeds leading to dense groves of fruit trees. The next terrace has the "Jal Mahal" (palace of water) with a square fountain bed and a platform to relax. Fountains and tree groves are provided in the next terrace. The lower most terrace has an open-air theater which is designed as a disc-like structure.




Despite being so old, the garden was really maintained well. Someone told me that garden also had a zoo earlier, but not anymore.

We were getting late as we had to catch our train back home that evening. We said Good bye to Pinjore Garden and reached at my aunt's place to finish packing and left for the Chandigarh station to board our train to the best city in the world, our home, New Delhi.

2 comments:

  1. Amazing City. I had read about the Rock Garden. Hope I'll visit soon.

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  2. Awesome city, Rock gardan is a beautiful creation by Nek Chand me and my family also want to visit Chandigarh . I also love to share my last tracking experience in Manali, India where I experienced the thrill of para gliding, Mountain climbing, Mountain tracking etc. It was an amazing experience and I have found awesome local delicacies of Manali via searching through Sag Restaurant Search.
    http://www.sagmart.com/restaurants/veg/Himachal-Pradesh/Manali

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