Chandigarh, capital of Punjab and Haryana states but part of neither (it’s a territory administered by the Federal Government, like Washington, DC), is not on most tourist circuits. It wasn’t on mine either until I read about it about a week ago and decided it seemed like a good place to make a pit stop on my way north because of 2 features.
The first feature is urban planning. Chandigarh was only built in the 1950′s and therefore it is the only Indian city that actually follows a plan. It was conceived by the French architect Le Corbusier and is supposed to represent a human body: the seat of government sits at the top of the city, representing the head; the broad, parallel and perpendicular boulevards channel traffic like an efficient circulatory system; a long park running the length of the city plays the roll of lungs; and the primary commercial district sits in a contained square approximately where you’d expect to find the human heart.
Of this design, the most striking result is the traffic. It flows…effortlessly. Even walking along the boulevards you can stop worrying about a rickshaw clipping you at a street corner as it tries to navigate around grid-locked cars. Instead you can enjoy the breeze that blows down the streets to cool off the city (hot like any other in this part of the country). The planning is also evident in the commercial district, which is a wide, open and accessible pedestrian mall free of garbage, traffic jams and cows that more closely resembles a North American style downtown than anything else I’ve seen in India.
The State Legislature...the seat of "power"
As for the government area, it was more memorable for making you lose your head than it was for giving the impression of one. Le Corbusier designed the buildings of the Capital Complex in a way that is of great interest to architects, but unless you are one, I don’t recommend a visit here. While some of the buildings are interesting (the state assembly building was designed to look like a power plant and does give the impression of a nuclear reactor) the bureaucracy you’re required to navigate to actually see the buildings is intense. Since there was an assassinatin of a political leader here about 10 years ago, the army has set up several check points and you are only allowed in with a special letter of permission from the tourist office. Even with letter in hand I had to show my passport to no fewer than 6 different pencil pushers, literally getting approval to enter a building so I could go to the office where I could get approval to go seek approval at another office to take photos. I am not kidding. It took about an hour to get to the 11th floor rooftop where I could look over the city, and yes, take photos.
All this to say the city was not particularly memorable and certainly wouldn’t have been worth a visit if it weren’t for the second feature of interest in the city, the Rock Gardens. These were absolutely captivating and a highly worthwhile reason to visit Chandigarh. They are 12 acres of industrial and household scrap that have been fashioned into all manner of sculptures and realms by a former traffic inspector for the city, Nek Chand, who should be justly compared to Gaudi. I’ve been to Barcelona and seen Gaudi’s work there, and the Rock Garden is just as fascinating as places like the Park Guell. 
As you tour the park you are literally surrounded by thousands of mosaics and sculputures, and each turn of the path opens onto a new setting with waterfalls and buildings that could have inspired Peter Jackson and his vision of Rivendell, except that when you get close you see that the full size buidlings are fashioned from materials like broken light bulb sockets and toilet porcelain (the Hinidware stamp, akin to American Standard, was visible more than once). A fantastic place.
