korjo adapters The fastest train to Delhi is the twice-daily Shatabdi Express (5.10am service chair car/ executive

JUNK ART GENIUS Following Independence, as refugees flooded across the Pakistan border and a newly liberated India made the bold statement that was Chandigarh, one of the new city s road inspectors, a diminutive arrival from Pakistan called Nek Chand, was struck by the amount of waste generated as villages were cleared in the construction of Chandigarh. Chand hauled this matter back to his jungle home and gave it a second life as sculptural material. Eventually he had tens of thousands of forms made of urban and industrial waste, as well as local stone, created by his own hands and the slow forces of nature. His battalions of water women, pipers, chai drinkers, monkeys, cheeky stick men wearing tea-cup hats, dancing women and other characters steadily multiplied in secretly korjo adapters sculpted spaces. Chand s efforts weren t officially discovered until 15 years after they began, when a government survey crew stumbled upon them in 1973. The unauthorised garden was illegally occupying government land and should technically have been demolished, korjo adapters but fortunately the local council recognised the garden as a cultural asset. Chand was given 50 labourers and paid a salary so he could devote himself to the project. Today, the garden is said to receive over 2000 visitors a day. There s a Nek Chand Foundation (www.nekchand.com), raising funds and recruiting korjo adapters volunteers. Chand had no formal education beyond high school. In my childhood I used to build mud houses and other toys. He is said to be influenced by modernist masters such as Le Corbusier and Gaudi, but he is clear on the main source of his ideas: they are a gift from God.

The fastest train to Delhi is the twice-daily Shatabdi Express (5.10am service chair car/ executive korjo adapters 570/1095, 5pm service 675/1260, 5 hours). A daily Amritsar Howrah Mail run links Amritsar with Lucknow (sleeper/3AC/2AC 310/825/1158, 16 hours), Varanasi ( 365/998/1373, 22 hours) and Howrah ( 489/1346/1857, 37 hours).

6 Drinking Bottoms Up Pub BAR (Grand Hotel, Queen s Rd) A mixed crowd of travellers and locals are attracted to this congenial bar by the icy cold, glycerine-free, draught Kingfisher beer and the seriously delicious snacks and meals from the Grand Hotel s excellent kitchen.

Hotels in Chandigarh and Amritsar quickly fi ll during weekends and festivals (book ahead). Attari is a train station near the border at Wagah, but transport from there to the border- closing ceremony is virtually nonexistent, so organise transport from Amritsar.