mindfold Caf Coffee Day CAFE (Phawara Chowk; snacks from 45; a) One of the ubiquitous espresso coffee franchi

Sri Guru Ram Das Niwas PILGRIMS REST HOUSE $ (dm free but donations appreciated, r with/without AC 300/100; a) To stay in the huge accommodation blocks mindfold for pilgrims and visitors to the Golden Temple, check in at Guru Arjan Dev Niwas. Foreigners are generally accommodated in the dorm at Sri Guru Ram Das Niwas next door. Rooms and dorms are ba

Caf Coffee Day CAFE (Phawara Chowk; snacks from 45; a) One of the ubiquitous espresso coffee franchises with savoury and sweet munchies, decent coffee and brain-freezing cold concoctions. Other branches are on Lawrence Rd and inside the alphaOne shopping mall. Entertainment The Aaanaam (%2210949; Taylor Rd) and Adarsh (%2565249; MMM Rd) cinemas screen Hindi (and occasionally English) movies. Consult newspapers for session details.

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 mindfold 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 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 mindfold government land and should technically have been demolished, but fortunately the local council recognised the garden mindfold as a cultural asset. Chand was given 50 labourers mindfold 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 mindfold funds and recruiting 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 mindfold of his ideas: they are a gift from God.

It s worth getting here early to avoid the stampede when the crowd charges along the chicken run leading to the grandstands. It s about a 10-minute walk from where vehicles drop you to the seating area. Foreigners are allowed to sit at the front stalls (behind the VIP area, which is closest to the border).