I love trees more than most human beings I know. Trees, to me are one of the most gorgeous creations that came to us when this world was conceived. And Chandigarh is a tree paradise.
A Tall Araucaria
Trees are primal yet everlasting, tall yet humble, strong yet gentle. A Tree does not judge you and hold back on love because you threw litter under it. Trees are majestic and spiritual landmarks, monuments of time that are standing. I am often so taken by a tree, maybe one with a great canopy, or with gnarled yet fierce branches, sometimes with freshly erupting blooms – that I simply want to hug it and thank all trees for making the world a better place.
I joined a Spring Tree Walk yesterday in Chandiagrh. The walk is an enterprise of a fairly recent and vibrant group called Chandigarh Tree Lovers, a city based organization founded and presided over by Dr. Rajnish Wattas, former principal of the College of Architecture, an author and a heritage and landscape expert. The group is supported by the Times of India Group and fueled by the love and commitment of the residents of this beautiful city. Experts on trees and horticulture educate the walking groups on trees – their identities, their disposition, their comportment, their eccentricities and their utility. The group is engaged in activities to help, protect and augment Green Chandigarh.
A Tree Walk by CTL
I enjoyed the walk on a mellow, still wintry morning. We walked through the Leisure Valley, a beautiful and lush green belt conceptualized by Le Corbusier. The magnificent trees stand like sentinels of a city that was erected to usher in an independent India, to mark the end of a colonial past. Recently, technology and industry have brought jobs and population pressure.
I don’t exaggerate when I say Chandigarh is a garden of trees – magnificent in density and variety. There are some that mesmerize me and evoke in me an enormous sense of gratitude and admiration for those that built this city – tree by tree. I know my roads often by the trees that guard them. When the first sweat beads appear above your upper lip, you know the sector 34 Gurdwara road will be ablaze with the fiery Amaltas. So will Jan Marg, north of Matka Chowk. Those who love the colour red, must pay a visit to the sector 9 park in spring, for the tall trees will be full of red Simbals or Cotton Silk, each shade of red, mystical and resplendent. The road dividing sectors 18 and 19 are full of ancient looking Pilkhan, with thick weathered trunks and coiled aerial roots. I often see in my mind images of tombs, ancient ruins, tantriks and sentinel monkeys when I pass by those.
A Bottle Brush at Sukhna
The entry to the Lake Club, now Lake Sports Complex, has the most opulent Bottle Brush trees that flower abundantly in spring. And whenever I go to the Rose Garden I look for two very special trees. The huge Kanka Champas, with velvety off-white flowers that emanate a smell that reminds me of summer nights, while the crickets chirp away and the mango trees rustle. I also look for the Indian Coral tree – its fiery red hook like flowers give me goosebumps.
In monsoon the Chatims or the Devil’s tree blooms – the heady aroma slithers down the tree like a snaking trail of perfume. The Kadam fruits fall down – amazing little ball of white pins.
The Chandigarh Tree Lovers (CTL) is an ingenious initiative. The love is evident, the zeal is infectious.
There is a framed note in the Chandigarh Corbusier Center. At the end of his work in March 1955, in a letter to Nehru, Corbusier had written,
“Make one modern adventure of the spirit… lead to something solid that will endure in your country. A sign of harmony, born of a desire for good, of an unremitting struggle, of patience and perseverance, a spiritual sign, a monastic architecture with mountains and flowers and also a spirit of power and rough simplicity.”
The trees are a part of this grand design – monastic and spiritual. Perhaps he thought, the human spirit would win over the perils of modern capitalism. Man would be one with nature, under the stars, free and unafraid. A state of pristine goodness.
I wish all the tree lovers a great journey! For more details on the CTL, please check out the Facebook page –
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Chandigarh%20Tree%20Lovers