ChandigarhWell Nick(another intern) and I got to do a little traveling this weekend. We headed to the Punjab state capital of Chandigarh. Chandigarh has an interested story since it is a relatively new city. When India first received independence in 1947 the Indian-Pakistan(both countries were created/gained independence on the same day) border was determined by the British Government and the boundaries attempted to divide the Hindu and non-Hindu regions as seperate countries. This division not only lead to a lot of violence between the religous groups involved and created the tension between India and Pakistan that still exists, but it also granted the capital of Punjab, Lahore, to Pakistan. You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India . Therefore the Indian Punjabi state had no capital. Rather than select a city already in existence in the state, it was decided that a new city would be built to serve as a symbol of India's independence and progression.
That is where Chandigarh comes into play. The site for the city was carefully selected as was a team of architects(as urban planning didn't really exist at this point) to design the new city. The team was initially headed by two architects from the U.S. but after the death of one of them a new team was assembled. The team was headed by the French(swiss-born) architect Le Corbusier. The city was laid out in a grid system with 800m x 1200m rectangular sectors. The roads are wide and divided by a vegetated median. Le Corbusier also designed most of the government buildings, which although much hyped about pretty much looked to me like most any other building from the 60's, a big chunk of concrete.
Anyway we wanted to go see Chandigarh as it "is unlike any Indian city in it's organization and cleanliness." Nick and I weren't that impressed, although it is certainly more organized it isn't really anything to write home about compared to American cities. Well the trip to Chandigarh was worth it for other random experiences that we had along the way. We got to play a full cricket match in the parking lot of the High Court(State Court) with some Indian guys. We also got to dance in a wedding procession and found the coolest vegetable market. So all in all the 8 hour one-way trip was worth it. Not to mention we had the best Tandoori Chicken.
Yours truly batting in cricket, clearly not knowing what is going on and/or looking like a baseball player. Surprisingly I ended up hitting the game winning run.
The vegetable market
You probably can't read this but it was a label of an architectural drawing done by Le Corbusier at a museum in Chandigarh that documents the history of designing the city. It says, "Three dimensional sketch highlighting the variation of brise soleil for the facade on the Minister's Block. The design for this was suitably altered to incorporate more vertical supports for structural stability on the advice of the engineers." Perfectly sums up the architect-engineer relationship.
The High Court building, designed by Le Corbusier
The groom at the wedding procession that we got pulled into. After some dancing we were kindly asked to leave as we were distracting from the groom's moment.Work
We are slowly but surely getting close to completing our design report and drawings.
Prayer Requests
-Please continue to pray for our diligence and focus as we complete our project work
-Please also pray for our english teaching outreach, that we would have the opportunity to share the Gospel with the men we teach, and that their hearts would be receptive.
Bread and Butter
"Where does your bread and butter come from?" That was the questioned posed to me by one of the guys we were playing cricket with after I explained to him what I do and what eMi is. While it took me a while to figure out exactly what he meant, I knew what he was getting at, "Where does your salary come from? How do you live?" I just wanted to thank all of you for your prayers and financial support which allow me to serve and live here in India.
