Two photography exhibitions organised by the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi lend a peep into the glorious past of the City Beautiful

Sheetal

‘What is a city without its intellectual think-tank- its artists’ — such were the views of late Dr Mohinder Singh Randhawa, who was the key figure in bringing the Green Revolution in Punjab and gave the City Beautiful its character as well as soul. While French architect Le Corbusier conceived the master plan of Chandigarh, Randhawa went out of the way to offer land to artists to beautify Chandigarh.

As November 1 is celebrated as Chandigarh Foundation Day, the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi brings two photography exhibitions - Unfolding Memories- A Tribute to Dr MS Randhawa and Chandigarh- Down The Memory Lane.

Eminent Architect SD Sharma, who was one of the members of Le Corbusier’s core team, was the chief guest for the first exhibition, being held at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10-C. Other prominent members from the core team were PL Varma, PNThapar, Maxwell Fry, Pierre Jeanneret and Jane B Drew, who may have left us, but their architectural genius remains intact.

Unfolding Memories, besides providing lesser-known facts about MS Randhawa - like his picture with his twin brother, Ravinder Randhwa, his fascination for Pahari miniature paintings and one click with Jawahar Lal Nehru as he was in-charge of the function on August 15, 1947 - also make us travel back in time, when he was appointed as the first Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh.

On November 1, 1966, Chandigarh was declared a UT when Punjab was reorganised along linguistic lines into two new states—predominantly Hindi-speaking Haryana and Punjabi-speaking Punjab. Further, Chandigarh was made the joint capital of the two states and of the union territory as well. Each year, this is commemorated as the Foundation Day of Chandigarh.

Past present

The other exhibition, ‘Chandigarh-down the memory lane’, is being held at the CLKA Gallery, located at the underpass connecting Sector 17 to Rose Garden. Apart from CLKA, it is supported by Le Corbusier Centre, Chandigarh Tourism and Sarbjit Bahga.

It brings together an assortment of vintage photographs that show the city during the nascent stages of formation. These pictures reveal how far the city has evolved and developed from the plain barren landscape in which it was envisioned.

Bheem Malhotra, Chairperson, CLKA, says, “These curated images capture the almost barren city before it started teeming with people and greenery.With this exhibition, we celebrate the foundation of a city that embodied the dreams and aspiration of thousands of Indians looking for an identity post-Independence.We also acknowledge the contribution of many unknown photographers who captured for us rare glimpses of the city as it came up.”

(On till November 14)