In India, a secret garden that rocks

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-rock-garden-20111206,0,5170524.story


Nek Chand's knack for turning trash into treasure came in handy for this tableaux of repurposed broken bangles and porcelain toilets. (Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times / December 5, 2011)

Reporting from Chandigarh, India—
Nek Chand became a road inspector in Chandigarh six decades ago, when India's only planned city, a geometric dream of clean lines and modernist buildings designed in part by French architect Le Corbusier, was just taking shape.

One day, using his access to city maps, Chand spotted some forest land out of sight that wasn't slated for development.

He set about creating a wonderland, a bit of beautiful chaos in tidy Chandigarh.

On his rickety bicycle, he slipped into the woods after work with scrounged stones, chunks of concrete and discarded wire. For six months, he didn't even tell his wife as he laboriously crafted a surreal rock garden populated by mosaic animals, Indian gods, birds, figures with broken teapots for hats, woozy drunks holding broken bottles.