We Make The Hindi Times!

(L-R) Christine Styles, Nek Chand Foundation
trustee and widow of Tony Rajer with daughters,
Victoria and Sarah Davitt

About six months ago, I met with Christine Styles, the widow of Anthony (Tony) Rajer, Nek Chand Foundation trustee, and vocal advocate for the preservation of the Rock Garden, to discuss whether or not 
I was a good candidate for the international volunteer program.

Two things she said stuck in my mind. The first was that the program was a little like camping, and the second was that in addition to mosaic making, there was also the need to go through all the items in Nek Chand’s office and archive all the gifts, awards and other items.

Nek Chand holding the oil portrait I painted for him prior to coming to the Rock Garden

Hey, who took my bread?

I ignored the camping comment, though it did come to haunt me later on when I realized I could have benefited from a few ropes, hooks and other rappelling equipment for climbing and walking up, over and on 12 ft walls after drinking a little too much cheap Scotch whisky, 

Poisonous snake in our bedroom

as well as field guide to wild animals, reptiles and insects of North India, though that is for another story.

What I did think about over and over again was going through the stuff in Nek Chand’s office. From a very middle aged, selfish and lazy point of view, I kidded with my friends in the states that if I couldn’t hack doing mosaics, I would find my way to a desk job for four weeks to avoid having to do any real work.

Boy did I get that one wrong.

Learning to cut tiles the easy way by
banging on them hard

In retrospect, it would have been much easier to sit with a little cement placing tile after tile around a cement column in a random design, taking regular breaks for the fresh squeezed orange, pineapple or pomegranate juice or the fresh little Indian snacks that seem to me like little baked dough balls with spicy vegetable mash inside them.

(L-R) Adam gets a lesson on how to apply cement

(Not that doing mosaics is easy work. It is darn hard work. You have to sift the dirt, mix the cement and then rotate your body in positions that the yoga gurus would never approve of. You have to reach spots your body was never meant naturally to reach to slap on some cement that may or may not stick a small tile to a cement column, in a pre-determined pattern that should have been designed while I was being a slacker.

And the real shock (if you have never actually done a mosaic on a column or exterior or large surface before) is how long it takes to actually fill up the space! Now, I work slow, but it took me three days at four hours each day to finish about 12” up and totally around the column. (The rest of the time I was drinking juice, having chai tea, eating dough balls or having my picture taken as a celebrity white person who they want to photograph and talk to because you are such a novelty.) 

I watched my companion volunteers toil away, committed to learning the craft and completing a column.

I realized early on at the rate I worked, it would take about three months, which would put me into the summer season at 120 Fahrenheit, at which temperature I melt.  My two daughters would be very distressed to learn I actually melted in the Rock Garden and no trace was found of their mother. All that would be left would be a few random t-shirts and stretch pants from Goodwill,  20 bottles of iodine tablets that I never opened and a few packets of freeze-dried eggs and ham, which even the monkeys refused to touch.

John Maizels and Nek Chand at press conference for unveiling of Tony Rajer's memorial sculpture

(What I didn’t realize is that I was trading the frying pan (literally) for the fire. But really, I have to credit John Maizels, the other Nek Chan Foundation trustee and founder of Raw Vision magazine, and the world bible to art brut and outsider art, for throwing me into the fire. 

At the end of a hard days work - tired but happy

One night at dinner he asked if I would help Alan,  this filmmaker from the UK with a broken foot, since he knew I was a photographer. That is actually how I ended up doing something that I will remember for the rest of my life as a highlight and pinnacle of my short and mostly insignificant time on earth. Like you read all the time and never believe – things happen when you least expect them.

Alan arranging items for photography in our outside studio

The next thing I knew, Alan and I were setting up a makeshift photography studio in the stone courtyard of Nek Chand’s office,  trying to remove and clean pictures and enlarged photographs of Nek Chand with international dignitaries to take a digital record of them. 

Lokrum packing up items we removed from the office

Alan and I would take them out of the office and Lokram, Nek Chand’s gatekeeper for years and years watched us in disbelief. No one had touched that office since 1978 when it was built. There is such tremendous respect and awe for this world renown artist, that no one would dare make the decision to remove an item without his express consent...that is until the crazy American woman and the anal retentive filmmaker showed up.

Literally, every piece of mail, photograph, letter, request, award or document since 1978 sat in a pile or paper bag behind, next to, around or under Nek Chand’s chair.

 The valuable documents were interspersed with newspapers, magazines, utensils, bags of chick peas, rat droppings, and bits of rope, fabric plastic containers, old electronics or anything else that was given to Nek Chand or brought to the office that might one day become a valuable part of a Nek Chand sculpture.

After two days of taking a few things out and having Lokrum put them back, we had a Mexican standoff. I started to remove a black cloth from a fabric sculpture and Lokrum started to wave his hands in the air and walk in fast circles shaking his head as he spoke to us in Hindi, probably with expletives about how westerners never understand their culture and how much he couldn’t wait to retire and move to Florida to a small condo on the beach. All I know is that after that scene, we never saw him again. I heard he had blown out his knee, but I am betting he took the first flight to Palm Beach and sold a few Nek Chand sculptures to pay for a flat and a fishing pole.

(L-R) Helper, Alan, me and Nek Chand's current assistant
 after a day of sorting and trashing 

I say it with sincerity that I regret wholeheartedly if there was a connection between our arrival and his departure, though it wouldn’t be the first time I have seen people run when they saw me coming to get a job done. 

The next day, without Lokrum, Alan and I agreed we needed some help to communicate to Nek Chand so he could instruct his staff to be cooperative. With help from Sarah, who speaks Hindi (again Sarah to the rescue) and John Maizels, we got approval from Nek Chand to remove everything we wanted from his office, as long as we put it back again. (Right...just try putting a sleeping bag into its original bag!)

The next morning, three helpers, and I, filled up the courtyard with what looked like piles of trash, but were actually, invaluable maps, architectural drawings, city memos, award letters, fabrics, etc. until there was no place to walk. And that was only 25 percent of the office. 

Alan came in a little later that day and I could see from the look on his usually unflappable demeanor, a slight expression of astonishment and terror at the devastation I had caused in about 90 minutes, while he was across the street buying basically a potato knish with hot sauce from a street vendor.

And that is when we really knew we were in for a prolonged period of very hard work to sort, clean and box what looked important so it could be put aside to be sorted again by subject and date so that one day, there would be an organized, digital record of what how Nek Chan achieved the development and near completion of his remarkable Rock Garden. The temperature in the courtyard was often over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and sometimes exceeded 120 degrees in the sun, so it was terribly hot as well. 

And that is what we are still working on today. We have completed cleaning out all the bags and boxes that we are aware of in his office, and initially sorted trash from what could be important. We have set all the pictures and awards back in his office and are now going through flat documents.

The article in the Hindi daily paper about our archival process with photos of yours truly and Alan looking at a portfolio album we found with Indian stamps inside.

We have found half rat eaten architectural plans hand written by Nek Chand as well as speeches and documents from the city outlining additional plans that have not yet come to fruition. We have reviewed photographs of hundreds of well wishers, volunteers, visitors to the park, other artists and dignitaries who have visited the park and had their picture taken with him. There are speeches, awards, marketing brochures, interviews and gifts of art from adoring fans and well known artists from around the world. All of it now has a place back in his office or will have a place in a box with a subject name by the time we are done.

There is no way we can complete such a monumental task as archiving a 30-year plus history of anything in three-to-four weeks by two amateur archivists. And there must be a discussion about where the archives will be stored for their protection and access. 

Three of the hundred of river rock sculptures at the park

But for now, we have begun a process to protect and document the lifelong passion of a man started by being drawn to the mystical shape of a river rock,. He chose to carry that river rock by bicycle to a safe, secret place and began to build a world around it to honor its creation. 

Ultimately he graced that location with an entire world of river rocks, sculptures and architecture that the world cherishes and enjoys today and hopefully will be able to do so forever.

Detail of the miniature version of village where Nek Chand grew up in
what is now Pakistan and said to be a major inspiration
in the creation of the garden.uu

The least we can do is honor the man by documenting and protecting what inspired and motivated him to continue his journey for so many years and in the face of such obstacles achieved such greatness to become one of the world's most recognized visionary folk artists.

Next....a look at the many faces and shapes of the more than 2000 park sculptures....

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