The other day the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh (MCC) inaugurated a ‘Waste To Wonder’ Park in Sector 48-A, with three towering robots, created largely from scrap metal parts, lording over the landscape. At the formal evening ceremony, the contribution of the metal artist who created, and apparently donated, the huge sculptures, was duly acknowledged. But the official press release, splashed almost verbatim across the ‘Press Release Media’ the next day, shockingly omitted any reference to him.
What you are about to read now is an interesting story woven within a story.
Photos By : Life In Chandigarh & MCC
The metal artist in question is Pritpal Singh Matharu (artist name Polly Singh), who is known to run an industrial unit. The small and big sculptures he curates from scrap metal parts are popular by the name ‘pollybots’ (https://www.instagram.com/pollybots, https://www.facebook.com/pollybots/).
The ones he has created for the Waste To Wonder Park are massive in size and the people in the neighbourhood are in awe of them.
The story within the story begins here.
On receiving a formal media invite, this writer, aroused by curiosity to know what the ‘Waste To Wonder’ really entailed, reached the venue at the appointed time in the evening. The City Mayor, the chief guest for the occasion, had not yet arrived, and the officials and a large crowd were waiting in anticipation.
As the writer gorged his eyes on the imposing structures, trying to figure out the forms and the metal scrap materials which had been used, his eyes fell on a familiar-looking figure dressed formally for the occasion. The recollection wasn’t a pleasant one. Instantly the writer decided to ignore him as the very sight of him conjured up memories of the man’s very ungentlemanly, and then seemingly unpardonable conduct towards the writer in the past.
The man was the creator of the sculptures.
Anyway, the writer took a full round of the park, took some pictures, and after listening to the routine official speeches came away.
Reflecting on the incident triggered a tormenting tussle in the mind, one which always pits a journalist against his personal self. Should, or should not the writer highlight the man and his creations in his informative write-up for the benefit of readers. The resolution was not going to be easy and indeed it wasn’t. The writer decided to give it more thought.
But, the next day, browsing the mainstream media coverage of the event came as a big disappointment. There was not a word about the creator of the ‘waste to wonder’ structures, the main attractions in the park, only the near verbatim reproduction of the official press release, with who inaugurated, and which all other high official were present, finding prime of place in the write-ups.
This helped to some extent in resolving the issue in the mind of the writer. Credit must be given where it is due. The constant reminder of the teaching of wise men to forgive and forget eventually proved too overwhelming for the writer, thus this write-up. Feeling much relieved.
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For the records, the park in Sector 48-A in the midst of society flats is spread across 1.75 acres. Besides the towering structures created out of metal scrap, the entrances, benches and outlining of plant beds are made from bricks procured from the C&D (construction and demolition waste) recycling plant of the MCC. A ludo/snakes & ladders game laid out in the park is also a creation from recycled materials supplied by the C&D plant.
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