500 km on in Himachal hills, lies unlucky Sec 13

The missing Sector 13 of this mecca for the world’s architects has been found–500 kilometres away in the cold desert Himalayan “Chandigarh” on the National Highway-5 to Tibet.

Struck with triskaidekaphobia, a western fear of the unlucky number, Le Corbusier, Swiss-French architect who designed India’s first planned city as his lifetime of work, created noSector 13, though he gave Chandigarh everything from great art and architecture to the scenic backdrop of Shivalik hills. How a small Chandigarh, just as green and immigrant, came to appear in a snow-clad region of Himachal Pradesh is part of folklore associated with former prime minister Indira Gandhi and the 1962 war with China.

The story goes that to set up a base at Lepcha during the war, the army bought it from the locals, whom Indira promised to relocate to a Union Territory in the mak ing called Chandigarh. They never were relocated and they chose to settle in the valley along the Spiti river.Some locals say their forefathers were shown some sites near Panchkula but they wouldn’t settle for a satellite town. They’d rather be near the snow-clad peaks of Spiti.Out of their unfulfilled desire to live in the promised land, they named this place Chandigarh.