We stayed at Heathrow for the night before our early morning flight to India. That gave us a chance to visit the Ed Atkins exhibition at Tate Britain. To start off with I didn’t enjoy it, but when I reached the later galleries I found some of the art very moving. I was particularly affected by a long film in which Atkins records people listening to Toby Jones reading from his Father’s diaries. These document his decline from cancer.

Tim told me about another exhibit that I missed, where Atkins rescued stick-it notes that he had put in his daughter’s lunch box and which were later discarded. These ultimately meant a lot more to Atkins than they did to his daughter. I’d like to visit the exhibition again, it says a lot about death, decay and the human body.

We had to change at Delhi for our flight to Chandigarh. The hotel I booked for us was comfortable and thankfully had very effective air conditioning. We had arrived during monsoon season and the regular downpours of rain were a welcome respite from the boiling temperatures.

After a short nap we ventured out for a walk. The area didn’t look very promising initially, with half finished buildings and piles of rubbish blighting the area outside our hotel. When we turned a corner, however, we found attractive well maintained houses spread out along quiet roads. There was a children’s play park and an exercise area.

Chandigarh is a modern city designed by Le Corbusier and his associates. The area we were staying in was Mohali, a town on the outskirts of Chandigarh that has now merged with it. On our walk we noticed that the streets were on a grid model that is characteristic of the rest of Chandigarh. The city is divided into sectors that each have a number.

Our first morning was spent visiting Max Hospital. I had booked a trek with ‘India Hikes’. They had been recommended to us by an Indian doctor we met hiking in Hastings Country Park. He told us that their safety standards were a lot higher than other Indian trekking companies. We had to upload evidence of our physical fitness for the trek. As Tim is over 58 this included a TMT (treadmill) test which can apparently pick up any heart blockages. To get this done in the UK would have cost a fortune and involved a long wait. We contacted Max, a large private hospital, via WhatsApp from the UK. Communication had been a bit patchy and we hoped that they were expecting us. Uber is widely used in Chandigarh as well as another more local taxi app, but that morning not many taxis were available, possibly because of the pouring rain, so we arrived late.

We were met by a man whose role appeared to be navigating between us and the doctor. He was very friendly and had clearly been watching out for our arrival. Tim disappeared to do his test while I waited. The hospital was very busy, with patients and relatives sitting around waiting everywhere. It was a relief to discover that Tim had no heart issues. We headed to the hospital entrance to call a taxi to The Rock Garden, one of the most interesting sights in Chandigarh, as by now it had stopped raining. Once again there was a long wait, so we went to get a cup of chai.

We bumped into a British Indian who was visiting his Dad in the hospital. Thankfully he was doing ok now, although he had been taken in as an emergency. He thought we were mad to be visiting India in the monsoon season. At that point England were playing India at Lords. He told us that in India he gets accused of supporting England and in England he gets accused of supporting India. We met another UK citizen who was visiting to have treatment in Max while she spent time visiting relatives in India.

Eventually our taxi turned up and we headed for the ‘Rock Garden’. This is a creation of a municipal worker called Nek Chand. He initially started building the garden secretly in the 1950s. It took him forty years to complete it. It is made entirely from waste goods and spreads over 40 acres. It was very interesting and relaxing to walk around. The different areas are connected by meandering paths and waterfalls. Nek Chand created scores of animal and human statues. They stand in groups and their gaze is a little eerie. We also visited the Doll Museum, where village scenes are created using dolls made of scrap cloth. It is an amazing creative vision by one man.

Chandigarh is a town of many modern cafes and we went to one for refreshment after visiting an Airtel shop where I failed to get an Indian SIM. This was a straightforward process when we stayed in Delhi as I obtained one at the airport. As we were staying in Chandigarh this time it wasn’t possible – the Delhi Airport Airtel counter are only authorised to provide SIMS for tourists staying at an address in Delhi. I ended up downloading an electronic SIM via Airalo in the end. Later I read that most Indian hotels will help tourists to get a SIM, but to be honest I think it is less hassle to just download one via an app like Airalo.

After a delicious breakfast served in our room the next morning (how I love Indian hotels) we headed for the art gallery and museum complex in the centre of Chandigarh. It was pouring with rain again. First we visited the Architecture Museum. It had a slightly neglected air about it and many of the exhibits were fading in the heat and the damp. It told the history of the city, which was founded in the optimism and hope that followed Indian independence. Many people were homeless in the aftermath of partition and it was envisaged that the new city would resolve this issue. The planners didn’t anticipate the explosion in population that would occur in India and the planned city soon merged with other surrounding towns, including Mohali where we were staying.

Chandigarh faces the same challenges as other Indian urban environments, with the poorer people who service the city living in shanty towns on the outskirts. In general, however, Chandigarh is a prosperous city with a large middle class. The modernist residential buildings seem to be holding up (although I didn’t actually get to go inside any). If you are a fan of brutalist architecture it is a fascinating place to visit. I particularly liked the way the main roads allow traffic to be kept away from the residential areas and the cycle paths that are integral to the city’s design. Of late it seems that there have been challenges, particularly with the ability of local government to maintain the city and manage the rubbish, which can be seen building up in many locations.

The city art gallery was right next to the architecture museum so we spent an hour or so in there after we visited the architecture museum. We spent some time admiring a large and beautiful collection of Indian miniature paintings. Both the Architecture Museum and Art Gallery needed some urgent work on their structures due to water ingress seeping through the old concrete constructions. Neither building had air conditioning, which was probably not needed or didn’t exist when the buildings were constructed, but is now desperately required as temperatures soar due to global warming.

As the weather had brightened up again we headed towards Sukhna lake after having lunch at another of Chandigarh’s cafes (this one was a bit of a disappointment – overpriced and not as good as the one the day before). The lake area was beautiful and free of rubbish. It wasn’t too crowded, but a steady stream of people were wandering next to the lake in the late afternoon sunshine, enjoying the breeze. There were great views towards the hills and nature reserve on the opposite bank of the lake.

The next morning we were due to head off to Manali on the bus. Every single person we spoke to in Chandigarh told us that the road was dangerous due to the monsoon and that we should visit safer areas of India instead. Luckily I was in contact with a few members of our trekking group via whatsapp who reassured me that all would be well and that they would be travelling by bus all the way from Delhi. I was desperate to get out of the heat and hoped that there would be no landslides on our route to the hills.