PIERRE JEANNERET: The Untold Anecdotes By Sarbjit Bahga Since the beginning of my professional career, I have listened to numerous tales about Pierre Jeanneret, who remained the Chief Architect of the Department of Architecture from 1952 to 1965. I started recollecting and writing some anecdotes to complete the new assignment, my younger friend gave me. I have learnt about Pierre Jeanneret from my senior colleagues that he was straightforward, humble, polite, down-to-earth, amicable, and caring. Apart from this, he was an outstanding architect with exceptional qualities like creativity, curiosity, adaptability to new environments, skills to handle different building materials and understanding of the users' requirements. During his one-and-a-half decade-old stint as head of the Department of Architecture, Pierre Jeanneret was loved and respected by his junior colleagues for his affectionate and caring attitude. There is an exciting yet touching anecdote. There came a time when the disbursements of salaries of the staff were stopped for one or two months. The reason was the delay in passing the annual budget by the state government and some other procedural delays. Resultantly, the entire staff faced tough times meeting their ends. Due to this challenging situation, there was lots of whispering amongst the staff under tremendous financial pressure. Nobody told Pierre Jeanneret directly, mainly due to the language barrier as he was a French-speaking person and not quite fluent in English, what to talk of other local languages like Hindi and Punjabi. The staff was only Punjabi or Hindi-speaking, and most were not fluent in English. After a few days, Pierre Jeanneret smelt the rat and felt everything was not going smoothly in the office. He called UE Chowdhury - the only lady architect in the department who could understand and speak French, English, Hindi, and many other languages. Jeanneret asked her if there was any resentment in the staff. UE Chowdhury explained that due to the non-disbursal of salaries, the staff members are tense and cannot concentrate on their work properly. After knowing the whole story, Pierre Jeanneret asked UE Chowdhury to talk to staff members and prepare a list of essential and bare minimum money requirements. Having done that, Pierre Jeanneret paid the needy from his bank account. Such a generous person he was!

1. 1
PIERRE JEANNERET
The Untold Anecdotes
Sarbjit Bahga
Pierre Jeanneret cycling his way to inspect construction of Secretariat building.

2. 2
A Nepal-born American architect asked me to
pen some untold anecdotes and stories of Pierre
Jeanneret. He intended to know something more
and different about Pierre Jeanneret, his
personality and relationship with his staff and his
ways of tackling senior functionaries of the
government. I found the suggested topic very
interesting but doubted whether I could do
justice to it. The reason was an age difference, as
I was only ten years old when Pierre Jeanneret
left this world in 1967. I never met Pierre
Jeanneret, but I have long been associated with
many of his Indian colleagues who have worked
directly with him.
I joined the Department of Architecture, Punjab
(once headed by Pierre Jeanneret) in 1980 and
served there for more than three decades.
Luckily, I worked with many of the associates of
Pierre Jeanneret, like UE Chowdhury, Jeet
Malhotra, HS Chopra, and others.
Since the beginning of my professional career, I
have listened to numerous tales about Pierre
Jeanneret, who remained the Chief Architect of
the Department of Architecture from 1952 to
1965. I started recollecting and writing some
anecdotes to complete the new assignment, my
younger friend gave me.
I have learnt about Pierre Jeanneret from my
senior colleagues that he was straightforward,
humble, polite, down-to-earth, amicable, and
caring. Apart from this, he was an outstanding
architect with exceptional qualities like creativity,
inquisitiveness, adaptability to new environments,
skills to handle different building materials and
understanding of the users' requirements.
During his one-and-a-half decade-old stint as
head of the Department of Architecture, Pierre
Jeanneret was loved and respected by his junior
colleagues for his affectionate and caring
attitude. There is an exciting yet touching
anecdote. There came a time when the
disbursements of salaries of the staff were
stopped for one or two months. The reason was
the delay in passing the annual budget by the
state government and some other procedural
delays. Resultantly, the entire staff faced tough
times meeting their ends.
Due to this challenging situation, there was lots of
whispering amongst the staff under tremendous
financial pressure. Nobody told Pierre Jeanneret
directly, mainly due to the language barrier as he
was a French-speaking person and not quite
fluent in English, what to talk of other local
languages like Hindi and Punjabi. The staff was
only Punjabi or Hindi-speaking, and most were
not fluent in English.
After a few days, Pierre Jeanneret smelt the rat
and felt everything was not going smoothly in the
office. He called UE Chowdhury - the only lady
architect in the department who could
understand and speak French, English, Hindi, and
many other languages. Jeanneret asked her if
there was any resentment in the staff. UE
Chowdhury explained that due to the non-
disbursal of salaries, the staff members are tense
and cannot concentrate on their work properly.
After knowing the whole story, Pierre Jeanneret
asked UE Chowdhury to talk to staff members
and prepare a list of essential and bare minimum
money requirements. Having done that, Pierre
Jeanneret paid the needy from his bank account.
Such a generous person he was!
PIERRE JEANNERET
The Untold Anecdotes
Sarbjit Bahga

3. 3
PL Varma, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret at work.
Pierre Jeanneret with his Indian colleagues.

4. 4
Despite his politeness and humbleness, Pierre
Jeanneret was a steadfast person in matters
related to planning and architecture. He has
nourished the development of the Capital City of
Chandigarh with utter sincerity, dedication, and
selflessness. When he saw any violations or
deviations from the core concepts of the city's
planning, he handled it with a firm hand. There is
an interesting anecdote.
As per the pre-decided edict, Chandigarh shall
be kept a cattle-free city. Thus, residents were not
allowed to keep cattle on their premises.
Contrary to this edict, Sardar Partap Singh Kairon,
the then Chief Minister of Punjab, kept a cow in
his residence to meet his family's daily
requirement of milk. Also, he has constructed a
bare minimum infrastructure for the cow, like a
manger (khurli). When Pierre Jeanneret learned
about this development, he met the Chief
Minister at his residence. Jeanneret asked the CM
to demolish the manger and remove the cow
immediately.
The Chief Minister, Partap Singh Kairon - a highly
educated and towering politician then- tried to
convince Jeanneret that he should have this
privilege as a Head of the State. But Jeanneret
politely and firmly declined his desire and
insisted upon removing the violations. Kairon
again tried to impress upon him authoritatively
and asked for exemptions. When Pierre
Peanneret judged that the CM was not relenting,
he took out a folded piece of paper from his
pocket and, while handing it over to the CM, said,
"Then here is my resignation."
On seeing this humble man's firm action, Kairon
instructed his staff, "Boys, demolish the manger
and remove the cow immediately; otherwise, he
will tell Jawaharlal Nehru. (Kaka, khurli jaldi dhah
deo, te gaan hata deo nahi tan isne Jawaharlal nu
das dena hai). Such was a conviction of this
humble and polite man!
Pierre Jeanneret nourished the development of
Chandigarh with unparalleled love and
dedication. Despite being the Chief Architect
with all the facilities like an official car, he used to
move around the city on his bicycle in the
evenings and watch the progress of buildings
under construction. In this way, he could meet
many people and see any discrepancies rectified
immediately according to his orders. The
beautiful city has acquired its status due to the
selfless services of people like Pierre Jeanneret.
As Head of the Department of Architecture,
Pierre Jeanneret always groomed and
encouraged his young Indian colleagues to think
afresh and evolve innovative ideas in consonance
with the spirit of Chandigarh’s architecture.
Resultantly, many youngsters could put their
signatures on many outstanding buildings in
Chandigarh. For instance, when Jeet Malhotra
was asked to design some schools, he evolved a
system of triangular corbelled arches in brick.
When Jeet Malhotra showed this design to Pierre
Jeanneret, he said that it looked too decorative
and may not go with the architecture of
Chandigarh. So, Pierre Jeanneret asked Malhotra
to keep it pending till the visit of Le Corbusier.
When Le Corbusier visited Chandigarh, they
showed him this design, and he readily agreed,
saying that it is in the true spirit of the material,
i.e., brick. Finally, based on this design, many
schools were constructed. After more than six
decades, these buildings still look as fresh as
ever. Likewise, Pierre Jeanneret encouraged
architect HS Chopra to design Nehru Hospital on
the PGI campus. There are, of course, numerous
other examples which show the mentorship
qualities of Pierre Jeanneret.
Pierre Jeanneret was a very creative and
hardworking person who never liked to sit idly.
Whenever he found time from his professional
commitments, he loved to craft wooden furniture
out of cut pieces of logs, wooden slices from old
tree trunks, bamboo, niwar, munjh, and steel
bars. This furniture includes chairs, stools, centre
tables, side tables, lamp shades, etc., and was
primarily meant for his personal use. Later, when
he left Chandigarh in 1965, he gifted these
precious pieces of furniture to the Chandigarh
Museum.

5. 5
Furniture made by Pierre Jeanneret.
Pierre Jeanneret sitting on his self-made chair.

6. 6
Apart from this, Jeanneret was very fond of
making sailboats for Sukhna Lake. He used to
spend his weekends with his colleagues while
making paddleboats and then enjoy boating at
Sukhna Lake. At other times, Jeanneret would
draw on the carpet with his attendant Bansi, and
together they produced carpet (duree) designs.
By doing so, he had taught us that we should not
only be drawing-board architects but also should
work with our hands to give shape to our
creations.
Pierre Jeanneret was a great teacher who had a
poetic way of teaching. He always taught through
exemplary creative expression rather than lessons
and sermons. He used to convey a lot through his
conduct. Architect Jeet Malhotra once shared
that Jeanneret felt cold much more than others.
He would always have two heaters in his room, on
either side of his chair. One freezing evening,
Malhotra walked into his room to discuss some
drawings, leaving the door open. There was a
severe draught. Without saying anything,
Jeanneret walked up to the door, lit a cigarette,
and gently closed the shutter. He came to his
chair to look at the drawings that Malhotra had
brought, still composed and quiet. Malhotra says
that this incident taught him a lesson, and he
never left a door open behind him.
Recollecting another incident, Jeet Malhotra
shared that he left some work half-finished to go
to a movie on Sunday evening. The following
morning, anticipating a severe rebuke, he walked
apprehensively into the office and discovered
that the strange man had completed the
remaining work himself.
When Pierre Jeanneret left India, he gifted all his
household belongings to his needy colleagues.
Of these, Bansi, his peon and later attendant was
the most beneficiary. Jeanneret built a house for
him, gifted him a car, and made provision for his
children's education when they grew up.
Jeanneret was a man who had inspired many with
his charismatic personality. He had an
immaculate simplicity and loved India more
intensely than most Indians.
He bade farewell in these immortal words, "I now
leave my home and go to a foreign country."
Jeanneret left for Geneva on August 31, 1965.
Back home, he fell ill and suffered severely till his
last day. Jeanneret passed away on December 4,
1967. He wished his ashes to be immersed in the
Sukhna Lake of Chandigarh so that he would
become a part of his creation.
In April 1970, Pierre Jeanneret’s niece,
Jacqueline paid a special visit to Chandigarh to
perform the immersion ceremony. Long live the
memories of Pierre Jeanneret - the Saint
Architect.
Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret enjoying boating in
the Sukhna Lake.
Dhani Ram, Modeller helping Pierre Jeanneret to
fabricate a paddle boat.

7. 7
Pierre Jeanneret with Jawaharlal Nehru—a perfect understanding.
Pierre Jeanneret's ashes being carried by Jacqueline - his niece to be immersed in the Sukhna Lake as per
his wishes. Also present are MS Randhawa, MN Sharma and other government officials.

8. 8
Pierre Jeanneret - A pencil sketch by Sarbjit Bahga.