Shams S Shaikh allowed himself only a slight smile when his name was mentioned in the speeches that followed the inauguration of the Chandigarh War Memorial.

A down-to-earth person, Shaikh is an assistant architect in the Department of Urban Planning and played a pivotal role in giving shape to central sculpture of the Memorial.

“I feel proud to be associated with the War Memorial. It’s the first time I have worked on a monument of this scale,” said the graduate of Sir J J College of Architecture.

Explaining the Memorial’s concept, Shaikh says the three arms depict the three Forces — Army, Navy and the Air Force — so a feeling of unity is reflected in the monument.

Shaikh, who breaks into Marathi every time he picks up his cell (It’s my wife, he grins), says it took him several months to finalise the design. “It’s not something you can make every day. I wanted to be sure of the design before showing it to the Team Memorial.”

The final sculpture, which is very French (Shaikh winces when you say that), was impossible to fashion out of stone. So Team Memorial decided to use brass. “We are looking at longevity and maintenance,” says Shaikh. With footlights beaming on it, the sculpture will gleam bright day and night.

Work on the memorial was an engrossing affair, for the design had to be tweaked according to the topography. The memorial, which has got what architects call a “churning” shape, consists of circular walls that taper down to 5.6 feet. “Earlier, it was designed to have names of 6,000 martyrs. Later, the area was increased to accommodate 9,000.”