ONE DAY AT THE PINK CITY

 

ONE DAY AT THE PINK CITY

By: Carlotta Pagan

 

The best thing about working at HEEALS is the fact that on weekends you have a lot of free time to enjoy India and visit beautiful cities. Definitely a nice reward after a week of commitment and hard work between research field and office work!

 

Hello, I am Carlotta, I am working at HEEALS, and now I would be glad to share another beautiful experience that, thanks to HEEALS, I was able to attend during my internship period.

This time I left early in the morning. Greeting me was a very nice driver, who drove me to the city of Jaipur.

Once I arrived at my destination, I was immediately struck by the colors of the city, as well as that of the buildings, which are built entirely of pinks and stone.

The color pink, which traditionally symbolizes welcome and hospitality, had been chosen by Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh for the arrival of Prince Albert of Wales in the city in 1875. Later, his wife, deeply impressed by that color scheme, had had a law passed forbidding anyone to change the color of those walls.

 

 

A guide laterpicked me up and we continued the tour together.

First, we visited the Jantar Mantar Observatory, whose name literally means "calculating instrument," and is a complex of 19 astronomical and astrological instruments used to calculate the exact position of the sun during the day and to plot the position of the main stars and celestial bodies at night.

Unfortunately, the observatory is only open to tourists during day light hours, so unless you are a researcher or professor, it will not be possible for you to observe the planets at night.

The place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the instruments, Vrihat Samrat Yantra, literally represents the world's tallest stone sun dial. 

 

 

A short walk from the astronomical observatory, is the Jaipur City Palace. It is a very large palace complex, however due to the short time available we were only able to visit one part, the Chandra Mahal palace.

The Chandra Mahal Palace, once inhabited by the Maharaja of Jaipur, now houses a museum divided into 4 parts. The museum displays items that belonged to the royal family suchas clothes and manuscripts and all the royal family antiquities and personal belongings. I was especially impressed by the polo-playing costume used by the Maharaja of Jaipur, which was definitely much larger than the norm.

The floors and ceilings were also decorated with beautiful carvings and adorned with Persian and Afghan carpets.

 

 

At the end of the visit I was able to buy an embroidered agenda for my family.

After a brief stop for lunch at the "green pigeon" restaurant, where I had chicken rolls and basmati rice, we continued on to visitJal Mahal, the lakeside palace and the summer residence of the royal family.

Unfortunately, it was not possible for us to visit the palace for inside, but we were still able to take beautiful photos from outside, overlooking the lake. We were able to admire Man Sagar Lake and seem any species of birds that stop there during migration, including peacocks and pelicans.

 

The last structure we visited, before returning to Delhi, was the Amber fort, built on a hill, from which you can see the whole landscape below, including Lake Maota but also the walls surrounding the hill.

It is the main tourist attraction of Jaipur. Elephant rides are organized inside the courtyard in the morning: the elephants can accompany tourists to the top of the hill and then to the palace, but they cannot take the opposite route! Once at the palace, tourists will have to walk down the hill on their own legs! Definitely a good thing, for these poor animals, who do far toomuch.

A kind photographer offered to take a picture of me inside the courtyard before our visit began and had me wear a typical Indian headdress, the turban, and a colorful umbrella.

After a brief look to a temple dedicated to Shila Devi, a goddessof the Chaitanya cult, located at the entrance of the palace, we entered the Amber fort. This was also residence of the Rajput Maharajas and their families, now declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The palace was divided into 4 parts, the Hall of Public Audience, the Hall of Private Audience, where the maharaja would gather with his family, even simply to celebrate the birthday of one of his 12 wives, the mirror palace (or Seesh mahal) and the Sukh Niwas.

All the doors were original and the palace columns were finely decorated with low reliefs of various kinds of floral decorations and with mirrors made of Burano glass, which is typically Italian.

 

 

At the end of the trip, I did not miss to visit a precious gem store where I was able to buy one pair of beautiful silver earrings with a gem-stonein the middle, of a stunning turquoise blue colour!

Once again, it turned out to be a great experience, full of adventures. Thank you, HEEALS!

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