The city palace of jaipur-A Brief History

Rajasthan011, originally uploaded by kunalpanja2.

Located in the capital of Rajasthan, the City Palace of Jaipur or the main palace is an imposing blend of traditional Rajasthan and Mughal architecture. The vast palace complex occupies one seventh of the walled city of Jaipur. Originally built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of the Kachhwaha clan of Rajputs, additions have been made to the palace complex by many of his successors.
The complex is divided into a series of courtyards, sprawling gardens and buildings. It is home to several palatial structures like the Chandra Mahal, Mubarak Mahal, Badal Mahal, Shri Govind Dev Temple and the City Palace Museum.
In the first courtyard is the 'Mubarak Mahal', built by Maharaja Madho Singh II in the late 19th century. The Mubarak Mahal, or the Auspicious Palace, contains the textile section of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum. There is a magnificent gateway with a grand door in brass opening to a stately courtyard. There lies the Diwan-I-Khas or 'Hall of Private Audience'- an open hall with a double row of columns with scalloped arches. On display are the two largest silver vessels in the world figured in the Guinness Book of World Records. These were used for carrying water from the holy Ganges for personal use, by Madho Singh II on his journey to England. Across the paved square, with its intricate decorations in deep red and gold, Afghan and Persian carpets, miniature paintings, astronomical manuscripts in Persian and Sanskrit lies the 'Diwan-E-Aam' or the 'Hall of Public Audience'. At the other corner is the gateway Ridhi Sidhi Pol, with four small doorways decorated with motifs depicting the four seasons.
To the north-west is the graceful seven storeyed 'Chandra Mahal', or the Moon Palace, home to the present Maharaja of Jaipur; Bhavani Singh, providing a fine view of the gardens and the city. Paintings, floral decorations, mirror walls and ceilings in the traditional style adorn the palace. Each storey has a distinctive name and is a place of sheer beauty and luxury. The ground and first floor of the Chandra Mahal, form the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum. The museum has an extensive collection of art, carpets, enamelware and 15th century weapons. The paintings include miniatures of Rajasthani, Persian and Mughal schools. A section of museum also contains dresses and costumes of the former Maharajas and Maharanis of Jaipur.
'Sukh Nivas' or Hall of rest holds the drawing and dining room of the Maharaja, furnished with Mughal miniatures, European silver, glass dining tables and peep holes decorated with gold leafs, for ventilation. On the fourth floor of the 'Chandra Mahal' is the 'Shobha Nivas' or Hall of Beauty with mirror encrusted walls having exquisite blue tiled dadoes and glittering gold leaf and mica decoration. When the room was lit after dark the Maharajas could enjoy a breathtaking spectacle of the room bursting into a thousand flickering images. The Shobha Nivas and the Sukh Nivas is still occupied by the present Maharaja. The fifth floor is the 'Chhavi Nivas' or Hall of Images, the maharajas retreat in the rainy season, with a polished floor of eggshell stucco and blue and white painted walls. The sixth floor with its mirrored ceiling and stucco floor has rows of double columns through which one can have a magnificent view of the rugged hills. The uppermost storey is called the 'Mukut Mahal' or the Crown Building.

Arabian Sea

Picture 064, originally uploaded by kunalpanja3.

The unconquered frontiers of the wild Arabian Sea.

PUNE-The baby with the candy

This is my first blog after a long break.The break was largly due to some changes in my life.Its almost a month now that I have been to Pune. After IBM decided to allocate me to a new project here it was the time for me to travel once more.

The very first impression of this city was good and bad for me. Good was the fact that the people and the crowd was vibrant and bad was the fact that house rent and autowalas are a real menace here.

This city was primarily a city know for its educational facilities that anything else. The sheer number of colleges and college crowd at every hangout is a testimony of that. The expanding IT sector in India has seen a boom in IT development in Pune. But the growth unlike Bangalore had not been regular. This city is experiencing a sudden IT boom. Its like a baby who has just got a candy. The real estate prices have shot up to an abnormal extent and since the IT crowd is willing to shell out extra money the prices of rental houses have shot through the roof. This has in turn affected the market and the prices of articles have started to climb. This has made it difficult for the student crowd here, a few articles recently in the paper has shown the adverse effect the IT candy is having on common man here. The immediate segment who is out there to make the mullahs are the autowalas. They follow no pay chart of the earth, infact they are out there to rob every penny of your purse, flaunting every rule.
The good weather along with a hospitable native crowd has made this city an attractive location in spite of the few hunches I had talked about earlier. Weather wise Pune should rank just after Bangalore with its moisture laden pleasant weather. One can travel to various places from here in the form of weekend treks and trips. As for me I have just visited GOA so far. I am planning to travel extensively in the coming few months to make sure that I explore this part of the country.
Other than this one thing I have noticed about this place is the young and colorful and vibrant crowd everywhere, it gives a college like feeling whenever I visit any hangout. The night life here is alive and safe compared to any city of the country. The number of nightclubs and restaurants that remains open till late night makes a comprehensive proof of this fact. The college crowd actually makes this city happening than the IT crowd. But the baby has got the candy now and it will be interesting to see how the baby handles the candy of IT boom. I am looking at a long stay in this city and it will be interesting to observe this change I guess!

Choice

I have started receiving complaints from people that my blogs are very serious (unlike the person I am) and that reading them often gives rise to ‘foolish philosophy’ in their head. They have demanded lighter essays. I have not written for a long time not because I was bogged down by them but because I have been in a whirlwind of work. In one of my blogs in Dec-Jan I had said about the mounting work pressure and they took some toll on me. But I have made sure I keep posting some thing or the other just to ensure that I am still in the habit of blogging. But finally I decided to put my foot down. I had to choose between my spirit and my mind. I choose my spirit. And now I have decided to follow it for sometime.
Making choices have always been a tough thing in life. There have been lots of thoughts and energy spend on choices. And its said that choices decide who we are. I would like to throw open the Pandora’s box of thoughts and choices. How would you react in the following situation?
(Concept taken from The 8th Habit).
1. Firstly you are not treated fairly. That is there is lots of politics at play in your organization, there is nepotism. The pay system doesn’t seem to be fair and just. Your own pay doesn’t accurately reflect your level of contribution to the organization. What would be your choice?
2. Lets say you are treated fairly in terms of your pay but is not treated kindly, that is you are not respected, your treatment is inconsistent, arbitrary, capricious, perhaps largely dictated by the mood of your boss. What would you do?
3. Let’s say you are paid well and treated fairly but when your opinion is wanted it is given to you. In other ways your body and heart is valued and not your mind. What would your choice be?
4. Now let’s say you are paid well, treated kindly, involved creatively but you are asked to dig a hole and fill it up again, or to fill out reports that no one sees or uses. In other words your work is meaningless. What would your choice be?
5. Now let’s say you are treated well, paid fairly and involved creatively but there is lots of unethical work going on around you. The people around you are not trustable or they cheat you and each other. What would you do?
(Concept taken from The 8th Habit)Mind, Heart, Body, Spirit are the four aspects of humans that require equal attention. I had been a firm believer that being logical and analytical answers all questions of human life. Slowly I have realized that life has its wings spread beyond the realms of Logic and Analysis. I will agree that all these four aspects of human beings need to be addressed. The choices to the above said problems can be any one of the following.
a) Rebel/Quit
b) Malicious Obedience
c) Willing Compliance
d) Cheerful Co-operation
e) Heartfelt Commitment
f) Creative Excitement
Yes the four aspects of Human needs to be addressed with equal importance. When I look around I can see people with misbalanced aspects. Want to know the biggest example. It’s me, myself. From the above examples I had faced situation 1 in the previous job and my choice was option a. The very fact that my mind, heart, body, spirit revolted prompted me to rebel and quit. Yes it was one of the great learning experiences for me.
Now the question comes what drives our choices. Most people says its our aim/vision/future goals that drives our choices. This is true yet they are not so true. It’s because many a time we ‘take the road less taken by’ so we don’t have clear vision of our goal but yet we make our choices.
Another interesting concept is that between Cause and Effect (Concept taken from 8th Habit) we have a time to make our choices. STIMULUS >Freedom to Choose> RESPONSE
Now this window in between varies from people to people. Some people make choices immediately on being given the stimulus and some take time to make them. The difference lies there. This window transforms our lives. The difference between success and failure is governed by this window.
Many people have argued ‘I take decisions instinctively’! My question is define instinct? How can you define intuitiveness or instinct? Its one of the most puzzling processes in our brain. The brain takes all the parameters required to process a decision and in a fraction of a second does the processing. We think it’s intuitive but it’s the fastest output of a calculative process. Thus our instinctive decisions are the one for which this window between Stimulus and Response is the smallest.
I won’t go into the domain where we can discuss the consequence of choices. That’s a completely different domain but here I would concentrate more on choices we make. So going back to the classification of choices I think the best choice is Creative Excitement. The things that we do should involve a creative excitement associated with it. Be it relationship/Job/ day to day life, if there is a creative excitement then things will be more enjoyable. This is how the concept of ‘Work’ and ‘Play’ was defined in ‘Tom Sawyer’. So the best decisions are which evokes creative excitement among us. This is my point of view about choices we make. But then again we are not always in a position to make choices, in those cases make the best use of the choices and resources given to you. Invoke creative excitement among yourself. Not all choices will be popular but if that choice invokes creative excitement and you have the self-belief then go ahead with it.