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Tuesday 13 December 2011

JNU and Max Mueller Bhavan Canteen


JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY (JNU)


Don't let the trees and thriving intellect of JNU deceive you into thinking of it as a dull, nerdy place. One of the most prestigious institutions of India, it is quietly and very slyly buzzing with activity. Upon entering the campus, one is greeted by humble red buildings neighboring a forest land. After almost a kilometer's walk and a brief stop for some chach at the mother dairy, one finds a small open restaurant, hiding among trees, called 24x7. As the name suggests, it is open 24x7, serving to anyone and everyone who comes in. You find students, varying from the ones looking for their coffee+smokes combination being fulfilled to people who are there to eat their hearts out. There is nothing that this "canteen'' doesn't serve and there is nothing that doesn't taste great. Nominally priced, this place has become an entity in itself, famous especially among the youth. The service is speedy and the atmosphere is very chilled out. If you pay close attention, you can eavesdrop into hearing some campus gossip and very polite remarks made about the teachers. Dogs are sleeping at your feet and don't worry, they won't ask for your food, they get plenty already !









MAX MUELLER BHAVAN

Max Muellar Bhavan is located on the Kasturba Gandhi Marg,New Delhi. A centre for learning german, it is a charming little campus with it's canteen called Cafe Goethe,is located right next to it's library and is a perfect place to enjoy a sumptuous meal in the winters. Open to all, the Max Muellar Canteen serves quality food at reasonable rates and has a variety of dishes, from pasta to parantha, they have it all. It is clean and well maintained and has a good service. The flavors are bound to impress you. One can also enjoy the playful company of the resident cats!





 


Monday 29 August 2011

Baolis of New Delhi

     For our first post we wanted to write about the Baolis of New Delhi, as they are relatively lesser known than the " more spoken about" monuments present here. A baoli or step well is a beautifully constructed water reservoir in which the water can be reached by a descending  set of stairs. These baolis can be multi-storied, with floors having arched entrances and pillared corridors.
       All forms of the step-well may be considered to be particular examples of the many types of storage and irrigation tanks that were developed in India ( mostly western India), mainly to cope with seasonal fluctuations in water availability. A basic difference between step-wells and tanks & wells was to make it easier for people to reach the ground water, and to maintain and manage the well. Baolis can be mainly found in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi,  Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

We visited three baolis in Delhi:
 The first was Ugrasen ki  Baoli, which is believed to be originally built by the legendary king Agrasen during the Mahabharata epic era and rebuilt in the 14th century by the Agrawal community, which traces it's origin to Maharaja Agrasen. It's located on the Hailey Road near Connaught Place, a short walk from Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. On entering the Baoli, one is shocked and awed by the grandness of the well. It's very
well hidden a midst a residential area and one can easily miss the narrow road leading to it.  It is a relatively simple structure, consisting of single flight of 103 steps that culminate in a now dry water tank.  The stone walls of the well are stark yet beautiful, forming a 60 x 15 meter rectangle made up of a series of superimposed arcades.






    Rajon ki Baoli built by Daulat Khan during the reign of Sikandar Lodi in 1516 is completely different from Ugrasen's baoli. It's located in the Meherauli Archaeological Park very close to Qutub Minar. It's wider, more squarish,  three storey well with a single flight of stairs leading to the now dry bottom. To the eastern side there is a small mosque with traces of a beautiful blue plaster.  Unlike other baolis, there is in fact a deep cylindrical well on the northern side of the baoli which is flanked by two staircases leading to the different stories of the baoli.















    Gandhak ki Baoli, which is very similar to Ugrasen ki Baoli, fortunately still has some water in it. It was built by the slave ruler Iltutmish in the 13th century, and was perhaps used by local residents of that time for sporting purposes like diving. It's named so as the water smelled of sulphur (gandhak). This baoli is just outside the Meherauli Archaeological Park and is still used by the locals, especially the kids, for bathing.



































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Click on the above link to view some more pictures of this edition.
All pictures have been taken by Malavika Chatterjee and Radhapriya.