Taking friends to Jantar Mantar

Varnita Paliwal
Varnita Paliwal

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Harleen Bagga
Harleen Bagga
From L-R: Chandni Gulati, Arjun Gupta, Arushi Saraf
From L-R: Chandni Gulati, Arjun Gupta, Arushi Saraf

 

 

I nominate the following five friends for the #HeritageNominate task:

 

CHANDNI GULATI

Creative, artistic, and innovative are adjectives descriptive of this girl who is currently pursuing Bachelors of Fine Arts. Jantar Mantar is an ancient architectural marvel in the midst of modern buildings. The beauty of this place is unparalleled because of which I asked her to visit this place along with me. She had an upcoming assignment during her internship at India Art Fair where she was required to choose a location for an outdoor study. Hence this gave me the opportunity to convince her for our getaway to Jantar Mantar. Chandni prefers water colour paintings for her architecture paintings and uses Indian Red Colour for the buildings. Most of the structures in Jantar Mantar were painted red thus providing her the perfect setting for her outdoor study. Thus the scenic beauty attracted her and encouraged her to come and visit this place again.

 

ARUSHI SARAF

 

Arushi is an aspiring Chartered Accountant. Her life is centred on exam preparations and managing office work. Hence restricting her social life. Arushi is an enthusiastic explorer. She likes visiting new places and has a curious mind. Persuading Arushi was a cakewalk since she had never been to Jantar Mantar before. Her knowledge about Jantar Mantar was restricted to the newspaper articles portraying Jantar Mantar as the unofficial protest site. The history of Jantar Mantar intrigued her about this monument. The Grandeur of the sun dial and each structure having a specific scientific importance, appealed her a lot at Jantar Mantar.

 

HARLEEN BAGGA

Harleen puts her best efforts at what she does, academically or otherwise. She has a keen interest in history and reads novels by William Dalrymple. Harleen participates at various writing competitions. As a part of her college assignment, she was required to research about monumental heritage of her city. She preferred visiting the monuments and explore history behind it. As one would expect it, she made a list of few monuments and Jantar Mantar didn�t make it to the list. I suggested her to explore something unexplored. I persuaded her to visit Jantar Mantar not only because it is a historical monument but also because this is the only monument that is dynamic in its importance. Learning about its history, she was amazed to know how architectural aspect of each structure contributed so much towards science. Apart from scientific importance, the aura of a medieval structure being located in the midst of corporate towers, took her back in time.

 

ARJUN GUPTA

Arjun�s icon is Stephen Hawking and his current favourite movie is the theory of everything. Clearly this future scientist has a liking for everything related to physics. I didn�t convince him to visit Jantar Mantar but he was inquisitive about it himself. Arjun had previously participated in telescope viewing sessions at his college. The Jantar Mantar was an opportunity he couldn�t miss.� While being there he appreciated that science was prevalent in medieval history and how people of the past used their knowledge and constructed structures to study movement of the celestial bodies. Each structure at Jantar Mantar is accuracy personified and has specific importance to keep a track of the movement of various celestial bodies. Arjun was spellbound and has decided to visit Jantar Mantar again with his college classmates.

 

VARNITA PALIWAL

�Wherever there is light, one can photograph.� Varnita, an avid photographer, loves capturing moments and places with her DSLR. The exquisite and unique shapes of astronomical structures at Jantar Mantar are ideal for capturing multiple shapes at a single location. I enticed Varnita by explaining her the ways she could play with light and colours to capture time at Jantar Mantar. She planned her visit on a sunny day with her camera, all set to frame the architecture of Jantar Mantar. This monument is a perfect contrast of symmetrical lights and shades. Being an amateur photographer, she learnt to capture artsy symbolic shadows. Moreover she explored the extent of her creativity with her camera and captured multiple colours in and around Jantar Mantar. Overall her day was well spent and she now believes that Jantar Mantar is a photographer�s paradise where creativity has no bounds.