Jaipur - My Favorite City by Chandrika Shubham Saini

Jaipur is my favorite city which is also known as ‘Pink City of India’. It is the capital city as well as the largest city of Rajasthan, a northern state of India. It was founded by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amer. He shifted his capital to accommodate the increasing population and to meet out the scarcity of water. He planned the city according to the principals of Vastu Shastra. Jaipur is considered as the first planned city of India. It has three gates, eastern gate is known as Suraj Pol, western gate is called Chand Pol and the northern gate faces the old capital. Most of the buildings were constructed on the basis of rules of Shilpa Shastra. To welcome Prince Edward and Queen Victoria, during the reign of Sawai Ram Singh this city was painted pink. Many of the avenues, main buildings and complexes were remained pink giving it a distinct appearance of ‘Pink City’.

Jaipur is well connected by road with Delhi, capital city of India and Agra the main center of attraction of India through Golden Triangle. It is a connecting city between Delhi and Mumbai on National Highway No.8 and between Bikaner and Agra on National Highway No.11. National Highway No. 12 links Jaipur with Kota. It is well connected with other tourists’ places of Rajasthan such as Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur. Inside the city it has good connectivity with wide roads and quite good number of broad streets interconnecting each other. Road network follows a definite hierarchy as most of the roads run east to west or north to south. Even through rail Jaipur is well connected to the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. Jaipur has the metro service for better connectivity within the city. Jaipur International airport is well connected with national and international flights. It also provides air cargo services.

The places of tourist attractions are Jal Mahal, Hawa Mahal, Lakshmi Narayana Temple, Jantar Mantar, Amer Fort, Diggi Palace, Nahargarh Fort, Jaigarh Fort, Albert Hall Museum, City Palace, Vidhan Sabha, Garh Ganesh Temple, Sheela Devi Temple and Kale Hanumanji’s Temple. Sisodiya Rani Bagh, Ram Niwas Park and Kanak Vrindavan are decently maintained parks in Jaipur. Gardens at Amer Fort are also major tourists’ attraction.

It is the major hub for arts and crafts like blue pottery, marble work, handicrafts, antique furniture, jewelry, bangles, carpets and metal works. This city is famous for typical Rajasthani dishes like dal batti churma, missi roti, bajre ki roti, gawar phalli ka saag, gatte ki sabzi, papad ki sabzi and lahsun ki chutney. Sweets like gevar and gujia are liked by everyone. Laal Maans and safed manas are relished by non-vegetarians from all over the world. The snacks like pyaz kachori and mirchi bada are the specialties of Jaipur.