Today, I will tell you more about Jantar Mantar, a stranger place dealing with Astrology. It’s not a wonderful place, it’s not like Qutub Minar or Red Fort, but if you have 30 min or more and you are interested with special places, you can visit this area.
Read, before, the 6 informations photos, in the end of this post, you will learn more about Jantar Mantarand you would decide if you should visit this place or not.
Advice: If you visit Delhi during the hot season, visit his place only early in the morning or before the Sunset.

“Jantar Mantar (Yantra - instruments, mantra - formulae) was constrcted in 1724. Maharaja Jai Singh of Jaipur who built this observatory went on to build other observatories in Ujjain , Varanasi and Mathura. Jai Singh had found the existing astronomical instruments too small to take correct measurements and so he built these larger and more accurate instruments.”

“The instruments at Jantar Mantar are fascinating for their ingenuity, but accurate observations can no longer be made from here because of the tall buildings around.”

Where they are located?
Location : Parliament Street
Opening Hours :Sunrise
Closing Hours : Sunset
Distance approximately from City Center Connaught Place: 1 KM

How to reach Jantar Mantar?
Visitors can reach Jantar Mantar in many ways.

They can either take local buses from various points within the city, which is located near the Interstate Bus Terminus at Kashmere Gate in the heart of New Delhi, or, alternatively, they can hire auto-rickshaws and taxis for the purpose.

There are also regular buses from other important bus terminals like the Interstate Bus Terminus at Sarai Kale Khan and Connaught Place to this monument.

Local guided tours conducted by Delhi Tourism and private operators covers this important monument.

Nearest Metro Station :RAJIV Chowk (Connaught Place)

What to see in Jantar mantar?

This unique observatory was completed in 1724 and remained operational only for seven years. Astronomical observations were regularly made here and these observations were used for drawing up a new set of tables, later compiled as Zij Muhammad Shahi dedicated to the reigning monarch. Jai Singh named his observatory Jantar Mantar (actually Yantra Mantra, yantra for instrument and mantra for formula). It is dominated by a huge sundial known as Samrat Yantra, meant to measure the time of the day accurate to within half a second and the declination of the sun and other heavenly bodies. Jai Singh himself designed this yantra. Other yantras were also meant for the study of heavenly bodies, plotting their course and predicting eclipses. The two pillars on the southwest of Mishra Yantra are meant to determine the shortest and longest days of the year. Interestingly, in December one pillar completely covers the other with its shadow while in June it does not cast any such shadow at all.

Spurred on by the completion of the first Jantar Mantar and with a view to verifying astronomical observations made at Delhi, Jai Singh built similar, if smaller observatories, at other important Indian cities-Jaipur, Varanasi, Ujjain, and Mathura. The state of these observatories is bad; the one in Mathura was demolished, while those in Ujjain and Varanasi are in state of decay. But the observatory at Jaipur is the best preserved of all because in 1901 Raja Ram Singh, the then ruler of Jaipur, refurbished it with the help of a British engineer. All the masonry instruments were lined with marble so that the graduations on them are not worn out.

The Jantar Mantars may have fallen into disuse but they remain an integral part of India’s scientific heritage. The Jantar Mantar in Delhi is often projected in travel books, brochures, on postage stamps and was the logo of the 1982 Asian Games. The Jantar Mantar shows that the spirit of scientific enquiry was not dead in India and would have yielded rich results if only an opportunity had been given to it to fructify. The Jantar Mantar on the Parliament Street remains one of the most intriguing structures of the capital, one that explodes in a burst of questions in the mind of the inquisitive tourist.

Cost
Tickets(Rs):
Indian 5/-
Foreigners 100/-

Informations photos about constructions of Jantar Mantar in high resolution (1 MO each)

See the map bigger / Agrandir le plan

Thanks to Sakshi for this post

Au musée de cire de Madame Tussaud de Londres, la famille “Bollywood” grandit régulièrement et elle se compose à présent de 4 personnes:
Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh khan.

In Madame Tussaud wax museum in London, the “Bollywood” family grow up regulary et now is composed with 4 persons:
Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh khan.

One of the classical Bollywood movie, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

The Story:
Raj and Simran (played by Shahrukh Khan and Kajol respectively), are young second generation British Indians brought up and living in London. Raj is the only son of a rich Indian father played by Anupam Kher who spoils his son to no limit, allowing him all the creature comforts. Simran is the elder daughter of Amrish Puri, who is a very conservative and typical Indian man whose only dream is to one day go back to his country. He feels proud that he has managed to bring up his two daughters in a very traditional way. Simran constantly dreams of her prince charming, a stranger coming one day into her life and sweeping her off her feet. She has her imaginary lover and write poetry to him.

Simran’s father has arranged her wedding with his best friend’s son Kuljeet in India and upon this announcement, Simran has never seen this guy before in life. But for the respect for her father she agrees to marry him. Simran begs her father to allow her to go on a trip to Europe with her friends - her last chance to see the world before she goes and gets married to a complete stranger. Her strict father eventually and reluctantly permits her.He makes her promise to her that she will never betray his trust.

Simran bumps into Raj on the trip and after some initial misadventures, Raj falls in love with Simran. Only at the moment of parting, Simran realises that she too has fallen in love with Raj.

Simran goes home and tells her mother that she has fallen in love with someone else and cannot go through with this wedding. Her father overhears this and is furious that she broke his trust. He is adamant that she will marry Kuljeet as planned and they will leave for India as soon as possible.

Even though Simran doesn’t agree to the marriage her family returns to Punjab. Simran’s groom to be Kuljeet - is a man who is full of himself and prides himself for being is a shikari (Hunter), to whom Simran has been betrothed since they were born. Her mother wants to spare Simran, but cannot stand up against the dominating patriach.

Raj, however, does not give up so easily. He follows Simran to Punjab, meet her privately and assures her that he will save her from the arranged marriage. However, he refuses to elope with Simran because he wants everyone happy with the marriage. He wants to marry her with the consent of her father.

Raj befriends the soon-to-be groom and pretends to be a friend of the family. He helps with the wedding preparations and soon gains everyone’s friendship and love. At the same time Kuljeet’s sister falls in love with Raj and things get more complicated when Raj’s Dad suddenly appears in the family. By now, even Simran’s father is won over by Raj. However, everything comes crashing down when Raj’s true identity is revealed, when Simran’s father sees a photograph of Raj and Simran when they were on their trip across Europe. Then, as Raj is preparing to leave (as he feels he has failed in his purpose) Kuljeet follows him and beats him up for playing games with him. When Kuljeet inadvertently hits Raj’s Dad, Raj gets angered beyond measure and single handedly hammers Kuljeet and all his friends. When Raj is about to leave, Simran’s father realizes his folly and he allows Simran to leave with Raj, telling her that nobody can love her more than this boy (Raj) does, thus allowing her daughter her true love and her happiness.

One day, in few months or days, you would go to India, the country of the contradictions and the extremes. To make your travel enjoyable, we would like to share with you some tips useful for your first travel to “the biggest democracy of the world”:

- The family is really important in the Indian cultures, and it is impolite to ask questions or make jokes about it.

- Western polite words are not the “Indian’s passion”, so, it’s OK to not say: “hello, thanks, sorry, good-bye…” when you deal with seller, information desk… But you should keep using them in India to show the example.

- Indians shake their head vertically from right to left. It’s doesn’t mean “No”, but, “Yes, I’m listening to you, continue!”

- The relation with time is completely different, the Indians give the feeling that they are out of touch with reality. It is important to not take too seriously an Indian promise to do something, consider it just as a will, a good intention to do and not a real and strong commitment.

- It is usual to see young people going to disco at 2 o’clock…in the afternoon to back home for 8pm; otherwise, they spend their time in malls, fast-foods or in gardens playing cricket.

- In Europe if you see a man holding the hand of an other man, you would think that they are gays and you would probably have reason. In India, it’s common to see boys holding hand of an other boys, sometimes you would see a boy laying on the grass with his head on the legs of an other boy. Don’t think that India if full of gays!

- Indians show only few signs of anger during conflits, so try to be also calm in case of disagreement. Raise the tone only if your speaker has bad intentions toward you. Raising tone has the goal to attract the attention of people around you, if your speaker is wrong, he would quickly try to find a solution to avoid drawing attention of the busy.

And to conclude, when you cross a road, remember that the right of way is always for vehicles!!!

(Others tips about India soon)

Karim restaurant born in 1913 is probably the most famous in Delhi for it’s most non-veg food.
Situated near (60 meters) the gate n°1 of Jama Masjid, Karim has severals restauration rooms one next the other, it’s a good thing and the feeling of crowd is less visible.

GATE n°1 of Jama Masjid

Here are the menu with prices of Karim (Old Delhi)

Prices of May 2008

The preparations of the food

The restaurant is clean, quick to serve, but few meals need time to be cooked (20 min). The staff would inform you.
The served food is Hallal but we regret the little choice of drinks and sweets.
Sunday is a quiet day to eat at Karim’s; avoid Friday due to the crowd provoked by the prayer of the Friday midday, in Jama Masjid.

An end of a lunch at Karim Hotels (restaurant)

Geographic position of the original Karim Hotels (Restaurant) of Delhi. There are severals others Karim Hotels (Restaurants) in Noida, Gurgaon, Delhi: Kailash Colony, Malviya Nagar, Preet Vihar and Nizamuddin.

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A big thanks to Ramazan for the informations and photos