"Jaipur Tab aur Ab"

With Kalanath Shastri, Govind Shankar and Raghunath Prasad Tiwari

This week Jaipur flagged off its 286^th Foundation Day week and to mark that Rajasthan Forum is organising an interactive session of intellectuals, historians, linguists and cultural bigwigs called “Jaipur Tab aur Ab” (Jaipur then, and now) at the ITC Rajputana in association with Jaipur Virasat Foundation and Siyahi.

It was an interactive session and a nostalgic walk down memory lane, of how things were in bygone era in the Pink City. Among the august gathering were linguists Kalanath Shastri, Raghunath Prasad Tiwari, Govind Shankar Sharma and senior journalist Praveen Chabbra who participated in the session that began with Shastri ji's opening observations of what the city was in the past and the changes it had undergone over the years.

With Thakurani Jyotika Diggi

He said Jaipur was an ancient and amazing city that found mention is five Mahakavyas in Sanskrit.

Raghunath Prasad Tiwari lamented the fact that the young generation was getting distanced from their rich cultural heritage. He said earlier there used to be community centres at the crossroads that used to buzz with all sorts of social activities like marriages and feasts. He rued that there used to be many playgrounds in the city but the schools, these days, had become sheer commercial ventures.

With Ms Doorva Sharma 

Govind Shankar Sharma talked about the various kunds or water bodies of Jaipur namely Radha Kund, Krishna Kund and Saraswati Kund. He elaborated on other water sources like the Mansagar and Jaysagar which used to abound in red lotus and the locals even called it the Red Lotus Forest.

Senior journalist Praveen Chabbra lauded the town planning that was undertaken years ago. He said that there was time when the town would retire indoors at 9 pm with the sound of a canon fire. All shops used to close down by 4 pm he said. He said that was Jaipur was then and today's Jaipur is as we have it.
Vinod Joshi concluded the session thanking everyone. Among those who attended the session were Dharmendra Kanwar, Jyotika and Dev Diggi, Doorva Sharma, Mita Kapur and others. It was a session in which the old Jaipur came live through memories.
Tomorrow I will be going to Delhi for a day for some personal work.
ess bee