Pink city is well known for its exceptionally beautiful locations, cultural sites, astonishing palaces and a few more tourist spots. But this city is fairly preserving some unique and old tradition for the explorers. It can be seen through these  unique 3 museums.

Dolls Museum

Location: Near Albert Hall, JLN Marg

It has a wide range of attractive dolls. In the same way the Dolls Museum is the most striking destination of the city Jaipur which is located nearby Albert Hall, at Trimurti Circle. Built in the 1974 this museum presents culture and tradition of various places through the colourful dolls which will take everyone back into their childhood.

Every museum is special and particularly this place is much interesting as it is filled with dolls and puppets in various bright and amazing attires. This is an attractive museum, which holds an impressive collection of figurines and puppets which are of various states and regions. The fascinating collection of toys belonging to other countries and culture grab the attention of several travelers. Visiting this mesmerizing location will be a memorable experience as one can see various dolls in traditional apparels of numerous states. Along with the Indian state dolls there are a few alluring puppets that belong to different nations. A few stunning dolls are seen in attires resembling the national dress of different countries, bridal wear, dancing costumes and other glamorous apparels. This museum preserves numerous beautiful dolls and puppets which are extremely beautiful and visiting this magnificent Doll Museum will surely be a delightful experience for every traveler.

Turban Museum

Location: Kukas Road

One of the premier tourist attractions in the city, the Jaipur Turban Museum houses the largest collection of turbans in the world.

The turban is known to be a must for the men of Rajasthan. There are two categories of turbans. The ten-meter long Safa is tied everyday. It is said to be the symbol of a man’s personality, his position and ancestry. The 22-meter long Pag is tied once and worn till it needs a wash. A trip of the Turban Museum in Jaipur reveals that the turbans are still very much in use in the inner parts of Jaipur and Rajasthan as a whole. In fact, in many places it is considered to be bad etiquette to come out of the house without a turban.

The Jaipur Turban Museum has all kinds of turbans in thousands of color combinations. Made of a variety of fabrics, different turbans are used for different occasions.

Bright colors signify birth of a child, or marriage in the family. Dark colors mean there’s been a death. In fact, you can become a laughing stock if you wear the wrong kind of turban at a wrong place.

Museum of Hand Printing

Location: Anokhi Haveli, Near Badrinath Temple, Kheri Gate, Amber

This museum is a must visit for all the craft & block print lovers. Anokhi Museum houses the world’s best block painting garments and is a cultural endeavor of Anokhi clothing brand. This museum exhibits the oldest art form of Rajasthani art at its very best. Detailed explanation about every cloth is mentioned along with the quality of fabric and various other details.

Anokhi Museum holds a UNESCO certification and houses more than a hundred garments. The main purpose of this museum is to promote the oldest art form of Rajasthan. Other then the exhibits, the Museum organizes various educational programs and workshops to focus on various aspects of this ancient craft. There are various demonstrations related to block carving, print making, and block carving, etc. for all the visitors on a daily basis.

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A museum is a place where one should lose one’s head. On the same note, Jaipur wax museum with 32 lifelike wax exhibits, is enthralling its visitors. Wax museum in Jaipur segregates its attractions based on different themes and displays it in the arsenal and warrior’s rest area sections of the Nahargarh Fort.

Einstien ki PaathShala

As soon as you enter the museum, a full height statue of Albert Einstein stands there. Einstein’s statue looks an exact replica of the great scientist and you feel like talking to it. The first section of the museum also features a three-wheeled and ten feet long bullet bike called ‘Gati Gamini’ which is symbolic of  Rajasthan Tourism.

Hall of Icons 

Museum tour begins at the ‘Hall of Icons’ where visitors can experience the walkway of Rajpath which starts from India Gate and ends at President House. Every effort has been put to make this Rajpath real with  the use of Zebra crossing and lamp posts and divider lines. Along with the set up of Rajpath, visitors can see the clippings from the newspapers of 1947 declaring India as a free nation. Another attraction is that this walkway has been bedecked by the lifelike statues of Mahatma Gandhi at Dandi protest, Rabindranth Bose in his kala Bhawan, Bhagat Singh and Sachin Tendulkar at one side and their pictures and quotes by the other side. The walkway is like a trip down to the memory lane.  Further it leads visitors to the President house where the statue of our Missile Man APJ Abdul Kalaam Azad greets you. Each exhibit is mesmerizing with a detailed backdrop of intricately designed sets and display of nuances in a relatable manner.

Poetess & Astronaut:- Kalpana Chawla

Next in line, stands a big Rocket with ever smiling statue of Kalpana Chawla who was the first Indian woman astronaut from India. Very few know that she was a poetess herself and some of her best poems have also been mounted on the wall near her wax statue. Clad in an orange space suit she welcomes visitors where they can read her biography called, ‘The Edge of Time’. This hall is further adorned by the statues of Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Chan, Micheal Jackson, Messi, Saina Nehwal and MC Marykom.

Nobel Prize winners

Special attraction has been made by a separate display of two Nobel Prize winner viz. Mother Terasa and 14^th Dalai Lama. What welcomes you is the strip of Tibetan Buddhism prayer flags and chanting of Buddhist’s prayers along with the wallpapers of Monasteries and Himalayas. 

Royal Darbar

A museum in Jaipur can’t be imagined without the touch of royalty. The ground floor of the Vishraamghar (warrior’s rest area) within the Nahargarh Fort has been re-designed to resemble a royal courtroom from the 18th century. Aptly named The Royal Darbar, this grand courtroom displays wax and silicon statues of lineage of Rajasthan’s royal families. Visitors are also welcome to enjoy other features like traditional paintings, antique artifacts, a royal buggy and interactive statues. Lifelike statues of Maharani Gayatri Devi, Sawai Jai Singh, Sawai Ramsingh amaze with their brilliant affluence.

The Royal Darbar also holds a special exhibit called ‘The Journey of the Jaipur Gemstone.’ Follow the evolution of these precious heirlooms showcased in a display of real gems at the JWM.

Kids section

Kids can meet their favorite characters like Spiderman, Ironman, Doraemon and Nobita. With a flashy and striking display of statues, this section attracts to experience a slice of your favorite icons’ life and make memories with their wax and silicon sculptures displayed in the most relevant and relatable settings.

Palace of Mirrors

Grab your chance to be ‘The One Minute Maharaja’ – this is your shot at experiencing a life of royalty in full costume and real lifelike settings. The grandest exhibit of museum has been artfully installed at the top floor of the Vishramghar. This area has been redesigned into a magnificent mirror work splendour – The Sheesh Mahal which has Thikri mirror work, a craft that dates back many centuries. This mirror work has been put together by over 100 skilled craftsmen working day and night and displays nothing less than 2.5million glass pieces to create spectacular optical illusions. With gem artwork, stunning crystal chandeliers and other precious trinkets this ‘Palace of Mirrors’ is a sight to behold!

The brain and main of the museum is Anoop Srivastava, owner of Entertainment 7 Ventures Pvt. Ltd. who laid the intellectual foundation for this project with the Pink City Film Festival in 2006. Encouraged by the response and armed with the dream of creating a one-of-its-kind museum, Srivastava teamed with the sculptor Susanta Ray. A skilled team of technicians, designers etc. restored the fort and the interiors were adapted to create an attraction that would add yet another crown jewel to Jaipur tourism.

Quick Facts:

Location- Nahargarh Fort

Distance- about 14 km from Railway station & 20 km from Airport

Hangout-The Open Air restaurant at Nahargarh Fort

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The book is a biography of Vipul Madhani, CEO of PustakMandi.com and his journey to the top Despite many failures he doggedly pursued his dream of building a successful business enterprise. He had to undergo many traumas in life besides suffering major financial losses. But he never gave up and finally came up with an idea of an online book store dealing in affordably priced second hand books in 2015. Dixit narrates the story of the man’s progress from rags to riches in a lucid manner.

She paints a picture of an ordinary man living an ordinary life in a joint family living in a big old house with all the inheritance, orthodox traditions, religious dogmas, family disputes et al and the career-oriented dreams of a young man that are churned amidst mind-boggling dilemmas of life and love. Happily, he overcomes all the hurdles to realise his dream. The book sheds light on how Vipul suffered, besides emotional traumas, a whopping loss of Rs. 3 lakh in initial startups and then launched Pustakmandi with only Rs. 750. Today, the company is valued in millions.

The idea behind the success of Pustakmandi.com is simplicity itself. People often visit vendors to sell their books without realizing that they are spending more than what they get from selling their old books. Pustakmandi is the only e-commerce site where anyone can sell their books just by sitting at one place without spending any extra penny. Pustakmandi deals with only books under various categories where reader have flexible options for buying the books and can buy used books at very low prices as well.

The theme of book is that depression caused by failures can be transformed into strength only if one wants to deal with it positively, and knows how to turn the table on all the twists in life. This has been highlighted by incidents of Vipul’s life including his father’s failed business, his own failures and his failed love life. His early life wasn’t a bed of roses either; his family had to face scarcity after the initial loss in the family’s business and his mother had to sell her jewellery to pay school fees. They also had to leave their ancestral mansion to shift into a small home. What made him determined and risk everything for his business idea were the depressing life events like his father losing faith in chasing dreams after losses in businesses and his brother’s choice of a stereotypical path of having a staid life with a permanent job.

The book invokes stories of friendship, patch-ups and breakups that happen in school or college. These are the things that one can learn from, like Vipul did, who saw multiple relations and breakups but didn’t succumb to any emotional break out rather bounced back to life even harder. When his love Ridhima, who was about to be his life partner and was an inspiration behind the Pustakmandi, left him and married someone else under family pressure, he was shattered for a while but revived himself and started working again for the success of his business. This time he wanted to do it for Ridhima as because of her love he was able to execute this idea and now he didn’t want to leave it incomplete.

He expresses, through the book, his gratitude to Jaipur for the things that I taught him. He spent some of his worst as well as best days here and the most important thing that he learnt here is the importance of difficulties and depression in life which makes you rise above your realm. This book is proof that a CEO is someone who has learned from his/her failures, heartbreaks and achievements. It’s not just a title given to someone who runs a business but someone who knows how to tackle challenges without giving up.

About the Author: 

Pakhi Dixit hails from Jhansi district and is pursuing her Bachelor degree in Technology at Manipal University, Jaipur. Her dream is to become a better poetess and a short story writer.

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Namita’s new novel ‘Things to Leave Behind’, is a rich, panoramic historical novel set in Kumaon, in Nainital, Almora and Sat Tal, in the years 1842 to approximately 1912. The novel is about many things, colonialism and history and a first fragile modernity in a society steeped in tradition. These are the days of Firangi Raj, of Upper Mall Road (for Europeans and horses) and Lower Mall Road (for dogs, servants and other Indians). Readers follow the inter-twined story of spirited Tillotama Uprety, whose uncle is hanged during the ‘Mutiny’, her troubled daughter Deoki, missionary Rosemary Bodden and Deoki’s husband Jayesh Jonas into Bodden’s Utopian Eden Ashram, where artist William Dempster seeks out new Indians.

At the heart of it, is a tangled love quadrangle and a painting, and the indomitable spirit of Pahari women. “The main protagonist, however, is Kumaon, in its history, people and landscape, the Kumaon where author grew up and which she continue to inhabit through her books and dreams. The book might have intellectual roots but it is, at heart, a love story and the narration is amusing.

‘Things to Leave Behind ‘ chronicles the mixed legacy of the British Indian past and the emergence of a fragile modernity. Illuminated with painstaking details, told with characteristic narrative skill, this compelling historical novel is Namita’s most ambitious work yet. According to Namita, though her book concentrates on the lives of several Kumaoni women, it is not just a woman’s book.

She points out the tendency of readers to assume that all books written by women have to be about women and women’s lives. She connected this to the practice of labeling women who write as ‘Women Writers’, whereas men who write are simply called ‘Writers’. Set in a period of numerous difficulties, the book is able to remind the present internet-bred generation about the travails of the days of yore and the battles fought for the freedom they enjoy. She emphasized that the book might be based on historical events but it’s ultimately about the characters rather than the history.

Namita has a stealthy knack of almost whispering in your ear as you read along. The book is also a personal story of the way that the caste system in India and by extension, race and class systems everywhere imprisons the humanity of those within them. This is doubly true for women who are supposed to reproduce that hierarchy. Reading about this past will help us question its echoes in our own present.

The title of the novel was originally the title of a packing list. Over a month at Lake Como on a fellowship, Gokhale had accumulated more “stuff” than she could carry back to India. While packing, she drew up a list of things she could abandon in Italy. “It sounds like some deep thought went into it, but I came up with the title in a very silly way. I was working on the book at the time,” she says. While researching the history setting for her novel, she discovered that while historical figures have transformed in public memory, little has actually been left behind. “I was shocked to find everything just the same, everything is so familiar,” she says.

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