Con-naught Place-Heart of
New Delhi
Heart of the city, Con naught Place
Hope, despair, happy white and black face
Circular pathway like life we all trace
Offering history, worship, food, work at one place
Flowers and fragrance of cooking oil
Steel and glass building beside monument made of soil
Porsche parked with bicycle within same mile
Tourist, beggar, British & Colombian making same smile
Hey, I can plant a tree of fruit on this clay
Devotes and executive walking side in same ally
Heart of the city, Connaught Place
Hope, despair, happy white and black face
Poetry By Shailesh Sharma...Feb-2012
With in 2 to 5 Kilometer radius we have temple, shopping, brands, nightclub,
monument, colonial buildings, bank, school, church, hotel and metro station, with
garden on top. It is like city within city.
New Delhi is round shaped,
Connaught place is round shaped, earth is round shaped and our life graph is
round shaped. So we call this location center point of the city.
There are certain places in every city, which makes you feel like in that particular
city. It is like being there and feeling the city, people and weather all together.
As a writer I get so much positive vibes, thoughts and emotions to write about
this place called Connaught Place.
We can find some residents also in this old colonial market place.
I had everything of my fist thing here, means first coffee, restaurant
meal, first jeans pant. This was the only and the first shopping and restaurant
arcade in the city In fact 10 years back New Delhi, doesn’t had multi storey
shopping malls in he city. The best thing about this arcade is that it doesn’t
look like a market place it looks like a city and small town having shops in
the ground floor and offices and restaurants in first floor. This single story
building artiste is so unique with long and wide walking bays makes it like
walking in the green grassed garden.
Shopping arcade, office complex and eating out center of New Delhi.
Connaught place is center of many events and landmark or we can say heart of
New Delhi. Although it has been developed by colonial British Government, it is
a place from where New Delhi gets its attitude, fashion, lifestyle, eating
habits and business.
The best about this commercial location is we can find cloths and food for
every person and every budget any person carry. We can find shirt for 2 dolors
on the street and burger for 50 cent, where as five star hotel can offer cup of
tea for 5 dollars at this same location.
As tourist one can spend whole day here, doing window shopping. Movies,
sitting a park, getting all type of food from street to continental. Shopping
can at the best as we can have almost every global and Indian brand having
sales outlet here.
I will discus in details for the eating out or restaurants in Connaught place,
as it is the oldest place where we can have meal for all over the world. Even
we can find the newspaper from all over the world here at this shopping center.
Named after the British Duke of Connaught, the construction work was
started in 1929 and completed in 1933.
It was a ridge, having long kikar tress and inhabited by jackals, foxes
and pigs. Nearest habitat area were villages named Madhoganj, Jaisingh Pura and Raja Ka Bazaar .
Jantar Manter, was the only building built in 1764 by King of Jaipur.
There was ancient temple, which still a holy place called Hanuman Mandir.
Latitude: 28 degree 37' 35" N. Longitude:
77 degree 13' 5" E of Greenwich. Height above sea level: 695 feet.
SPOTS IN AND AROUND
CONNAUGHT PLACE
Inner Circle (Block: A, B, C, D, E, F)
Outer Circle (Block: G, H, K, L, M, N, P
All roads lead to Connaught Place, which is well connected by bus and metro.24 hours we can find taxi here at this place only. Food is served till midnight at all restaurants.CENTRAL PARK—It is really in center of the Connaught place ,here we can have open air stage ,where we can find good cultural shows all round the year.
METRO CONNECTIONS IS THE BEST
Rajiv Chock Metro station, underground, starts on 3 July2003.
Almost all the metro train in New Delhi passes through Connaught Place. Whether you are coming from Noida, Gurgaon, India Gate, and Airport or Delhi University, will find metro trains to reach.
Cathedral Church of
Redemption
This Church is situated on the
Church road, near Connaught Place, North of Jaipur Column and to the East of
Parliament House at New Delhi. It was designed by a renowned architect
Henry Medd. Its construction started in the year 1927 and it was completed in
1935. It looks very simple from outside and is made of red sandstone. The
interior of the Church is magnificently built.
Palika
Bazaar (Underground) Market in Connaught Place Set up in 1978
IPalika Bazaar market is located between the inner and outer circle of Connaught place, New Delhi. The
whole market is fully air-conditioned and the only underground market in New Delhi.
There are 400 shops crowd together under the lush green grassy square in Connaught Place
Tibetan Market in Connaught Place
Tibetan market is Located along the western side of Janpath from the Imperial Hotel to Connaught Place. The Tibetan Market having little shops selling every possible artifact from all over India. Connaught Place’s bargain market, where it's worth bargaining is Tibetan Market (on Janpath).
Jantar Mantar
Built
in 1724. Located near Connaught Place, New Delhi, Jantar Mantar has among the
many observatories built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur. Consists of tools
used to keep track of celestial bodies. Jai Singh, after having found the
existing astronomical instruments too small to take appropriate measures built
these larger and more accurate instruments.
Hanuman
Mandir
This Temple
is situated on Baba Kharak Singh Marg near Connaught Place at New Delhi. It
was constructed by Maharaja Jai Singh of Jaipur in 1724. Its design is of
typical Hindu Temple architecture.
The Imperial Hotel
The Imperial Hotel is a five star luxury hotel located in Janpath (the erstwhile Queensway), Connaught Place. The Imperial was designed in 1933 by Bromfield, one of Sir Edwin Lutyen's associates. The Imperial is a legendary hotel showcasing the rich old culture of Connaught Place.
State Emporia at Connaught Place
Within a kilometer from Connaught Place is Baba Khaak Singh Marg a road having the number of state-emporia? The emporia are state government-run boutiques one for each state of India selling the traditional offerings of the state. It is an art gallery type shops, selling the craft of particular state, some also sell food items, so here we can find almost every thing from states, means we can feel the all cultures of other pars of country.
Agarsen ki Baoli—Address---Hailey Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi
Protected monument by Archeological Survey of India (ASI), Agarsen ki Baol in Connaught Place is a 60 meter long and 15 meter wide historical step well on Hailey Road near Connaught Place. you have can reach Jantar Mantar (at Connaught Place) and from there go towards Kasturba Gandhi Marg. Agarsen ki Baoli is a 14th Century Structure,today finds palce between the multi-storey buildings of Connaught Place. It is believed that this Baoli was originally built by the legendary king Agrasen during the Mahabharat epic era. Baoli is a Hindi word and it means a step well. Agarsen ki Baoli is being made to offer constant water supply to the city and the travelers. Agarsen ki Baoli is also a water reservoir that is known for its heritage value.
FROM
WIKI-----
Plans to have a central
business district were as the construction of the new capital of Imperial India
started taking shape, mooted by W.H. Nicholls, the chief architect to the Government of India, who planned a central plaza based on
the European Renaissance and Classical style. However Nicholls left India in
1917, and with Lutyens and Baker busy working on larger buildings of the capital, it was
Robert Tor Russell, chief architect to the Public Works Department (PWD), Government of India who eventually designed the
plaza.
Named after, The Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught (1850–1942), third son of Queen Victoria and uncle of King George VI, Connaught Place's Georgian architecture is modeled after the Royal Crescent in Bath, England, who visited India in 1921 and laid
the foundation of the Council House (now Sansad Bhavan, or Parliament House). It was designed
by the architect John Wood the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774.
Though while Crescent is semi-circular and three storied largely residential
structure, Connaught Place had only two floors, almost makes a complete circle
and was planned to have commercial establishments on the ground with
residential area on the first floor.
The circle was eventually planned with two concentric
circles, creating Inner Circle, Middle Circle and the Outer Circle and seven
radial roads, around a circular central park. As per the original plan, the
different blocks of Connaught Place were to be joined from above, employing
archways, with radial roads below them, but the circle was 'broken up' to give
it a grander scale. Even the blocks were originally planned to 172 meters high,
but later reduced to present two-storied structure with an open colonnade.
Government’s plans to have the New
Delhi Railway Station to be built inside the
Central Park was rejected by the Railways as it found the idea impractical,
instead it chose the nearby Paharganj area. Finally the construction work
began in 1929, as principal construction of the Viceroy House (present President's House), Central Secretariat, Parliament House, and All-India War Memorial, India Gate was winding down and was complete by
1933, much after the inauguration of the city in 1931.
It is
my pleasure to write a book in whole on Connaught Place and surrounding. Really
it is nostalgic to think and visit this place hope when reader of this article
visits this location, must feel the same.
I can
write 100 poetry, Songs books on this location. I have mentioned some spots of
this place, which have 1000 of spots to enjoy and reconnect with life in
positive manner.
So
keep walking any time of the day in Connaught Place.
By
Shailesh Sharma
CP,NEW
DELHI FEB 2012
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