There is so much love in the air...(part two)

I was surprised to see that the ticket rates for Indians were Rs/-5 per head and Rs/-100 for the foreign visitors. I wonder how relevant it is with the policy of promoting tourism. Anyway, we can leave this to policy makers and proceed inside the observatory where a plush ground awaits us with a variety of beautiful flowers. Green grass covers this ground as a green carpet with brown patches where grass has turned brown as it was dried up. There were signboards requesting the visitors not to walk on grass or pluck flowers. But as usual I saw my fellow countrymen, defying all the signboards, enjoying their share of mellowed sunshine in wintry afternoon, lying on the grass. On moving forward, I saw those tremendously built structures, which at one time were great instruments of astronomical calculations. Today its condition is so pathetic that Sawai Raja Jai Singh, the man who built this extremely intelligent piece of astronomical science, must be turning in his grave. Its dilapidated state is an issue of concern to the authorities. This model of astronomical science can be maintained if they once resolve to do it. I was wonder struck to see those astronomical structures but there was nobody to explain how they were used to observe the planetary movements. Visitors need some help to understand these structures and their functioning, but it seems the authorities believe every visitor is a scholar of astrophysics or astronomy.

continued in two more posts...