Jaipur- An education hub not only a tourist destination

Today, as I was interacting with somebody, it came to my realization that, may be the country as a whole has wrong impression about my favourite city, Pink City-Jaipur, and that the state as a whole has been rated much below its development and further potentials of development.

So, I thought to take a bit of your time to clarify a few things about it.

Firstly, when people talk about Rajasthan, they always think lof deserts, camels etc. But I would like to point out that do we associate mountains and an extremely cold climate, when we talk about West Bengal, because it has got mountains in Darjeeling? No, because, Darjeeling consisting of mountains is a place far away from Kolkata, surrounding which West Bengal has grown. The mountains and the cold are far away from the center of the state. Similarly Rajasthan has grown around places like Jaipur, Kota etc, and the desert is far away from the growth of the state.

If you draw a picture of mountains, a busy city life, cars and shopping malls all around, then believe me, Jaipur is exactly the same. A BUSY CITY LIFE with development all around, much better than many other places of the country.

The city gives you additional joy of the most beautiful palaces and historical sites in Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, traveling on camels, etc.

If you stay in Jaipur, you cannot avoid the most beautiful and the most well developed shopping malls. You cannot avoid McDonald's, KFC, Domino's, Pizza Hut, you cannot avoid Ola/Uber services, smart phone usage all around, nor can you avoid a camel ride in the evening, and strolling in front of palaces, getting the total heritage feeling.

And if you talk about heat, which metro city is spared from it? If I compare with my other favourite city Kolkata, when you return home from office after a long journey in a bus, you have drained all your energy with the perspiration. But in Jaipur, you just need to avoid the sun. As far as staying within the house in the evening is concerned, you don't need to switch on your AC and not even the fan to enjoy comfort. There’s enough wind to comfort you. It’s only the Sun that you need to avoid. Believe me, rest is, as I said, comfort.

As people say, "Jaisa Desh, Waisa Bhesh", in Kolkata, you need to take glucose water (the saline water) to maintain the salt level, similarly, in Jaipur, to prevent yourself from the Sun, you need to have chhaas (buttermilk), which keeps you healthy.

Jaipur is home to many education institutions which includes State/Private Universities and few renowned Engineering and Management colleges. It has been an education hub for students across the country. Student from Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujrat and of course other parts of Rajasthan contribute to the student population in the city. The city is said to have 50% of student population from other parts of the country.

Rajasthan with over seven crore population, has given several industrialists and professionals to the country. To further boost the potential of its people the Government of Rajasthan clearly laid the vision to create 15 lakh jobs in the next 5 years, along with the vision to accelerate the growth rate in the state to 10% to 12%.

Jaipur was already a business hub of Northern India. With people from all over the country going to Jaipur for studies, today it has become an education hub also.

And don't forget Kota. If Rajasthan would really have been such an uncomfortable place to stay, would people from all over India have gone to Kota (where temperature is always a degree or two higher than Jaipur) only in search of education, in search of a place in the IIT/JEE coaching to study, neglecting all other places around the country.

If you are searching for good education, then there cannot be a place better than Jaipur. A place where there is no political disturbance, no goons to threaten you here and there, a place to give you a busy life when you need it, a place which would give you the country's heritage to enjoy any time you need, a place which would give you the mountains and the lakes for a relaxing tour, and the most comfortable evening for studies.

I am sorry for writing so long to those very people, who have taken the pain to read this long, but I really felt, I should clarify. Nobody told me to become the brand ambassador of Rajasthan, but I believe that if you love something, you should defend it, when people have wrong impression.

I would only end by saying that we may not have noticed, but my favourite Pink City has silently grown as both business and education hub, and there’s much more to come.

About the Author:

Prof. Dr. Biswajoy Chatterjee is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Engineering & Management (UEM), Jaipur. He completed his Ph.D. from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Agartala specializing Nano-Science and Nano-Technology.