ΜΑYO COLLEGE

AS THE ICONIC SCHOOL IN AJMER RESTORES ITS OLD BUILDINGS AND ADDS NEW ONES, IN A PROJECT LED BY ALUMNUS AND AD100 ARCHITECT ABHIMANYU DALAL, AD VISITS ITS SPRAWLING 200 ACRE CAMPUS WITH SPECTACULAR ARCHITECTURE IN THE INDO-SARACENIC STYLE AND A REMARKABLY UNIQUE CULTURE ANCHORED IN ΒΟΤΗ HISTORY AND MODERNITY.

- ANJALI PURI

A peacock taking flight before your eyes and perching on a graceful 19th-century chhatri (domed pavilion); an illuminated clock tower framed against a dark, craggy hill, watching over you like a diligent chowkidar as you stroll at dusk after a dramatic sunset. There are many catch-your-breath moments at Mayo College, where 750 boys receive an education on a magnificent 200-acre campus. But for sheer unexpectedness, there is nothing to beat your first sight of the Kangra amphitheatre.

You first see a soaring rotunda, held up by stone pillars, its metal trellis in a chakra (wheel) pattern casting dramatic shadows on the ground, and immense outer walls of pink-beige sandstone shimmering in the afternoon sun. They invite you into a large circular space dominated by a stage ringed by row upon tiered row of stands. There is an irresistible feeling of being somewhere else-ancient Rome or Greece maybe, or an international performance venue-rather than in Ajmer, a city of about 600,000 people lying at the base of the Aravalli hills in central Rajasthan, until your eyes fall, and linger, on delicate stone jalis with their unmistakably Rajasthani floral and geometric patterns.