Some of the most amazing facts of the beautiful north-east INDIA

• Eight States

• 
  Northeast India comprises eight states – the ‘Seven Sister’ states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, with Sikkim as the eighth state.

• Population
  
  The population of all eight states of Northeast is roughly equal(although greater) to the population of Odisha, India’s 11th most populated state.
  Census 2011:
  North-East- 45,533,982
  Odisha- 41,974,218

• Neck of a Chicken
  Seven states of the Northeast are connected to India via a thin stretch of land known officially as the Siliguri Corridor and popularly as ‘Chicken’s Neck’. The stretch is just 21 to 40 kilometres wide.

• Till 1963, Northeast India consisted of Assam and the princely states of Manipur and Tripura.Nagaland was carved out of Assam in 1963, Meghalaya in 1972, Arunachal Pradesh in 1987, and Mizoram in 1987. Sikkim joined the Indian Union in 1975.
  
  (Check the map below which shows the North-East in 1950)

• One of the largest freshwater lakesIndia’s one of the largest fresh water lakes; the Loktak Lake is situated in the Northeastern state of Manipur, in its Moirang city. The Loktak lake presents a unique sight with its floating Phumdis and is known to be one and only lake of its kind in the entire globe.

• The world’s largest river island, the Majuli and the world’s smallest river island Umananda, both are in the Northeast.

• Asia’s tidiest and cleanest villageThis is one village of the Northeast that all the cluttered, modern Indian cities should be inspired from. Mawlynnong village in the Meghalayan city of Shillong is a small village that enjoys global fame for being the tidiest and cleanest village in the whole of Asia.

• ‘Lou Majaw! You mean India’s Bob Dylan?’ 
  Yes, that is how Lou would best be described. Ask any seasoned aficionado of Western or Indian rock, from India, and the chances are that this is what they will tell you of Lou Majaw.

• India’s ‘Land of Rising Sun’The state of Arunachal Pradesh enjoys the metaphor of India’s ‘Land of rising sun’. It is because Arunachal lying in the country’s extreme east experiences the first golden rays of the rising sun.

• World’s largest tea cultivation
  Our country India enjoys the prestigious 2nd position in terms of the total global tea production and the tea production from Assam may be attributed for this honor that India enjoys in the global tea market.

• World’s wettest placeAt this place you’ll always find the music of flowing water and pitter-patter sound of the rains. Mawsynram in the state of Meghalaya is recognized as the world’s wettest place with a recorded average rainfall of about 12000 millimeters. Mawsynram has found a place in the prestigious Guinness Book of world records for its record rainfall.

• Seven of India’s major national parks are located in Northeast.Prominent among them are Kaziranga and Manas. Do you remember the one-horn rhino of Kaziranga in your GK books?

• Oldest Oil refinery and oil well of the countryAssam’s Digboi Oil refinery and oil well set up in the year 1901 is the oldest advanced oil refinery in the country and enjoys global reputation as the oldest continuously operating oilfield in the whole of the world.

• Mizoram and Tripura are among the states with the highest literacy rates in India.As per Census 2011, Mizoram has a literacy rate of 91.58 per cent while Tripura pegged a very healthy 87.75 per cent. Except Arunachal Pradesh, the literacy rate in all northeastern states is above the national average of 74.04 per cent. The North-East is home to some of India’s finest educational institutes. IIT Guwahati, ISI Tezpur, NIT Silchar and TISS Guwahati are some of the esteemed institutes there.

• The King ChilliThe hottest chilli in the world, the Bhut Jolokia or Raja Mirchi, comes from this region. It’s like the Chuck Norris of spicy food.

• Ahom dynasty was the country’s biggest, undivided dynasty
  
  Ahoms of NE India made an example by ruling over the NE in an undivided manner for 600 years at a stretch. Their ruling period was from 1228-1826 CE.

• The country’s oldest and largest paramilitary force
  The Assam Rifles had been the country’s oldest as well as largest paramilitary force founded in the year 1835. The regimen abides by the motto of ‘Friends of the Hill people and has their headquarters in Shillong.

• The Northeast is the only part of India which the Mughals could not occupy during their reign.Only the British were able to integrate Northeast into their empire.

• Madhuri Lake
  The Shungetser Lake in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang district was unofficially renamed by tour guides as Madhuri Lake after Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit.The song “Tanhai Tanhai” in her 1996 film ‘Koyla’ was shot here.

• The fact that the North East is a thrill seeker’s paradise

Trekking, rafting, angling, you name any adventure sport and they have got it!

• Shillong: The Rock CapitalWith a number of music festivals and concerts by bands as big as MLTR and Scorpions, Shillong has proved to be the India’s Musical Mecca.

• Their impeccable sense of style
  They have always been complimented for carrying off funky fashion trends with much élan. Envious of them, aren’t we?

• Baichung Bhutia, Mary Kom and Dipa KarmakarThese three admirable icons are undoubtedly India’s one of the most endearing contribution to sports.

• Their traditional patterns and motifs

Not only do they proudly wear hand-woven traditional patterns on shawls and jholas, they’ve even made them fashionable and export them to western countries.

• North East – A mix of Tibetan, South-East Asian and East Indian cultureThere are nearly 220 languages spoken in the states of the Northeast. Interestingly, both language and culture of Northeast are a mix of Tibetan, South-East Asian and East Indian culture.

• Heaven for nature loversThe North-East India has been identified as one of the world’s seven richest biodiversity areas by Myers 2000.

• There is no Dowry culture in the Northeast, at least not in anti-feminist way. Now, that’s something which rest of the country needs to learn from them.

• NE India has the country’s biggest monastery
  
  Tawang monastery of Arunachal Pradesh is the country’s biggest monastery. The monastery was set up around 1680-81 by the famed Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso. The monastery is a three storied structure with a 282m long outer enclosure. The monastery comes under the famed Gelukpa school of Buddhism.

• 70 percent of the globe’s Orchid production happens in NE
  
  Orchids, the beautiful ornamental flowers exhibiting a riot of colors are in high demand all across the globe and country. Interestingly enough the land of NE is the contributor of nearly 70% of the globe’s total orchid production.

It is really sad and disappointing that even today, North-east India is often absent from the mainstream media as well as from the majority of Indians’ version of the country’s map. It has been my humble attempt to make people aware of those regions of India, whose even capital cities we are unaware of!

Thanks for reading.

Source:

1. Truly Marvellous Facts About Northeast
2. Amazing lesser known facts about Northeast India

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The connection between Lord Shiva, Sanskrit and Computer languages!

Here’s an amazing one - the connection between Lord Shiva, Sanskrit and Computer languages!

Many of us have seen the Nataraja mudra - Shiva in a dancing pose, where he destroys a weary universe and brings a fresh one alive. It is an image with such amazing symbolism, that even the quantum physicists at CERN love it!

But in addition to the standard symbolic expression, have we wondered what are those 14 objects surrounding the circle, on either side? I mean these -

Well, it turns out there is an interesting story behind it.

The later-day creator of Sanskrit - Panini (पाणिनि) - was a rather dull student at a Gurukul (around the 4th century BC). The Gurumata (the wife of the Guru) advised him to go to the Himalayas to do tapa. He went to the Himalayas and started meditating on Lord Shiva. Pleased with Panini's strong tapa, Lord Shiva came and danced before him . While dancing, the sound from his Damaru was heard by Panini as the Maheshwara Sutrani (माहेश्वर सूत्र or शिवसूत्राणि). Thus, Panini wrote the Maheshwara Sutras and formed the eight chapters of basic Sanskrit grammar Ashthadhyayi.

So, the 14 sounds were -

Using these 14 sounds of the Shiva Sutra

Each of the fourteen verses consists of a group of basic Sanskrit phonemes (i.e. either open syllables consisting either of initial vowels or consonants followed by the basic vowel "a") followed by a single 'dummy letter', or anubandha. From these 14 verses, a total of 281 pratyāhāras can be formed: 14*3 + 13*2 + 12*2 + 11*2 + 10*4 + 9*1 + 8*5 + 7*2 + 6*3 * 5*5 + 4*8 + 3*2 + 2*3 +1*1, minus 14 (as Pāṇini does not use single element pratyāhāras) minus 10 (as there are 10 duplicate sets due to h appearing twice); the second multiplier in each term represents the number of phonemes in each. But Pāṇini uses only 41 (with a 42nd introduced by later grammarians, raṆ=r l) pratyāhāras in the Aṣṭādhyāyī. The Shiva Sutras put phonemes with a similar manner of articulation together (so sibilants in 13 śa ṣa sa R, nasals in 7 ñ m ṅ ṇ n M). Economy (Sanskrit: lāghava) is a major principle of their organization, and it is debated whether Pāṇini deliberately encoded phonological patterns in them (as they were treated in traditional phonetic texts called Prātiśakyas) or simply grouped together phonemes which he needed to refer to in the Aṣṭādhyāyī and which only secondarily reflect phonological patterns.

In this work, Panini created 3,959 rules of grammar for India’s Sanskrit language. This important work is the oldest surviving linguistic book and introduced the idea of metarules, transformations, and recursions, all of which have important applications in computer science. It is the world's first formal system, developed well before the 19th century innovations of Gottlob Frege and the subsequent development of mathematical logic. In designing his grammar, Pāṇini used the method of "auxiliary symbols", in which new affixes are designated to mark syntactic categories and the control of grammatical derivations. This technique, rediscovered by the logician Emil Post, became a standard method in the design of computer programming languages. Sanskritists now accept that Pāṇini's linguistic apparatus is well-described as an "applied" Post system. Considerable evidence shows ancient mastery of context-sensitive grammars, and a general ability to solve many complex problems. Frits Staal has written that "Panini is the Indian Euclid." (Personally, I would say Euclid is the Western Panini).

Incidentally, the first image is a Shiva statue installed at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research). [ CERN ]

Thank you Panini ji!

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What are some interesting facts about India?

1. India has 1650 languages - 30 of which are spoken by more than a million speakers and 122 of which are spoken by more than 10,000. There are 6 distinct language families that go beyond India. In contrast, 95% of Europe comes under a single language family. Most Indians might not know about the Austro-Asiatic Munda languages spoken in the heart of India more related to Vietnamese & Cambodian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mun...), the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in Ladakh, Sikkim and North east and that some Dravidian languages are spoken as far away as Baluchistan.
   
   
2. The whole region of Kashmir was "bought" for a measly 7.5 million rupees in the mid 19th century by the Hindu rulers. It even had a bill of sale.
3. India has 1200 million people. That is more than the combined population of US, Russia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Japan, UK, Germany, Australia, Italy, Spain and New Zealand! In fact, India's population is larger than any other continent in the world, outside Asia.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lis...
4. India has the world's largest attended events. The biggest of which is Kumbha mela of 2001 - attended by 60 million people and was seen from space.   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/scien...
   
   
5. Indian laws make it illegal to carry more than Rs. 5000 in Indian currency out of Indian territory (except Nepal and Bhutan) - http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/FA...
6. India invented the game of Chess.
7. Himalayas are growing taller at a rate of 2.5 cm per year.
8. Although widely accepted and definitely deserved, Mahatma Gandhi is never officially designated as the father of the nation by the Indian government. http://www.deccanherald.com/cont...
9. Indian railways transports 20 million people every day on short and long distance transport.
10. The official name of our country in local languages is Bharat and written as such in all Hindi communications of the government. This name is 1000s of years old and is named after the mythical emperor of Bharat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam...
11. India has the wettest place on Earth - Cherrapunji receiving 463 inches of rain every year. Sometimes its neighbor Mawsynram is also claimed as the wettest place.
    
    
    
12. India's cinema industry is more than US and Canada combined in terms of ticket sales of 3.2 billion per year. And if you include the pirated movie industry, the movie industry is the biggest in the world. 
13. Since its independence in 1947, India has fought 8 main wars - 4 with Pakistan, 1 with China, 1 with Portugal (to take Goa), 1 with Hyderabad Nizam to take the territory into India and 1 in Maldives to restore government rule. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lis...
14. The Kashmir dispute is a tri-party dispute between India-Pakistan-China and 5 distinct territories of Kashmir. Yellow territory has the world's highest mountains - including K2 and integrated into Pakistan, Brown territory is one gifted by Pakistan to China, Blue territory is one India has in its maps but has never ever been into. The Red territory is where all the action is.

INCREDIBLE INDIAN RUPEE

Indian rupee was an official currency of Aden, Oman, Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, The Trucial States (later UAE), Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, The Seychelles, and Mauritius.

Indian Rupee of 1950s

The Indian Government introduced the Gulf rupee (XPGR) in 1959– for circulation outside the country to reduce the strain on India's foreign reserves from gold smuggling. These countries were using it until mid-1960s before they replaced with their own currencies.

Gulf rupee or Persian Gulf Rupee

Source: Indian rupee

Who was India's worst Prime Minister?

There have been many Prime Ministers who single handedly given so much damage to India for which whole country is still paying. Like first PM of India Jawaharlal Nehru, gave Kashmir problem. read his all blunders[1]. Indira Gandhi gave Khalistan problem and Rajiv Gandhi gave LTTE problem.[2][3]

Today the biggest problem of India is Pakistan, no not whole country but Pakistan with nuclear bomb. It is not just problem of India, Pakistan with nuclear weapons is becoming headache of the whole world. Truth is Pakistan does not have a stable government, don't know in near future terrorist like Hafiz saeed could be next Prime Minister of Pakistan. Then directly the key of nuclear bomb will go to hand of terrorist. They can attack India with nuclear weapons anytime and they don't even care about their people's life, if India retaliated.

Do you know who helped Pakistan becoming a nuclear powered country? This man

He is Morarji Desai the 4th Prime Minister of India, served between 1977 to 1979.

The idiotic thigh he did 37 years ago will always a dark spot in nations security as well as history of spying in India.

He was follower of Gandhism and wanted to have peace with neighbours. He wanted to be idol of Gandhism.

In 1977, when a RAW agents were sent to Pakistan to see if Pakistan is developing nuclear weapon in Kahuta. The agents smartly took hair sample of scientist ( who were accused to be developing nuclear bomb) when they came for haircut near the nuclear site in Kahuta. Then the agents sent the hair samples to India where Indian scientist found nuclear radiation in the hair samples. Now it was finally proved that Pakistan is developing nuclear weapons.

When RAW chief Naushervan Framji Suntook went to Morarji Desai to ask his permission to destroy nuclear site of Pakistan with the help of Israel. Desaiclearly refused him. He said it is wrong and will have a bad impact on our relations with Pakistan. Suntook tried to explain him the importance of this but he refused.

But what Desai did after that is very shocking. One day when former President of Pakistan Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and Desai were having telephonic conversation.

Desai revealed the details of RAW network in Pakistan and all success gained by RAW. He told him that Indian secret agency know about nuclear project going on in Kahuta.

And another great blunder of Indian history made by another Indian Prime Minister. All RAW agent were killed immediately.

Because of his Gandhian nature today Pakistan is a nuclear power country and threatens India daily.[4] Pakistan is a totally unreliable country, key of nuclear weapon can even be given to terrorist who totally hate India and ready to drop nuclear bomb on India anytime.

Sources :-

The Great Treachery of Morarji Desai who betrayed his own country and went on to win Pakistan’s biggest Civilian Honor - rightlog.in

When Morarji Desai Betrayed R&AW And Got Indian Spies Killed

How Morarji Desai helped Pakistan become a nuclear state

Footnotes

[1] ✅नेहरू की 5 बड़ी गलतियाँ जिनसे आज भी भारत भुगत रहा है / 5 MISTAKES OF NEHRU

[2] ltte - Google Search

[3] Khalistan movement - Wikipedia

[4] Pakistan threatens to DESTROY India with atomic bomb as nuclear enemies edge towards brink

What are some lesser known/interesting stories in Mahabharata?

After war of kurukshetra.

Whole country celebrated the coronation ceremony of yudhisthira.

After coronation ceremony, Krishna advised yudhisthira “Go and visit your granduncle, seek his blessings and let him share the knowledge and secret of peace”

Death is slowly coming towards bhisma. Bhisma said “give me some water first”

Arjuna immediately shot an arrow on earth and a fountain of water comes out. His thirst satisfied.Bhishma told Yudhishtira, ‘Life is like a river. You can struggle to change its course but ultimately it will go its own way. Bathe in it, drink it, be refreshed by it, share it with everyone, but never fight it, never be swept away by its flow, and never get never be swept away by its flow, and never get attached to it. Observe it. Learn from it.’

Yudhishtira had many questions. Bhishma answered each of them. At one point Yudhishtira asked, ‘Who gets greater pleasure in life? Man or woman?’

‘Not all questions have answers, Yudhishtira. No one knows what you ask, except perhaps Bhangashvana, an ancient king, who was cursed by Indra to turn into a woman. He was the only creature on earth who knew sexual pleasure both as a man and a woman. And only he had children who called him “father” and children who called him “mother”. Only he knows who get greater pleasure.

Finally, Bhishma told the Pandavas about God. ‘Our merits create fortune. Our demerits create misfortune. Merits bring us joy. Demerits bring us sorrow. We are thus fettered by karma. Karma binds us to the material world, compels us to be born and compels us to die. No one can change this, except one. That one is God. Pray to God to cope with the fetter of karma.’

Following this, Bhishma began chanting the thousand names of God. As he mouthed these words, the Pandavas noticed that the sun was now on its northerly course along the horizon. It was time for Bhishma to die.

In Ramayan after death of Ravan Rama told him to share wisdom he learners in his life. In Mahabharat Pandavas asks Bhishma to share his wisdom.

The purpose behind this idea was like wealth knowledge not stay after ones death. It has to be passed on so it won't lost.

What is the typical mentality of the Indian society?

• Engineering is the worst profession in the world at this time

No, Engineering is not a bad profession, it's one of the best profession in the world. Not only at this time it was, it is and it will.

Recently when I was at my village. One person were searching for a guy for his daughter and he asked me about that. I asked what type of boys are you looking for? He said Doctor, Bank PO, ssc but not an engineer. Why not an engineer? He replied: You know very well about these days engineers. I left that conversation because I can't make everything understable to everyone.

An other person asked me why you chose engineering? you should had to choose medical. I chose engineering just because of I was interested in Engineering. I asked him why you didn't say the same thing to your son? No reply.

Now problem comes to unemployment of Engineers. If an engineer is unemployed then it's not the problem of Engineering, it's the problem of engineer. He/she didn't study well- the simple reason of unemployment. Few days back I was solving a problem with one of my batchmate and he were asking me to change KN to N/mm^2. How brother? How you can change the force into the stress. Engineers who are unemployed most of them are engineers just because of Engineering degree and not because of Engineering knowledge.

• If you are speaking English fluently then are the most intelligent person

No, English is not a scale of measurement of intelligence. It's just an another medium of communication just like Hindi,Bhojpuri,Maithili & any other languages. If someone is not speaking English fluently, it doesn't mean that he/she is not good at study and all other things.

It's just what I felt in the society where I am living.

Cheers. :)