Mulligatawny memories
Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is wiser not to stir them.
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Quotable quotes
Goethe on Kalidasa's Shankutala
Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms and the fruits of its decline
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed?
Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine?
I name thee, O Śakoontalá! and all at once is said.
The principle of position and the unknown Hindu
When viewed in this light, the achievement of the unknown Hindu who some time in the first centuries of our era discovered the principle of position assumes the proportions of a world-event. Not only did this principle constitute a radical departure in method, but we know now that without it no progress in arithmetic was possible.
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Did you know?
Beer and the Butcher
Reginald Dyer, the Butcher of Amritsar, of Jallianwala Bagh infamy, was the youngest son of one Edward Dyer, the man often credited with establishing India's first successful brewery at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. It would eventually become Mohan Meakin Breweries.
Akbar The Great
Akbar, the greatest of the Mughals, could not read or write and was possibly also dyslexic.
A girl named Nanda Devi
After his first glimpse of Nanda Devi in 1948, the American mountaineering pioneer, Willi Unsoeld, dreamt of having a daughter named after the peak. 28 years later, his daughter, Nanda Devi Unsoeld, perished while climbing her namesake.
Bahadur and Ella
The person credited with discovering legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald was a Bardu Ali, his name a corruption of Bahad(o)ur Ali. He was the son of a peddler from Bengal who had settled in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century.
The Holy Samosa
In 2011, Somalia's Islamic terrorist group, al-Shabaab, banned the humble samosa apparently because its triangular shape supposedly resembled the Christian Holy Trinity.
Manipur's Anal Tribe
There is a tribe named Anal in Manipur who speak the Anal language.
Teapoy
A tea-poy has very little to do with tea. It was originally the name for an Indian three-footed, i.e., a tī-pāī table which could be used for many things including serving tea.
Panchen = Great Pandit
The Panchen in Panchen Lama is a portmanteau of the Sanskrit pandit and the Tibetan chenpo (meaning great).
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