Hala's Holi
Young girl,
On this day of Holī
—Your breasts dusted with flour,
Your eyes red from too much liquor,
A lotus stuck in your hair
And mango shoots behind your ears—
You are a credit to our village.
History
![Sabu (Still from "The Thief of Baghdad") (Source: allstarpics (Sabu gallery))](https://trivia.serendip.in/sites/trivia.serendip.in/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/image_primary/sabu_genie.jpg?itok=xha3RKeo "Sabu (Still from "The Thief of Baghdad") (Source: allstarpics (Sabu gallery))") |
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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?
Whitman's Gita and the Herald
When the first edition of the American poet, Walt Whitman’s, Leaves of Grass was published in 1855, Ralph Waldo Emerson commented that it read like “a mixture of the Bhagavat Ghita [sic] and the New York Herald”.
100 cow man-price
In Vedic times, if you killed a man, you had to offer 100 cows as restitution.
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.
Locusts in The Punjab
The East Punjab Agricultural Pests, Diseases and Noxious Weeds Act 4 reads,
In the event of any area being invaded, or in danger of an invastion, by locusts, the Collector of the district or other officer authorised by him in this behalf may call upon any male person not below the age of 14 years resident in the district to render all possible assistance in carrying out preventive or remedial measures and in the destruction of locusts …
IPC Section 125 on Asiatic Powers
Section 125 of the Indian Penal Code reads,
Whoever wages war against the government of any Asiatic Power in alliance or at peace with the government of India or attempts to wage such war, or abets the waging of such war, shall be punished.
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