Paul Erdos has passed on to us Hardy's personal ratings of mathematicians. Suppose that we rate mathematicians on the basis of pure talent on a scale from 0 to 100, Hardy gave himself a score of 25, Littlewood 30, Hilbert 80 and Ramanujan 100.
Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Asoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star. From the Volga to Japan his name is still honoured. China, Tibet, and even India, though it has left his doctrine, preserve the tradition of his greatness. More living men cherish his memory to-day than have ever heard the names of Constantine or Charlemagne.
If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali — a collection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each may not mix with the next, but they combine on your palate to produce a satisfying repast.
Bangalore's NIMHANS has a Brain Museum (officially the Neuropathology Museum) which boasts a collection of 300 brains.
Griddhraj Parvat or Vulture Peak in Madhya Pradesh was the final destination of the classic Chinese epic, Journey to the West. Hieun Tsang and his companions travel from China to a temple on Vulture Peak to retrieve Buddhist sutras in order to enlighten their country.
John Coltrane, the legendary jazz saxophonist, had a son named Ravi who was named after Pandit Ravi Shankar. Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist.
T.S. Eliot's bleak poem, The Waste Land, ends with Shantih shantih shantih. The word, according to him, can be feebly translated to the Peace which passeth understanding.
India's first talkie was Alam Ara (1931) starring Zubeida, who, as the daughter of the Nawab of Sachin, was a princess in real life. The film is now lost.
Dams are sometimes referred to as the temples of modern India. This epithet stems from a speech delivered by Nehru during the opening ceremony of the Bhakra Dam where he said, "This dam has been built with the unrelenting toil of man for the benefit of mankind and therefore is worthy of worship. May you call it a Temple or a Gurdwara or a Mosque, it inspires our admiration and reverence".
The Ganges River Dolphin is essentially blind as its eyes lack lenses. It uses echolocation to locate its prey and uniquely swims sideways.
Some Indian languages have chosen to name the planet Uranus, Prajapati, after the Hindu/Vedic Creator persona. Some prefer the term Harshal, an Indianisation of Herschel. Uranus was discovered by William Herschel in 1781 and named after the Greek god of the sky, father of the Titans, and grandfather of the Greek pantheon.