CHITRAKOOT FALLS: NIAGARA FALLS OF INDIA

#ashokasays Did you know 107:

We have known about the beauty of Niagara falls.. its elegance, massiveness etc.. But have you ever heard about Chitrakoot falls?

Located elegantly amidst dense forests, Chitrakoot Falls could be your best bet if you are planning an outing in nature’s lap. Its located west of Jagdalpur, in Bastar district of Chittisgarh State.

Falling from a height of 95 ft, the gushing waterfalls would surely take your breath away with their alluring scenic beauty. Located right in the middle of the Vindhya ranges, the breath of the falls depends on the season, narrowing down during the peak summer months when the water level goes down, and increasing to massive proportions during monsoons. The waters during this time are very violent and not approachable.  Also known as The Niagara Falls of India, Chitrakoot waterfalls look all the more appealing during monsoons with rain kissed leaves and soothing greenery all around.

During the winter months, the scenic beauty of this place is especially beautiful. There are boats which take you right up to the falls. And if the angle of the sun is right, you can even enjoy a colourful display of double rainbows.

Visit the falls once..

INCREDIBLE BHARATHA..

 

DABBAWALLAS

#ashokasays Did you know 106:

Dabbawallas..

About 125 years back, when a Parsi banker wanted to have home cooked food regularly in office and gave this responsibility to Mr. Mahadeo Havaji Bache. Other people also liked the idea and the demand for Dabba delivery soared, thus marking the beginnings of the Dabbawalas.

Mr. Mahadeo Havaji Bache was the one who started it and Mr. Dhondiba Medge was the first chairman of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust of Mumbai, a Dabbawala cooperative which launched in 1954.

1. Dabbawallas are not employees!
Each dabbawalla is an entrepreneur and an equal share holder in the Dabbawalla Trust

2.Dabbawallas' is a flat organisation.
Yet there is a team lead for every 25-30 dabbawallas, chosen from the team, by the team!

3. Strict code of conduct.
Always carry ID, No alcohol, Gandhi topi, NO undercutting

4. 5000 Dabbawallas cover 60 sq.km in & around Mumbai

5.200,000 deliveries 400,000 transactions EVERY DAY!

6.ERROR RATE.. its 1 in 16 million.. Much better than GE..
They give the best management gyaan
It's a day long workshop where you can learn about management techniques, the dabbawala way. i.e. almost zero error! In 2005, IIM-A featured a case-study on the management techniques of the dabbawalas. Later, in 2010, Harvard Business School also conducted their own study on the timely and efficient delivery system of this company.

7.98% on-time..many-to-many combinations

8. They are eco-friendly
With almost 0% paper work and mostly running on trains and bicycles, dabbawalas are not just doing good to Mumbaikars, but nature too! Say NO to motor vehicles, Avoid pollution SAVE COSTS...

9. Equality... 35 clients each. Everyone makes the same money!

10. Their work numbers speak for themselves!
They deliver dabbas at the distance of 75 km, across Mumbai. Their customers consist of 11% students, 15% businessmen, 36% government employees, 38% employees of private sector. Their annual turnover is of Rs. 50 Crores. What's more overwhelming is there are 5,000+ dabbawalas of which only 2 are female.

11. Most Dabbawalas hail from rural Maharashtra...Especially Pune district in Maharashtra and belong to Warkari sect.

12. The Dabbawalas have a unique, fool-proof coding system of delivering Dabbas
They use specific colour codes for source, train station and destination building instead of names.

13. A typical dabbawala's load is about 65 Kilograms
And the fact that they efficiently carry all of this on their heads, in peak hours, is nothing short of a commendable feat.

14.They are now tech-savy!
So much so, they have their own website, a Facebook fanpage and even Flipkart approaching them for last-mile delivery!

After all, they are the ones who deliver a love packed in tiffin everyday

AMAR CHITRA KATHA

#ashokasays Did you know 105:

AMAR CHITRA KATHA:

 
Many of us have grown reading this beautiful set of comics.. Amar Chaitra Katha.. I'm sure many of us were eagerly waiting to get our copy each month and don't know how many times we read over and over. And there is no doubt that it was this set of comics which thought us history and mythology (Even mythology is our history) of this amazing nation apart from our history books..
I'm sure you would like to know some more facts about ACK..

1. ACK was founded by Anant Pai fondly known as Uncle Pai in 1967.  He was shocked that Indian students could answer questions on Greek and Roman mythology, but were ignorant of their own history, mythology and folklore..He wanted to acquaint Indian Children with their heritage and believed. That it would develop their self esteem.

2. But the Outlook magazine in an article also says that The idea and proposal for Amar Chitra Katha was made by a Bangalore book salesman called G.K. Ananthram which led to the first Amar Chitra Katha comics being produced in 1965—in Kannada, not English. “The English ACK titles begin from number eleven because the first ten were in Kannada,” clarifies Ananthram. To Anathram’s satisfaction, the 1965 Kannada ACK venture was a great commercial success which lead to Mirchandani in the head office in Mumbai pursuing the Amar Chitra Katha idea in English diligently, and the rest is history. “They brought in Anant Pai” says Ananthram. “And he built a wonderful team and a great brand.”

3. ACK has sold more than 90 million copies in 20 Indian languages.

4. ACK was the first publication to combine the comics art style with ancient Indian stories.

5. There are totally about 449 issues done so far. Mahabharata is one of their largest ones which is available in a 3 volume of 1300+ page set.

6. The continuous popularity of the comics led to reprints being issued frequently, which ensured that the back-issues remained in print throughout the seventies and the eighties. At the height of its popularity, in the mid-eighties, it had been translated into Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu and selling half a million copies a month. Some titles were also translated into French, Spanish, German, Swahili, Fijian, Indonesian, and Serbo-Croat.

Never the less I feel there is no two thoughts when I say that people who have created these comics and the comics themselves have been a part in shaping today's generation.

INCREDIBLE BHARATHA 

APJ ABDUL KALAM

#ashokasays Did you know 104: 

APJ ABDUL KALAM

 
On this day 27-07-2015, we lost our beloved past people's president Dr.Avul Pakhir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam. Remembering him, I would like to recollect a few facts about this great man.

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam or popularly known as APJ Abdul Kalam is one of the finest personalities India has witnessed. He is a lot more than just a political figure. A scientist, thinker and a youth icon. He is truely “The Missile Man” of India. Here are the lesser known facts about APJ Abdul Kalam.

1. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s father was not formally educated and was into the boat building business, he used to ferry people between Dhanuskodi and his hometown of, Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu.

2. Dr. Kalam is a scholar of Thirukkural (a classic of couplets or Kurals). In most of his speeches, he quotes at least one kural.

3. He has written many books, like Wings of Fire.“Guiding Souls: Dialogues on the Purpose of Life”reveals his spiritual side. He is also a poet. He has written some poems in Tamil also.

4. He graduated from Madras Institute of Technology in Aeronautical Engineering. He was Project Director at DRDO, where he played major role in the development of India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III).

5. He was also chief executive of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme(IGMDP), where he was involved in developing many missiles of India including “Agni” and “Prithvi”.

6. He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development (July 1992 to December 1999). Pokhran-2 nuclear tests were conducted under his leadership.

7. He believes in multiple uses of technologies. He used the light weight carbon-compound material designed for Agni to make callipers for the polio affected. This carbon composite material reduced the weight of the calipers to 400 grams (from its original weight of 4kgs.)

8. On Wednesday April 29, 2009, he became the first Asian to be bestowed the Hoover Medal, America’s top engineering prize, for his outstanding contribution to public service. He has also received honorary doctorates from more than 30 universities, including the Carnegie Mellon University of United States.

9. The Government of India has honoured him with the nation’s highest civilian honours: the Padma Bhushan (1981), Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the Bharat Ratna (1997) for his contribution in ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Government of India.

10. Kalam is the third President of India to have been honoured with a Bharat Ratna before being elected to the chair of President. He is also the first scientist and first unmarried person to become the President of India.

HORN OK PLEASE

#ashokasays Did you know 103:

HORN OK PLEASE

I'm sure most of you have seen this on the rear side of an Indian Lorry/Truck.. You must have surely thought that some person would have done a mistake long time ago and the same has followed on all these years.

Well followed on for sure but blindly.

The phrase "Horn OK Please" that appears on the back of most commercial vehicles has been attributed to multiple possible origins. On theory is that during WW2 trucks were also run on kerosene due to shortage of petrol. Kerosene was so unstable that even a slightest accident could cause the trucks to blow up. Therefore commercial vehicles started painting on its back saying Horn Please, OnKerosene.

Another origin story goes that, most of the trucks in India were manufactured by Tata Group.. Tata Oil Mills came up with a new brand of detergent called "OK". And in order to market their detergent they used the name OK on their trucks.. which has till today followed on..
These are just two and you will find more versions on the internet..

Go and search for it OK?

LAL BAGH, BANGALORE

#ashokasays Did you know 102:

Lal Bhag in Bangalore is one of the must visit places. Its one of the places where you can find hundreds of plant species in one place.
The botanical garden is enriched with numerous native and exotic flora of wide ranging diversity, use and interest. This has been achieved by way of introduction; acclimatization and multiplication of plants obtained from various parts of the world since its inception in 1760. Today, nearly 673 genera and 1,854 species of plants are found in Lalbagh. The collection of the plants has made it a veritable treasure house of plants.

Some of the exotic species introduced from different parts of the world include Agathis sp., Amherstia nobilis, Araucaria sp., Averrhoa bilimbi, Bambusa sp., Bixa orellana, Brownea grandiceps, Castanospermum australe, Cola acuminata, Corypha umbraculifera, Couroupita guianensis, Cupressus sp., Eriobotrya japonica, Magnolia sp., Swietenia mahagoni etc. Indigeneous species such as Artocarpus heterophyllus, Bombax ceiba, Butea monosperma, Cassia fistula , Dillenia indica, Ficus sp., Lagerstromia speciosa, Michelia champaca, Mesua ferrea etc., can be seen. In addition, a number of ornamental and economic plant species both of exotic and indigenous origin can be found in Lalbagh

INCREDIBLE BHARATHA

INDIAN MUMMIES

#ashokasays Did you know 101:

If you thought mummies were to be found only in Egypt, you are mistaken. In a little village called Gue, in Himachal's Spiti district, lays the remarkably well-preserved 500 year-old mummy of Sangha Tenzing, a Buddhist monk from Tibet. It was found in a sitting position, with skin and hair intact. This is probably because, the monk started mummifying himself while he was still alive. Natural mummification, as compared to chemical enbalming, is a complex procedure and is extremely rare. The mummy was discovered after an earthquake in 1975. It is now on display at a temple in Gue.

INCREDIBLE WOMEN OF INDIA

#ashokasays Did you know 100:

Yes I know this is a magic number. 100.. And thank you for being tolerant and reading my posts all these days...

I would like to dedicate this number to the INCREDIBLE WOMEN of this amazing nation. While there are some people yearning for male child ONLY...let this post reach them to show what GIRLS/WOMEN of this nation have done and are a part in contributing to the glory of this nation...
Yes there are Sainas, Mary Koms .. but the small list below is of some lesser known Indian achievers. These women bring us the hope that every girl in India has the potential to achieve whatever she wants to. Take a look.

1. Bhakti Sharma 

She is the first Asian women and the youngest in the world to create a swimming record in the waters of the Antarctic.

2. Arunima Sinha 

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A sports person who is lesser known. She lost her leg in an accident, and despite, managed to climb Mt.Everest.

3. Harshini Kanhekar 

She received the title of India’s first female fire fighter about ten years back. She believes in creating barriers and making history, and has clearly done the same.

4. Puja Thakur

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She became the first officer to lead the Inter-Service Guard of Honour that was inspected by US President Barack Obama. She says she joined the Indian Air Force because of the life she wanted for herself.

5. Rashmi Bansal  


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She is a writer and a youth expert. Bansal has published a total of five books including the very famous 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish.' Her books have receive world wide critical acclaim and have been translated into multiple languages.

6. Dipika Pallikal 

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Whoever thought squash wasn't as popular in India, definitely never came across her. She's the first Indian to enter into the top 10 World Squash Association rankings.

7. Tania Sachdev

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She is really a beauty with brains. Being associated with a non-glamorous sport says a lot already. Sachdev has won titles like Women's Grandmaster in 2005 and International Master in 2008. She has also received the Arjuna award.

MAHINDRA TRACTORS

#ashokasays Did you know 99:

Mahindra is the largest manufacturer of tractors in the world.

Mahindra Tractors, the farm equipment division of Mahindra & Mahindra, builds and sources tractors that are sold worldwide across six continents. In 2010, Mahindra became the number one selling tractor in the world. Mahindra has a huge consumer base in India, China and America and a growing base in Australia. The company builds more tractors in India than any other manufacturer, and has the capacity to build 150,000 tractors a year.

Armed with engineering, tooling and manufacturing know-how gained from this relationship, M&M developed its first tractor, the B-275. Mahindra Tractors with sales of nearly 85,000 units annually is one of the largest tractor companies in the world, and is number one in sales in India - the largest tractor market in the world.

INCREDIBLE BHARATHA

KONKAN RAILWAY

#ashokasays Did you know 98:
There is no second thought in me while saying that... Konkan Railway is an apt and beautiful  ornament to the Western Ghats.

Today the Konkan Railway, wends its fast and safe way through scenic country not despoilt by the pieces of engineering created for it. In fact Konkan Railway is an Indian triumph in many areas: engineering, efficiency, innovation, economy, speed, environmental awareness, public relations, aesthetics and service. A 760 kM rail path, laid on fairly flat rails over rivers and valleys and through mountains and gorges, it was designed and built by Indian engineers in a record time of eight years! It is a feat of civil engineering that the British had contemplated a century ago and but they abandoned the project as being too formidable. But we Indians didn't .. After all we Indians know the ornament making..

Its story is worth telling in some detail.

It was a sweeping challenge and our Government and Railways met its hero in Dr. E. Sreedharan, a veteran railway man known for brisk efficiency. George Fernandes persuaded him out of his retirement and made him the Chairman and Managing Director of Konkan Railway.

Sreedharan faced this 'to-do' list :

~ 760 kM of rails to be laid with little gradient.

~ 2000 bridges to build

~ 92 tunnels totaling 83kM to bore

~ 42,000 landowners to deal with to acquire 4,850 hectares of land

~ 4 state governments to interact with

~ Rs.2250 crores to be raised

~ Life-styles and environment to be least disturbed

Sreedharan and Our Engineers surely succeeded in getting the 'to-do' list to 'DONE' list...

Go on a train ride on konkan Railway.. You will suerly realise that Indian engineering skills is not only excellent but definitely has gone poetic and heroic in the Western Ghats...

NARAYANAN KRISHNAN

#ashokasays Did you know 97:
We see lot of people each day, but few of them leave a mark on our life. There are a few Indian who left a mark on the country for which they will be remembered for a long time. Here is some information on one of the Most Awesome and Craziest Indians.


Narayanan Krishnan born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu is an Indian chef-turned-social worker. He was a bright, young, award-winning chef with a five-star hotel group and short-listed for an elite job in Switzerland. One day when he saw a very old man eating his own human waste for food, he said, "It really hurt me so much. I was literally shocked for a second. After that, I started feeding that man and decided this is what I should do the rest of my lifetime". He then left his job and founded his nonprofit Akshaya Trust in 2003. He is now 31 and has served more than 1.2 million meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) to India's homeless and destitute, mostly elderly people abandoned by their families and often abused. He carries a comb, scissors and razor and is trained in eight haircut styles that, along with a fresh shave, provide extra dignity to those he serves. He won CNN Heroes Award out of 100 countries and 10,000 entries, selected in top 2 of the World.

DOUBLE DECKER BRIDGE

#ashokasays Did you know 96 :
There are some amazing and unusual things in India which is extremely difficult to cover in our lifetime. Take the one below for your knowing ... and try to visit when you can..

You have heard about people building bridges.. Did you know they grow Bridges here!
Yes back to Meghalaya and this time in Cherrapunji..

In Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, man has befriended nature and cajoled it into bending to his ways. People build bridges, but the Khasis of Meghalaya, they grow bridges. Ficus Elastica or the Rubber Tree produces strong secondary roots from their trunks. These  have been trained to grow in a particular direction using betel-nut trunks, forming sturdy, living bridges over decades. Some of these bridges are more than a hundred feet long. The Umshiang Double Decker Bridge is truly one of a kind in the entire world. Some ancient root bridges are over 500 years old.
INCREDIBLE BHARATHA

OPERATION CACTUS

#ashokasays Did you know 95 :

We have been knowing somethings about Indian Army heroics in India through this series since few days. But it's not just India alone the Indian Army has helped.. get to know the work done by Indian Army in Maldives in 1988..
The 1988 Maldives coup d'tat, was the attempt by a group of Maldivians led by Abdullah Luthufi and assisted by armed mercenaries of a Tamil secessionist organisation from Sri Lanka, the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam(PLOTE), to overthrow the government in the island republic of Maldives. The coup d'tat failed due to the intervention of the Indian Army, whose military operations efforts were code-named Operation Cactus by the Indian Armed Forces.

DOSA

#ashokasays Did you know 94:
Dosa!!! I can have it anytime of the day and I can never say no to Dosa even on a full stomach..A nice, crispy dosa with a soft and fluffy inside can make me go weak in my knees, forget my ambitious diet plans and my anger.
But did you know this...
2000 years back, South Indian people started preparing this 6 inch diameter food called DOSA, and DOSA was in the first position in the peoples Diet. It contains very little fat content and it is very tasty with perfect Chutney and it is easy to cook, which made it to survive for more than 2000 years.
On an Average,

DOSA: 80 Calories per DOSA

Cheese Pizza:  230 calories per slice

Burger: 760 calories per Burger

Dietitian will recommend you to run 1 Mile to burn 100 Cal of food. Calculate how much you should run (Work) if you are going to eat pizzas and burger

How many DOSA Varieties do you know..???? Five..Ten...¦Twenty.. Hundred.. Sorry.., There are 624 varieties of DOSAs¦ WoW ...

SO Go and have a dose of Dosa..

CAVES OF MEGHALAYA

#ashokasays Did you know 93:

Meghalaya...One of the most beautiful places of Incredible Bharatha... Chirapunjee is the only thing which comes to our mind and which the schools teach about this place..

But did you know that Meghalaya is just the one place for having 780 caves in the state; still many to be explored.

Out of the 780 discovered Krem Liat Prah is a massive one...
Krem Liat Prah is the longest natural cave in India.

Liat Prah (Krem is the Khasi word for "cave") is one of approximately 150 known caves in the Shnongrim Ridge of the Jaintia Hills district alone in the state of Meghalaya. Explored and surveyed as part of the ongoing Abode of the Clouds Expedition project, its current length of about 25 kilometers will likely be increased as nearby caves continue to be connected. Liat Prah's dominant feature is its enormous trunk passage, the Aircraft Hangar

INCREDIBLE BHARATHA..

ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS

#ashokasays Did you know 92:

We've been obsessing over these islands for ages, but we actually, honestly, know very little about them. So here's a little course in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Enjoy!Â

1. The tribes inhabiting these islands don’t interact with outsiders.

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Residents of these islands mainly belong to the ‘Jarwa’ tribe, fondly known as the adivasi. They are less than 500 in number and do not interact with outsiders.

2. The largest sea turtles nest here.

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These islands inhabit endless marine cultures, but the most famous of them all are sea turtles. Dermocheleys Coriacea, the largest sea turtles in the world nest here. They are huge in size and thousands of them flock to the Andamans every year. Additionally, even the Olive Ridely turtles come to the Andamans and use it as their nesting ground.

3. Commercial fishing is banned on the Andaman Islands. 

Yes, and that’s great news because this is one of the very few places in the world where fish die of old age and get to live their entire life.

4. The largest living arthropod Birgus Latro resides here.

These crabs are also known as coconut crabs because they eat tender coconuts. They are large in size and hate water. In South Asia, the highest numbers of these crabs are found at the Andamans.

5. The 20 rupee note depicts a scene from Andaman and Nicobar islands 

The scenery on our red coloured 20 rupee note depicts a natural scene on the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

6. The state animal of Andaman and Nicobar islands is Dugong. 

Dugongs are a special sea mammal that are extremely shy to mate. There are only five breeding centres for these sea animals and Andaman is one of them. You can spot these in Little Andaman.

7. These islands are the happy land of butterflies. 

A lot of butterflies flock to Andaman and Nicobar from nearby tropical islands.

8. These islands received the first sunrise of this millennium. 

Katchal Islands enjoyed the distinction of being the first place to receive the sun rays this millennium sunrise.

9. The only active volcano in India is present in Andaman.

Barren Island, situated 135 km away from Port Blair, is where you can see this live volcano.

HOWRAH BRIDGE

#ashokasays Did you know 91:

If anyone mentions Kolkata, the first place that comes to the mind is Howrah Bridge. But did you know some of these?

1. Built in 1943 Howrah Bridge is a cantilever bridge that spans over the Hooghly River in West Bengal. A cantilever bridge is the one built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. And this cantilever is sixth largest cantilever bridge in the world with a span of 480 meters!

2. The bridge does not have nuts and bolts and was built by riveting the whole structure.

3. It carries a daily traffic of approximately 100,000 vehicles and possibly more than 150,000 pedestrians, making it one of the busiest cantilever bridges in the world.

4. Bird droppings and human spitting cause corrosion to the bridge. The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT ) engaged contractors to regularly clean the bird droppings, at an annual expense of Rs. 500000. The KoPT also spent Rs. 6.5 million to paint the entire bridge, which required a total of 26,500 litres of paint.

5. 26,500 tons of steel was consumed in the construction of Howrah Bridge, out of which 23,000 tons of high-tensile alloy steel, known as Tiscrom, was supplied by Tata Steel.

GHOST TOWN OF BHANGARH

#ashokasays Did you know 90:

The Indian Ghost Town of Bhangarh, Rajasthan is one of the scariest places in India to visit, in addition to being one of the most abandoned places in India. However, this tag has not perturbed visitors from making frequent trips to this ghost town.

Located near a famous forest in the area, this town is now slowly luring visitors from around the area, and country, to visit it. However, it should be noted that if you decide to visit the town after sunset, you will be not be allowed. In fact, there is a strict warning that it is out of bounds after the sun sets.