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There are festivals that are built around seasonal and agrarian cycles. Then there are festivals or occasions that are built around the lives of individuals who founded major religions. And there are festivals that revolve around mythological figures of gods and goddesses. India is one of the few countries in the world, which can boast of observing the most important festivals of major world religions within a span of just 45-60 days! Festive Layers [Illustration by Kusum Chamoli] Consider these fascinating facts: In most years, since Hindu festivals follow the lunar calendar, in end-March or early April, Hindus celebrate the birth of Lord Rama....
Where: New Delhi, India March 24, 2009 : The second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will now be held in South Africa. IPL is a creation of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). It is a Twenty20 cricket competition, in which each team plays just 20 overs in a game, and each innings takes around 75 minutes to play. The second season was to have been held at different locations in India, just like the first, hugely successful one last year....
Boyhood by the Sea [] Suresh and the Sea Written by Raghavendra Rao and Sandhya Rao Photos by Raghavendra Rao Published by Tulika, Chennai This book traces the real-life story of a boy through his growing years in his native fishing village, Injambakkam. The author, Raghavendra Rao, tells of how Suresh taught him to look at the sea with new eyes and surrender to the sea’s charms. His black and white photographs make the experience come alive for his readers....
Where: Bangalore, India January 29, 2009 : The possibility of water-ice existing on the polar regions of the moon is one of the questions that scientists aim to discuss at a meeting to mark the first hundred days of Chandrayaan-I. The scientists include representatives from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Chandrayaan-I has so far captured the first-ever images of the dark side of the moon, detected the presence of iron and received X-ray signals from its cratered surface....
August 26: In ancient Greece, like a magnet, the shrine at Mount Parnassus, in Delphi, attracted people from all over Europe. They were drawn by the prophetic powers of the Pythia, or priestess of Apollo, who was famous as the Oracle of Delphi. It was said she could foretell everything, from the result of wars to new twists in day-to-day family problems. But, from where did the Oracle get her prophetic powers? Legend says that high priest of the shrine, Plutarch, thought that the Pythia got her prophetic powers by inhaling some special gases, which would lead her to a state of trance....
Where: Tegucigalpa, Honduras July 5, 2009 : President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in Central America was removed from office on June 28, 2009. At dawn on that day, around 300 troops went to his home and asked him to surrender at gunpoint. Mr. Zelaya was sent into exile in Costa Rica. Later, Mr. Roberto Micheletti, the speaker of Congress and second in line to the presidency, was sworn in as interim leader. President Zelaya had plans to hold a public consultation on June 28 to seek the people’s views on making changes in the constitution....
December 9: Did ‘Unidentified Flying Objects’ (UFOs) cause life on earth? Those UFOs that are supposed to float around in space, which are more like distant dreams of an outer space enthusiast? To test this theory, special balloons filled with neon gas (used in electric lamps) were launched into space from Hyderabad recently by a team of Indian scientists. The balloons are expected to collect air samples at different altitudes in space ranging between 10 and 35 km....
October 28: Over 1400 years ago, Chinese scholar Hiuan Tsang travelled thousands of miles from his home to reach the city of Nalanda in Bihar. His objective was to study precious Buddhist manuscripts at the University of Nalanda, which was famed in those days for its library of Buddhist manuscripts. In the process, he also recorded his observations of seventh century India, and this remains one of the most valuable sources of information on the land during that age....
Where: Reykjavik, Iceland February 16, 2009 : In a letter signed by senior diplomats in Reykjavik, the governments of six countries appealed to Iceland to rethink its decision to permit the hunting of 150 fin and 100 minke whales in a year. The countries are the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Finland and Sweden. The former Iceland government took the decision before stepping down in the face of the country’s economic collapse. The letter expressed “extreme disappointment” and asked the new government to consider the long-term interests of the whaling industry....
Where: New Delhi, India May 16, 2000: Today’s newspapers must have given some relief to Indian Army men. For, George Fernandes, the Defence Minister of India, has finally agreed to their demands. Their demand was that the family of every jawan, or soldier, killed in action must get the same compensation amount of Rs 1 million ($23,255) from the Government of India. It did not matter where the soldier died: Kargil, Srinagar, or the north-eastern part of India....
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