| India is a tourist's delight. The
most famous tourist attraction is Taj Mahal. Build in the 17th century in pure Marble, Taj
Mahal is the tomb built by the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan for his beloved wife Mumtaz.
However India does not end with the Taj. Due to its vast size and varying culture , India
is a challenge to any tourist. It is an adventure which leaves everyone well satiated at
the end of it. The snow clad mountain peaks of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh , the forests
of Madhya Pradesh, the deserts of Rajasthan, the beaches of Goa, the back waters of
Kerala, the hustle and bustle of Bombay to the elegance of New Delhi are all bound to
thrill any tourist. You are bound to be amazed by a nation that speaks about 15 languages
and 800 dialects, by its richness and its poverty. You will be warmed by the smile on
every face , the song on their lips. And as one finishes the tour of this glorious country
, the sanguine people and the serene land, where time has often stood still , is sure to
fill the memory for a long time. India lies in South Asia between latitudes 8 degree 4' and
37 degree 5' North and longitudes 68 degree 7' and 97 degree 25' East. It is bound on the
South-West by Arabian Sea and on the South-East by the Bay of Bengal. On the North-East
& North-West lie Himalayan ranges. The Southern tip, Kanyakumari is washed by the
Indian Ocean. It covers a total land area of 32,87,782 sq. kms., measuring 3214 kms. from
North to South and 2933 kms. from East to West. It has a land frontier of 15200 kms and a
coast line of about 6100 kms. excluding Lakshdeep, Andaman & Nicobar islands.
Some Known and
Unknown Facts :
- India has never invaded any country
in her last 10,000 years of history.
India invented the number
system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
India established the
world's first University at Takshasila in 700 B.C.
Sanskrit is the mother of
all European languages. It is the best suited language for computer software (Forbes
magazine, July 1987).
Ayurveda is the earliest
system of medicine known to humans.
The art of navigation
originated in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. Navigation comes from the Sanskrit word
"Nav Gatih".
Bhaskaracharya calculated
the time taken by earth to orbit the sun as 365.258756484 days (in 5th century A.D).
In the 6th century A.D
Budhayana calculated the value of pi . Quadratic equations were propunded by
Sridharacharya in the 11th century.
According to the Gemological
Institute of America , upto 1896, India was the only source for diamonds.
IEEE has proved an age old
suspicion that the pioneer of wireless communication is Jagdish Bose and not Marconi.
The earliest reservoir and
dam was built in Saurashtra, India during Chandragupta Maurya's time (300 B.C)
Chess originated in India.
Susruta is known as the
father of surgery, performing complex surgeries as many as 2600 years ago.
Current
facts :
Q. Who is the
co-founder of Sun Microsystems?
A. Vinod Khosla
Q. Who is the
creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today's computers run on it)?
A. Vinod Dahm
Q. Who is the
third richest man on the world?
A. According to
the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is Aziz Premji, who is the CEO of Wipro
Industries. The Sultan of Brunei is at 6th position now.
Q. Who is the
founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world's No.1 web based email program)?
A. Sabeer Bhatia
Q. Who is the
president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program
languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?
A. Arun
Netravalli
Q. Who is the
GM of Hewlett Packard?
A. Rajiv Gupta
Q. Who is the
new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial
problems?
A. Sanjay
Tejwrika
Q. Who are
the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?
A. Victor
Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.
Q. We Indians
are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the whites
and the natives.
There are 3.22
millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population). YET,
- 38% of doctors in
USA are Indians.
- 12% scientists in
USA are Indians.
- 36% of NASA
scientists are Indians.
- 34% of Microsoft
employees are Indians.
- 28% of IBM
employees are Indians.
- 17% of INTEL
scientists are Indians.
- 13% of XEROX
employees are Indians.
Quotes
about India by famous people:
We owe a lot to
the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery
could have been made. - Albert Einstein -
India is the
cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the
grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition. - Mark Twain -
If there is one
place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very
earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India. - French scholar
Romain Rolland -
India conquered
and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single
soldier across her border. - Hu Shih - (former Chinese ambassador to USA)
ALL OF THE ABOVE
IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS. BUT, if we don't see even a
glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are
not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an
ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow. |