Portal:India/Did you know 10

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This is a selection of articles on Wikipedia that appeared on the India Portal's Did you know section. (Archives are in sets of approximately 50 items each)

Current Archive: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Did you know...

...that the Chelembra Bank Robbery, one of the biggest bank robberies in Kerala, was quickly solved by the Kerala Police and the stolen goods recovered?
...that the Brindavan Gardens (pictured) in Karnataka is a Mughal style garden having a design similar to that of Shalimar Gardens in Kashmir?
...that the Maratha Ditch was excavated around Calcutta, India, as a protection against attacks by Marathas, who, however, never attacked?
...that the Telugu film Anasuya was said to be inspired by the Hollywood movie The Silence of the Lambs?
...that under the Vijayanagara empire, Kannada literature made major progress due to the development of its native metres?
...that the author Amulya Malladi, an expatriate Indian, said that when she first moved to Denmark that "Danish sounded to me like the buzzing of bees"?
...that since 1967 the state of Tamil Nadu in India has been ruled by Dravidian parties?
...that Sariputra, one of the two chief disciples of Gautama Buddha, is frequently featured in the Jatakas alongside Mahamoggallana and the Buddha in their past lives?
...that Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama was buried in St. Francis Church in India?
...that Indian activist Kinkri Devi waged a war on illegal mining and quarrying in her native state of Himachal Pradesh despite her illiteracy?
...that Kochi in Kerala, India is where Chinese fishing nets are mostly used outside of China?
...that Morarji Desai is India's only Finance Minister to have tabled the Union budget twice on his birthday?
...that the railcar that ran on the Shimoga-Talaguppa railway in India had to be reversed on a turntable, so that it could start its return journey?
...that the United Breweries' chairman Vijay Mallya, named his Bangalore Royal Challengers, an Indian Premier League cricket team, after his liquor brand?
...that Bhushan Steel, the largest manufacturer of auto-grade steel in India, is expanding its capacity to 12 million tonnes annually?
...that Mysore Palace (pictured), a tourist attraction in the city of Mysore, is one of the most visited monuments in India, even more than the Taj Mahal?
...that in the forthcoming Bollywood film Krazzy 4, actor Hrithik Roshan performed an "item number" for the first time?
...that in the 250-year old Durga Puja of Shobhabazar palace, the goddess (statue pictured) was offered homemade sweets because non-Brahmin patrons were not allowed to offer rice in any form?
...that multiple-award winning Indian film Vanaja, which could not be screened in India because it found no takers, was the Master of Fine Arts thesis of its director, Rajnesh Domalpalli?
...that the Jnanpith Award for modern literature in India has been awarded to Kannada literatures more than those of any other Indian language?
...that Tibbia College, with 84 patents in herbal medicine, is the only medical institution in India to offer education and training in two ancient systems of medicine, Ayurveda and Unaani?
...that due to its numerous attractions such as Lal Bagh (pictured), Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka, is known as the "Garden City of India"?
...that Most Rev. S. Arulappa, Archbishop of Hyderabad, Telangana, was the youngest to be consecrated as a Roman Catholic Archbishop in India?
...that forthcoming Tamil film Aegan, starring Ajith Kumar, marks the directorial debut of choreographer Raju Sundaram?
...that the film crew of the forthcoming Tamil film, Kanthaswamy adopted two villages near Madurai to give film profits to?
...that Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary in Kerala, India, receives migratory birds from far away Siberia?
...that Burrabazar, in Kolkata, expanded from a yarn and textile market into a large wholesale market?
...that when Shiv Chowrasia, a former caddie, won the 2008 Indian Masters golf tournament, he became the third Indian to win a European Tour event?
...that Narmada Bachao Andolan, a NGO in India, was the main reason for World Bank to conduct its first-ever independent review of any of its projects?
...that every year 70,000 to 80,000 migratory birds visit Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary, an artificially created forest in West Bengal, India?
...that with the 2008 bird flu outbreak in West Bengal, 16,000 birds were destroyed in Itahar, but health workers retreated from villages that refused to kill their birds?
...that Khwaja Ahsanullah and his son Khwaja Salimullah clashed over the latter's Islamic fundamentalism?
...that tradition has it that Warren Hastings hunted with elephants in the jungle in Chowringhee, now a business district in Kolkata, India?
...that as Chief Herald of India, Osmond Barnes (pictured) proclaimed Queen Victoria Empress of India at Delhi in 1877?
...that the Mattancherry Palace, popular as Dutch Palace, in Kochi, India, was built by the Portuguese and renovated by the Dutch?
...that Abbas Tyabji (pictured with Mahatma Gandhi), respectfully called the "Grand Old Man of Gujarat", was chosen at age seventy-six by Mahatma Gandhi to take over leadership of the Salt Satyagraha upon Gandhi's arrest in May, 1930?
...that the Punjabi magnate Sir Malik Umar Hayat Khan (pictured) was an honorary aide-de-camp to King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI?
...that Deepak Chougule, a cricketer from the Indian state of Karnataka, created a junior world record for maximum runs scored in a single day of a cricket match when he scored 400 runs in a day?
...that Entally was home to the poor and the depressed, and a neighborhood where Mother Teresa started her active life in Kolkata, India?
...that there is a plan to shift Kolkata's traditional wholesale market in Posta (pictured), to the newly developed New Town?
...that the more than two centuries old Gun and Shell Factory at Cossipore, a neighbourhood in north Kolkata, is the oldest surviving factory in the Indian subcontinent?
...that dhakis (pictured), traditional Bengali drummers, kill more than 40,000 egrets, pheasants, herons and open bill storks every year to decorate their instruments with feathers?
...that Indian company Reliance Power attracted US$27.5 billion of bids on the first day of its initial public offering (IPO), equivalent to 10.5 times the stock on offer, thereby creating India's IPO record?
...there is a belief that a dip in the waters of Papanasam Beach (pictured), one of the beaches in Kerala, washes away sins?
...that Abani Mukherji, co-founder of the Communist Party of India, died in Soviet captivity in the 1930s?
...that the hull of the kettuvallams, Kerala houseboats, (pictured) are built of wooden boards tied together by coir rope?
...that in parts of the Kerala Backwaters the paddy fields are at a lower level than the water in canals, held back by dikes?
...that the Workers and Peasants Party leader K.N. Joglekar successfully moved a resolution that the Indian National Congress should demand full independence for India?
...that the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan organised India's first May Day celebrations in 1923?
...that Professor Lalit Goel of Nanyang Technological University became an internet celebrity after footage of his lectures were uploaded to YouTube?