Mughals and Daudnagar Recently I had a chance travel through a small town of Daudnagar in Bihar, about 100 kms from Patna. I was not planning to visit that place but found out that it had a fort built between 1664 to 1673 by Daud Khan and his grandson Ahmed Khan and we went inside the town to see this place. Now like other places in Bihar even this place is in a dilapidated condition that you can see in…
Mother Tongue There must be a reason why we call the language that one speaks as a kid as mother tongue. In ancient times women folks were generally no that mobile and were not migrating as much as men. So when a bunch of men migrated and displaced local population, they took the local women as their wives and the young kids learnt first the language of their mother and hence the mother tongue. India and its languages कोस-कोस पर…
Zero: The Backdrop Zero is a unique number. Technically every number is unique but Zero as a number and concept was considered dangerous by many for millenniums and we will delve little more looking at its history and its rise in application in various technology. Many would have heard that Mathematics is called the Queen of Science and Number Theory is Queen of Mathematics. This quote is attributed to gifted Mathematician called Gauss. Our very own Srinivasan Ramanujan explored number…
The Battle Battle of Buxar fought in October 1764 that set out, a greedy private enterprise East India Company headquartered in London, on a path that changed the South Asia forever and the after shocks are even felt today including what we see today in Afghanistan in 2021. As a kid I have been to the place and unfortunately there wasn’t much there except agricultural fields and few graves for British Officers reminiscent of the bloody battle. Lets look at…
“He diagnosed the disease as Influenza. But he has never seen Influenza like this. This was violent, rapid in its progress through the body, sometimes lethal. This Influenza killed. Soon dozens of his patients – the strongest, the healthiest, the most robust people in the county – were struck down as suddenly as if they had been shot” “All Influenza viruses mutate constantly” “On September 27, the day before the parade, hospitals admitted 200 people sufferings from Influenza….
The Beginnings Indian history has many stories and that of the Jagat Seth one of the most interesting with many twists and turns. Hiranand Sahu was a jeweller turned money lender from Nagaur, Rajasthan from the Gailarha family of the tribe of Oswals, who moved to Patna in search of better prospects around 1650. He started as a banker and trader of Saltpetre. Patna and a neighboring town Chapra were the center for the refining of Saltpetre, an essential ingredient…
Why was the knowledge was lost? Indian subcontinent has had a civilization for thousands of years and when we look at the remains of Indus Valley civilization there seems to be existence metropolis and intercontinental trade. There were cities like Mohenjo Daro, Harappa, Lothal that had drainage systems which can rival any of the current cities of India. Today a day of rain can flood any modern city in India whereas Indus Valley civilization used floods for their benefit. Why…
1918 Pandemic Great Influenza 1918 was the year of the great influenza which spread all over the world leading to estimated death of 50 million people worldwide and of this the country that was most affected was India that had alteast one-fifth of this death toll. In the history of world of pandemics there are only two which have taken more lives than this pandemic. The plague of Justinian that lasted for fifty years around AD 542 killed 100 million…
I was heading out to a place called Aurangabad in Bihar and nearest Airport was Bodh Gaya. Now I had about 2-3 hours in my hand as this trip was a real quick one. But I knew that I can’t miss going to the tree where Siddhartha became Buddha and I have to say it was worth the time. All this was a long time back in the month of February when the world was very different and nobody could…
Disclaimer: I am no expert in the subject and idea is to share a point of view. Any errors & omissions will be graciously accepted and updated swiftly If you want to read up Part 1, I wrote about the Aryan-Dravidian divide sometime back and here is the link if you would like to see that. The world is divided in so many aspects race, religion, region, countries and many more. There is one such divide that I have been…
I remember, in the year of 1998 while going to Miao to visit some family friends while passing Margherita there was a board calling out Stilwell Road. From that point of time it remained on the back of my mind. The Books Recently I was reading a travel book “Land of Dawnlit Mountains” by Antonia Bolingbroke Kent, a British journalist who went on to solo bike trip on Hero Impulse throughout Arunachal Pradesh. It brought my memories fresh and pushed…
There are three players on the Indian side Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah who played deciding role in the partition of India, all of them studied law in Britain and came back to serve India. Gandhi left his suits and became Mahatma preaching his non-violent method for fighting British rule, Nehru was the charming man close to Gandhi and Jinnah a rational and intellectual man. Important actors on the British side were Churchill, Atlee, Wavell and Mountbatten. The clamor to independent…
As a kid I remember both my grandmother were smokers and me going and buying the Indian version of cigarette called “Beedi” from the nearby shop was common. Now I am not sure when and how they had started and unfortunately by the time I was old enough to ask them they were not around anymore. There is no doubt about them being devout enough. My dad’s mother would religiously go to Ganga every morning before the sun rises and…
Ashoka ruled huge parts of modern India which extended from present day Afghanistan in north to Karnataka in South, Orrisa in East to Gujarat in west which probably constitutes 80% of present day India. So its not entirely true that India as we know today is gift of the British rule. And thanks to Ashoka’s Rock Edicts this expanse can be proven by history and archaeology as well and it cannot be judged to be someone’s figment of imagination. The problem with…
India has gained independence and atmosphere varied from ecstatic to routine depending where one lived. Sadiya, a town bordering NEFA was one such remote location. It was 7:39 PM of August 15 1950 when the tremors hit the northern hills of undivided Assam. Kaling, aged around 14 years, came to Sadiya High School to continue his studies from his village Dambuk. India has just emerged from the shackles of colonialism and stories of festivities did reach to people in Sadiya. Kaling…