19/04/2020
Urmila Mahajan
Incredible India: My Nation My Pride:
India is one of the oldest and continuous civilization in the world with variety and rich cultural heritage. It is a home to all of the major world religions namely, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. India is the world's largest democracy with 1.3 billion people. The name India is originally derived from the river Indus. They are the valleys around which people settled in earlier times.
Here are some interesting things that make us feel proud to be an Indian:
1. Chess was invented in India. Later the game was spread to Persia and then to Southern Europe. The number "0" was invented by famous ancient Indian mathematician Aryabhata.
2. Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport has been ranked as an number one Airport in India as well as in Central Asia. The Airport bags three international awards, including one of the best airport by size in the Asia Pacific region.
credit: third party image reference
3. India has the third largest military force in the world after China and USA. It has been the biggest troop contributors to the UN in peacekeeping forces missions since its inception. Indian Army's special forces units called para commandos are considered among the best in the world. But India never invaded any country.
4. India is a largest producer of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper. It ranks as the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut and Inland fish. India has become the largest producer of bananas with around 30 million tonnes of production of the year.
5. India has the maximum number of post offices in the world. It has one and only floating post office in Dal Lake, Srinagar which was inaugurated in August 2011.
6. The World's first University was established in Takshila in 700c. The World's largest school in terms of students, is the City Montessori School, Lucknow. It has more than 56 thousand students and 18 centers across the city of Lucknow.
7. Every 12 years, a religious human gathering called the Kumbh Mela occurs in India. It is the world's largest gathering of people with around 100 million pilgrims coming to the holy river bank of Prayag to take a holy bathe in the sacred river and celebrate the annual fair.
8. India leads the world's largest Bollywood Movie Industry with the highest output followed by Nollywood and Hollywood.
9. India is the second largest English speaking nation in the world with around 125 million people speaking the language.
10. The Golden Temple in the state of Punjab, India feeds a vegetarian meal to over 50,000 people in a day regardless of race, religion and class.
11. Mawsynram, a village on the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, receives the highest recorded average rainfall in the world.
12. The Chair Cricket Ground in Chail, Himachal Pradesh, is the highest in the world. It was built in 1893 and is part of the Chail Military School.
13. Situated on the banks of river Ganges and represented in the Parliament by the country's PM Narendra Modi, the holy city of Banaras or Varanasi is at least 3000 year old. According to Hindu Mythology, Lord Shiva found this city 5000 years ago.
14. Isro launched its first-ever rocket from a church in Thumba, on the outskirts of modern-day Trivandrum. The said rocket was transported on a bicycle. The launching pad later came to be known as Vikram Sarabhai Space Center.
15. Be it because of religious reasons or personal choice or both, around 20-40% of Indians are vegetarians, are making it the largest vegetarians-friendly country in the world.
16. The Indian Railways has world's largest network and it employs 1.6 million people. The number of people. The number of people travelling in Indian Railways is roughly 25 million per day which is like shifting the entire population of Australia.
17. Diamonds were only found in the alluvial deposits in Guntur and Krishna District of the Krishna River Delta. Until diamonds were found in Brazil during the 18th century, India led the world in diamond production.
18. Chess was invented in India. Yoga originated from India and is still in existence for over 5000 years. Calculus, Trigonometry, and Algebra originated in India. The decimal system and place value system were developed in India around 100 B.C.
19. In August of 1982, ‘the highest bridge in the world’ – the Baily Bridge, was built by Indian Army.
20. More than $6 million is donated in the Vishnu temple in the city of Tirupathi. It was built in the 10th century.
