Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Wikipedia - the common best friend of ours

As I look at it, one item which commands taking up the position of ‘the common best friend’ for the maximum people on this globe is the Wikipedia. I am sure most of you agree to what I am saying. What an outcome of the information explosion!

Today morning I just googled All India Radio and in a second I knew its total history – which friend of yours can enlighten you so much so quickly and so completely?

Wikipedia – ZINDABAD. I am now determined to make some contribution to it.

Here is the next set of new items learnt (from my excel sheet).

Umlesh Yadav of the Rashtriya Parivartan Dal(only 2 members - DP YADAV and Umlesh, his wife) may have earned the dubious distinction of being the first legislator to be disqualified for failing to account for money spent on advertisements passed as news items


Stealth Blackhawk mh60 helicopters used in the attack on Bin Laden.

Juba - capital of South Sudan, youngest country

India shares land boders with 7 , maritime with 7, Total with 11 (land only 4, MARITIME ONLY 4, Land+maritime 3)

 Afghanistan(L)

 Bangladesh

 Bhutan (L)

 Burma

 China (L)

 Indonesia (M)

 Maldives (M)

 Nepal (L)

 Pakistan

 Sri Lanka (M)

 Thailand""(M)

There are 27 nakshatras (some consider 28 -including Abhijit). Each covers 13.20 degrees and each has 4 padas. 9 padas are covered in one rashi


Hanuman is also known as Arbiter and Maharudra and had 28 trancendental opulences

Aum is known as Udhgita

Nandi and Mahakala are the 2 door keepers of Shiva

Nandi cursed Ravana that Lanka will be burnt down by a Vanara

Hanuman carried Dronagiri mountain

According to legend, Hanuman is one of the four people to have heard the Bhagwad Gita from Krishna and seen the Vishvarupa form, the other three being Arjuna, Sanjaya and Barbarika son of Ghatotkacha

In Hinduism both Ganesha and Hanuman have a red complexion like Sindoor and both of them possess the eight supernatural powers (ashtamahasiddhis)[23] Further, like Ganesha, Hanuman is also the deity, who can give one access to Ashta Siddhis and also Nava Nidhhis (Nidhhi means comfort, wealth, power, prestige, etc), a boon given by Janaki to him.[24]

Further, there is also a belief that one of the faces of Panchamukhi Hanuman is that of Vinayaka


The tallest Hanuman statue is the Veera Abhaya Anjaneya Hanuman Swami, standing 135 feet tall at Paritala 240 km from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, installed in 2003

An 85-foot (26 m) Karya Siddhi Hanuman murthi was installed at Carapichaima-Trinidad and Tobago, by Avadhoota Dattapeetham Pontiff Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda. It is the tallest in the Western hemisphere and second tallest in the world

Hanuman is married to Suvarchala Surya's daughter. Hanuman is a baramchari even though he is married.

Panchmukhi Hanuman- Varaha(north), Nara Simha(South), Gaduda(West), Hayagreeva(up), his own (east)

wives - Rama-Sita, Lakshman-Urmila, Bharta- Mandavi, Shatrughan- Srutakirti

Verses in the Ramayana are written in a 32-syllable meter called anustubh

The Bala Kanda describes the birth of Rama, his childhood and marriage to Sita.[27] The Ayodhya Kanda describes the preparations for Rama's coronation and his exile into the forest.[27] The third part, Aranya Kanda, describes the forest life of Rama and the kidnapping of Sita by the demon king Ravana.[27] The fourth book, Kishkindha Kanda, describes the meeting of Hanuman with Rama, the destruction of the vanara king Vali and the coronation of his younger brother Sugriva to the throne of the kingdom of Kishkindha.[27] The fifth book is Sundara Kanda, which narrates the heroism of Hanuman, his flight to Lanka and meeting with Sita.[27] The sixth book, Yuddha Kanda, describes the battle between Rama's and Ravana's armies.[27] The last book, Uttara Kanda, describes the birth of Lava and Kusha to Sita, their coronation to the throne of Ayodhya, and Rama's final departure from the world.[27]

Father Kamil Bulke, author of Ramakatha, has identified over 300 variants of Ramayana.[56]


Some Capitals:
kazakh- Almaty, kirghistan - Bishkek, tajikistan- Dushanbe, Turkmenistan - Asgabad, uzbek- Tashkent

Estonia-tallinn;Latvia-Riga;Lithuania-Vilinius; Belarus-Minsk; Ukraine - kiev; Moldova- kisnau

Slovenia-Llubliana;Croatia-Zagreb;Montenegro-Podorica;Macedonia-Skopje;Bosnia/Herzegovina-Sarajevo;Serbia-Belgrade; Kosovo - pristina

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (Aligarh MU) had said that hindus and muslims are the two eyes of mother India and harming each other wud harm her beauty

Steve Jobbs - visited Neem Karoli Baba at kainchi. But the Baba died before he could meet him. Jobbs had 342 patents. Set up Apple, Pixar, Next.


Good Day.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

the Rs 5 crore question

Now that September is over, I could watch KBC.  The more I saw, the more I felt that how much I don't know. The sad part is I have even forgotten the parts which I thought I knew. I have decided to revive myself. And the tool - the simplest of the simple - To read the daily paper.
The second part is "Googling" for any item which comes to the mind and keeping an excel file of the same. I have already 125 lines. I want to put them up over here. You are welcome to refresh your memories. Here I go.

Akash - name of tablet for use by everybody; developed by Rajasthan IIT ; COST 2250. For students 1125


B,C, D- name given to new satellite systems like the earth discovered

Pillei/Pillaikar - name of Ganesha in Tamil

tomas transtromer of Sweeden wins nobel prize in literature

Michael Nobbs - Australia is the current Hockey India coach.

S Sreejesh saved 2 penalties to give India 4-2 win in Inaugural Asian championship at Ordos(China)

Rajapal(captain), Danish mujtaba, Yuvraj Valmiki and Sarvanjit scored for India. Gurwinder Chandi missed

Liberians Leymah Gbowee, president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman win Nobel Peace prize

Ralph Steinman, nobel winner for medicine 2011, died 3 days before announcement

Duncan Fletcher of Zimb to coach Indian cricket team for 2 yrs. Has never played a test match.

Vikas Gowda (discus throw), Mayookha Johny (triple jump), Tintu Luka (800m), Babubhai Panocha and Gurmeet Singh (both 20km walk),Krishna Poonia(Discuss) getting ready for London Olympics.

Robert Baan (Holland) appointed TD by AIFF for 2 years.

India competed at the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. The sole athlete representing India was Jeremy Bujakowski, who competed in the Men's Downhill event in Alpine Skiing


On August 11, 2008, Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle shooting event. In doing so, he won the first ever individual gold medal for India, and the first medal in any event for India at the Beijing Games. The previous highest individual achievements for India were two silver medals won by Norman Pritchard, an Englishman born in India representing Great Britain, at the 1900 Paris Olympics and one silver medal won by the 2008 flagbearer Rajyavardhan Rathore at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Sushil Kumar won the second ever wrestling medal for India, the first being the bronze earned by Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Vijender Kumar won a bronze medal in the middleweight boxing category, having lost in the semifinals. This was India's first-ever Olympic medal in boxing.

'A shot at history'- autobiography by Abhinav Bindra with Rohit Brijnath.

Ian Wilmut, the scientist behind the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep

Woo-Suk Hwang, a professor of Seoul National University sucessfuly cloned the first dog SNUppy, (Afghan hound and a Labrador Retriever)


more to follow......