It may at first appear rather strange, but human hair is a valuable commodity to be bought and sold. Human hair is mainly used to make hair extensions, wigs and toupees, jacket linings, and for the extraction and manufacture of an amino acid L-cysteine used in the production of bread and pet foods in some [more...]
A lathi, a godown, a lakh (or lac), a crore—these are words that can be found almost every day in an English language newspaper in India, obviously words from one or another of the languages native to India. A lathi is the sturdy bamboo staff carried by Indian (and also Pakistani) policemen, so it is [more...]
Hansard is the name of the record of debates in the British Houses of Parliament, equivalent to the US Congressional Record. The name goes back to Thomas Curson Hansard, a printer who in 1809 started printing William Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, published since 1802. These were pieced together from newspaper reports, since at that time Parliament [more...]
Calcutta / Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. When referring to the city itself, the name Calcutta still pretty much rules. When referred to as “Kolkata”, it usually includes the suburbs. The city’s documented history begins with the arrival of the English East India Company in 1690. The city was [more...]
Bombay / Mumbai is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the largest city in India. For this article it will be called Bombay. The Portuguese named it as ‘Bom Bahia’, the ‘Good Bay’, in appreciation of the deep harbor that it possessed. The English developed Bom Bahia into Bombay. The name Mumbai [more...]
The Delhi Fort also known as the Red Fort is located in the walled city of Delhi, India. The largest of old Delhi’s monuments is the Lal Quila, or the Red Fort, the red sandstone walls of which have withstood the attacks of time and nature.The Red Fort was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan [more...]
New Delhi is the capital of India. New Delhi is a small part of the Delhi metropolitan area and is a 20th century planned city. However, New Delhi is laid out on the same site as seven ancient cities and so includes many historic monuments such as the Jantar Mantar and the Lodhi Gardens. Human [more...]
The Taj Mahal is regarded by many as a ‘wonder of the world.’ The Taj Mahal was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife and queen Mumtaz Mahal at Agra, India. Taj Mahal is built entirely of white marble. Had he ruled long enough, a duplicate building in black marble would [more...]