India's finest moments in 2007

Twenty20 World triumph
Dhoni-led Team India sans big names in the shape of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Zaheer went into the event as rank outsiders after their dismal show in the preceding ICC World Cup in Carib. However the well-knit young turks had other plans for they played with a purpose before embarking on the inaugural T20 World Title. India saw off their arch rivals in the fiercely contested final at the Wanderers, Joburg by 5 runs. This victory was good for Indian cricket in many ways More...
India end 27-yr drought against Pakistan
Kumble, the skipper led India to jinx-breaking home series win against Pak 1-0. It was India's first Test series triumph against its traditional rivals at home in more than two decades--the last success came in 1980 under Sunil Gavaskar. Hosts completely dominated the injury-plagued Pakistanis in all departments in the three-game series. Hosts won the first Test at Kotla by six wickets while the second and third at Kolkata and Bangalore on lifeless strips petered out to a draw. More...
India halt English-jinx
Rahul Dravid-led India, with an ad-hoc support staff, managed a rare and creditable series win in England. After a 21 years long wait, India emulated Kapil's bunch who did it in1986. This victory certainly helped India salvage pride after World Cup debacle. India managed to draw the first of three-Test series at Lord's. Thanks to stubborn Dhoni (76* off 159), who held his innings at one end in the second essay to save his side the blushes. This one big effort boosted Indian morale going into second Test. More...
Dada's resurgence
Sourav Ganguly's comeback to Indian Cricket after the shabby treatment inflicted on him by board and media is the stuff of fairy tales. Ganguly made a came back into the Indian team exactly after nine months for South African Safari in Dec 2006-Jan2007 - four Tests and six ODIs. However his arrival wasn't marked by joy or euphoria but it was greeted with skepticism and cynical laughs: India was going thro' a lean patch having suffered a ODI series defeat against Australia in a neutral venue and followed it up with a shoddy display More...
Zaheer bounces back
Zaheer's comeback into Team India squad is a miracle of sorts. The 28-year-old left-arm seamer was dropped after a string of an inconsistent performances and nagging injuries in early quarter of 2006. However he worked his way into the Team India with an amazing 76-wicket haul for Worcesters in county cricket. He was drafted into South Africa-bound India squad in Dec 2006 after a 10-month lay-off. Zaheer sticked to an off-stump line and hardly erred in length and reaped rich harvests during SA Safari. More...
Brutal Yuvi
Yuvraj wrecked havoc on Stuart little Broad carting him for six sixes in an over after having spurred by comments made by Freddie Flint just before that fateful over. Yuvi hit baby Broad all over the park from backward point to extra covers to long-on to mid-wicket to square-leg oops.. There can never have been a more eloquent bat than Yuvraj's. It certainly drew admiration from the defeated England captain, Paul Collingwood. "The best striking I've ever seen," he declared. In the post-match press meeting, Yuvraj modestly played down the comparison with Sir Garfield Sobers. More...
Tendlya back in business
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, the demi-god in this part of world, is back in business scoring a bucketful of runs this calendar year after a stop-start season last year. He was out of action for over four months last year due to tennis elbow and made a return in the latter half of the year for Lankan tri-series. Tendlya failed to deliver in Lankan series and the subsequent ICC Champions Trophy spurring a nation-wide debate--has age finally caught up with him. More...
VVS does it again
The middle-order batting mainstay of Team India VVS stood up and delivered the goods when it was needed most-the hallmark of true champion. After a quite season last year he cemented his place in Test squad with a series of fine match-saving and at times match-winning knocks in South Africa tour late last year and subsequent tours-England (away) and Pakistan (home). He anchored India innings and often saved his side from the jaws of humiliation. More...
Young Turks...
A new crop of players enriching Indian cricket. These young, talented, audacious and fearless cricketers have given the selectors a 'happy headache' in picking up the squads. T20 World triumph proved Team India's healthy bench strength. It is for the first time our selectors are facing a problem of plenty in both batting and bowling departments. In batting: we have Rohit Sharma, a strokemaker is a revelation in T20 World Cup. More...
Jumbo gets his due
Finally Anil Kumble the warrior was given his due though a belated one when he was appointed as Team India Test captain. However the gentle giant vindicated selectors decision leading his side to a clinical win against Pak in Test series. We had a glimpse of this master tactician in his debut match as captain in Kotla Test against Pak when he used Ganguly in sporadic spells which yielded the results. Dada with his military medium pace and a stump to stump line with a slight away movement just enough to troble right-handers. More...

Thats Cricket

India's Vast Languages

Here is an interesting site with a list of India's diverse language. It tell you the history behind each language and how the script looks like.

Click here to go to the site

Indian History on the Net

This must be the most resourceful site on Indian History. It has detailed report starting from the Indus Valley civilization to detailed notes on the people of India.

Click here to go to the site

Indian Answers - Indeed Great !!

Most of us who lived outside have been through one of these. The next

time you get asked an annoying Indian question, answer it like this...

Q. What does that red dot on women's forehead mean?
A. Well, in ancient times, Indian men used to practice archery by
aiming at their wife's red dot. In fact, that is one of the reasons
why they had many wives. You see, once they mastered the art and hit
the target....

Q. You're from India, aren't you? I have read so much about the
country. All the wonderful places, the forests, the snake charmers,
the elephants. Do you still use elephants for transportation?
[note: This one we were actually asked in August '93 by a real estate
agent when house-hunting in Boston.]
A. Absolutely. In fact we used to have our own elephant in our house.
But later, we started elephant-pooling with our neighbors, to save the
air. You see elephants have an "emissions" problem.....

Q. Does India have cars?
A. No. We ride elephants to work. The government is trying to
encourage ride-sharing schemes.

Q. Does India have TV?
A. No. We only have cable.

Q. Are all Indians vegetarian?
A. Yes. Even tigers are vegetarian in India.

Q. How come you speak English so well?
A. You see when the British were ruling India,they employed Indians as
servants. It took too long for the Indians to learn English. So the
British isolated an "English-language" gene and infused their
servants' babies with it and since then all babies born are born
speaking English.

A variation of the above ---
"You speak very good English."
Response: Thanks. So do you.

Q. Are you a Hindi?
A. Yes. I am spoken everyday in Northern India.

Q. Do you speak Hindu?
A. Yes, I also speak Jewish, Islam and Christianity.

Q. Is it true that everyone there is very corrupt?
A. Yes, in fact, I had to bribe my parents so that they would let me
go to school.

Q. India is very hot, isn't it?
A. It is so hot there that all the water boils spontaneously. That is
why tea is such a popular drink in India.

Q. Are there any business companies in India?
A. No. All Indians live on the Gandhian prinicples of
self-sufficiency. We all make our own clothes and grow our own food.
That is why you see all these thin skinny Indians -- it is a lot of hard
work.

Q. Indians cannot eat beef, huh?
A. Cows provide milk which is an essential part of our diet. So eating
cows is forbidden. However in order to decrease the population of the
country, the government is trying to encourage everyone to eat human
meat.

Q. India is such a religious place. Do you meditate regularly?
A. Yes, sometimes I meditate for weeks without food and drink. But it
is difficult to keep my job, because I have to miss work when I
meditate like that. But the bosses there do the same thing. That is
why things are so inefficient there.

Q. I saw on TV that people there walk on burning coals. Why do they do
that?
A. We don't have shoes. So we burn the bottom of our feet to make it
hard so that we can walk.

Q. Why do you sometimes wear Indian clothes to work?
A. I prefer it to coming naked.

Q. How do you celebrate Thanksgiving day in India?
A. By roasting an A*******....

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The Developing India

The Tata Group of India has entered the final fray of buying JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) from Ford. Jaguar and Land Rover are arguably the royalties among the current noveau riche crop of car marquees. In the same breath, the Tata Group has unveiled the one-lakh-rupee (BD1,000) car.
Priced at $2,500 the car is the cheapest ever made in the world. This mass model will leave Model T, or the people's carrier VW Beetle far behind in its utter vision of democratising the car market. Straddling opposite, often paradoxical poles has been a forte of the Tatas - from small cars to heavy vehicles, tea to information technology, steel to hotels and much more from the portfolio of the Tatas. Tata is only an example or rather on-the-face manifestation of how this world constantly juggles with paradoxes.
We do not have to go far. Last evening, a European colleagues of mine, was narrating his experience at a health centre he had visited in the course of his CPR formalities. He said he had not expected such an unending sweaty queue of blue collared sub-continental CPR aspirants. I informed him that some of those aspirants may have spent close to $ 2,500 by mortgaging their only house or some precious jewellery, just to get themselves a life of physical toil so that they can feed their children or provide some medical care to their ailing parents - and mind you I am not getting sentimental about the whole thing because most of us staying in Bahrain for more than two years have numbed ourselves off to this all pervasive reality.
The other day I was exchanging notes on real estate with a South African colleague (aren't we all doing it these days during most of our leisure time!). He informed me that a good spacious villa can be had for $ 0.5 million in Johannesburg. I was surprised, but not to the extent he was, when I told him that it's literally impossible to buy a villa in Mumbai and some regular sized apartments are priced more than $12m! Dichotomies and more dichotomies.
Much is being said about India gearing to be the new superpower, about its galloping economy, about the success Indian businesses are meeting all over the world, the increasing numbers of Indian executives at all levels in all sectors in all countries and the role they have played in creating modern Gulf economies, as business managers or brick layers. Paradoxically, this same country carries the ignominy of approximately 250m population below the poverty line and the same country has its citizens living dismal lives in foreign countries. To people with deeper insights, above stories are only pieces of an iceberg - threads in the fabric of paradox which makes the world of reality. Any passing alien will be dumb found when he sees filthy ghettoes behind the shining Manhattan skyscrapers, dusty faces of Sierra Leone miners striving for shining precious things called diamond, desperate workers on the scaffoldings making the world's tallest sky kissers, impoverished farmers (hundreds commit suicide every year in India seeing their kids bellowing with hunger) tilling the land to fill the world's stomach, workers spreading greenery in the desert sweating in the sweltering Gulf sun.
Maybe that's the way the Creator had intended it. Or maybe it's just a fleeting aberration in the long (some say more than 4.6 billion years old already) march of time. I saw my son being born six months back and I also saw a suicide bomber exploding himself,at Benazir Bhutto's rally.

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How did India gets its name?

We all love our beloved motherland India, but how many of you actually know how India got its name? Below you will find and explanation i found in Yahoo answers which I think actually explains everything, what do you guys think?

The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, from Sanskrit Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River. The Constitution of India and common usage in Hindi also recognise Bharat as an official name of equal status. A third name, هندوستان, Hindustan (Persian: Land of the Hindus), has been in use since the 12th century, though its contemporary use is unevenly applied.

A few facts about India:

The name `India’ is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.Sanskrit is considered as the mother of all higher languages. This is because it is the most precise, and therefore suitable language for computer software. ( a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987 ). Chess was invented in India. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus also orignated from India.Quadratic equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 ( i.e 10 to the power of 53 ) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10*12( 10 to the power of 12 ).The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India.The first six Mogul Emperor's of India ruled in an unbroken succession from father to son for two hundred years, from 1526 to 1707.The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. The shikhara is made from a single ' 80-tonne ' piece of granite. Also, this magnificient temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola India is.......the Largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10, 000 years old). The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh.Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level. India has the most post offices in the world !The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over a million people !The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The father of medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.Although modern images & descriptions of India often show poverty, India was one of the richest countries till the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered America by mistake.The art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh 6000 over years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. His calculations was Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: ( 5th century ) 365.258756484 days.The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, which was long before the European mathematicians.Until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.Sushruta is regarded as the father of surgery. Over 2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones and also plastic surgery and brain surgeries.Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.

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