Portal:India/Did you know 10

This is a selection of articles on Wikipedia that appeared on the India Portal's Did you know section. (Archives are in sets of approximately 50 items each)

Did you know...

 * 1) ...that the Chelembra Bank Robbery, one of the biggest bank robberies in Kerala, was quickly solved by the Kerala Police and the stolen goods recovered?
 * 2) ...that the Brindavan Gardens (pictured) in Karnataka is a Mughal style garden having a design similar to that of Shalimar Gardens in Kashmir?
 * 3) ...that the Maratha Ditch was excavated around Calcutta, India, as a protection against attacks by Marathas, who, however, never attacked?
 * 4) ...that the Telugu film Anasuya was said to be inspired by the Hollywood movie The Silence of the Lambs?
 * 5) ...that under the Vijayanagara empire, Kannada literature made major progress due to the development of its native metres?
 * 6) ...that the author Amulya Malladi, an expatriate Indian, said that when she first moved to Denmark that "Danish sounded to me like the buzzing of bees"?
 * 7) ...that since 1967 the state of Tamil Nadu in India has been ruled by Dravidian parties?
 * 8) ...that Sariputra, one of the two chief disciples of Gautama Buddha, is frequently featured in the Jatakas alongside Mahamoggallana and the Buddha in their past lives?
 * 9) ...that Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama was buried in St. Francis Church in India?
 * 10) ...that Indian activist Kinkri Devi waged a war on illegal mining and quarrying in her native state of Himachal Pradesh despite her illiteracy?
 * 11) ...that Kochi in Kerala, India is where Chinese fishing nets are mostly used outside of China?
 * 12) ...that Morarji Desai is India's only Finance Minister to have tabled the Union budget twice on his birthday?
 * 13) ...that the railcar that ran on the Shimoga-Talaguppa railway in India had to be reversed on a turntable, so that it could start its return journey?
 * 14) ...that the United Breweries' chairman Vijay Mallya, named his Bangalore Royal Challengers, an Indian Premier League cricket team, after his liquor brand?
 * 15) ...that Bhushan Steel, the largest manufacturer of auto-grade steel in India, is expanding its capacity to 12 million tonnes annually?
 * 16) ...that Mysore Palace (pictured), a tourist attraction in the city of Mysore, is one of the most visited monuments in India, even more than the Taj Mahal?
 * 17) ...that in the forthcoming Bollywood film Krazzy 4, actor Hrithik Roshan performed an "item number" for the first time?
 * 18) ...that in the 250-year old Durga Puja of Shobhabazar palace, the goddess (statue pictured) was offered homemade sweets because non-Brahmin patrons were not allowed to offer rice in any form?
 * 19) ...that multiple-award winning Indian film Vanaja, which could not be screened in India because it found no takers, was the Master of Fine Arts thesis of its director, Rajnesh Domalpalli?
 * 20) ...that the Jnanpith Award for modern literature in India has been awarded to Kannada literatures more than those of any other Indian language?
 * 21) ...that Tibbia College, with 84 patents in herbal medicine, is the only medical institution in India to offer education and training in two ancient systems of medicine, Ayurveda and Unaani?
 * 22) ...that due to its numerous attractions such as Lal Bagh (pictured), Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka, is known as the "Garden City of India"?
 * 23) ...that Most Rev. S. Arulappa, Archbishop of Hyderabad, Telangana, was the youngest to be consecrated as a Roman Catholic Archbishop in India?
 * 24) ...that forthcoming Tamil film Aegan, starring Ajith Kumar, marks the directorial debut of choreographer Raju Sundaram?
 * 25) ...that the film crew of the forthcoming Tamil film, Kanthaswamy adopted two villages near Madurai to give film profits to?
 * 26) ...that Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary in Kerala, India, receives migratory birds from far away Siberia?
 * 27) ...that Burrabazar, in Kolkata, expanded from a yarn and textile market into a large wholesale market?
 * 28) ...that when Shiv Chowrasia, a former caddie, won the 2008 Indian Masters golf tournament, he became the third Indian to win a European Tour event?
 * 29) ...that Narmada Bachao Andolan, a NGO in India, was the main reason for World Bank to conduct its first-ever independent review of any of its projects?
 * 30) ...that every year 70,000 to 80,000 migratory birds visit Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary, an artificially created forest in West Bengal, India?
 * 31) ...that with the 2008 bird flu outbreak in West Bengal, 16,000 birds were destroyed in Itahar, but health workers retreated from villages that refused to kill their birds?
 * 32) ...that Khwaja Ahsanullah and his son Khwaja Salimullah clashed over the latter's Islamic fundamentalism?
 * 33) ...that tradition has it that Warren Hastings hunted with elephants in the jungle in Chowringhee, now a business district in Kolkata, India?
 * 34) ...that as Chief Herald of India, Osmond Barnes (pictured) proclaimed Queen Victoria Empress of India at Delhi in 1877?
 * 35) ...that the Mattancherry Palace, popular as Dutch Palace, in Kochi, India, was built by the Portuguese and renovated by the Dutch?
 * 36) ...that Abbas Tyabji (pictured with Mahatma Gandhi), respectfully called the "Grand Old Man of Gujarat", was chosen at age seventy-six by Mahatma Gandhi to take over leadership of the Salt Satyagraha upon Gandhi's arrest in May, 1930?
 * 37) ...that the Punjabi magnate Sir Malik Umar Hayat Khan (pictured) was an honorary aide-de-camp to King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI?
 * 38) ...that Deepak Chougule, a cricketer from the Indian state of Karnataka, created a junior world record for maximum runs scored in a single day of a cricket match when he scored 400 runs in a day?
 * 39) ...that Entally was home to the poor and the depressed, and a neighborhood where Mother Teresa started her active life in Kolkata, India?
 * 40) ...that there is a plan to shift Kolkata's traditional wholesale market in Posta (pictured), to the newly developed New Town?
 * 41) ...that the more than two centuries old Gun and Shell Factory at Cossipore, a neighbourhood in north Kolkata, is the oldest surviving factory in the Indian subcontinent?
 * 42) ...that dhakis (pictured), traditional Bengali drummers, kill more than 40,000 egrets, pheasants, herons and open bill storks every year to decorate their instruments with feathers?
 * 43) ...that Indian company Reliance Power attracted US$27.5 billion of bids on the first day of its initial public offering (IPO), equivalent to 10.5 times the stock on offer, thereby creating India's IPO record?
 * 44) ...there is a belief that a dip in the waters of Papanasam Beach (pictured), one of the beaches in Kerala, washes away sins?
 * 45) ...that Abani Mukherji, co-founder of the Communist Party of India, died in Soviet captivity in the 1930s?
 * 46) ...that the hull of the kettuvallams, Kerala houseboats, (pictured) are built of wooden boards tied together by coir rope?
 * 47) ...that in parts of the Kerala Backwaters the paddy fields are at a lower level than the water in canals, held back by dikes?
 * 48) ...that the Workers and Peasants Party leader K.N. Joglekar successfully moved a resolution that the Indian National Congress should demand full independence for India?
 * 49) ...that the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan organised India's first May Day celebrations in 1923?
 * 50) ...that Professor Lalit Goel of Nanyang Technological University became an internet celebrity after footage of his lectures were uploaded to YouTube?