The Blue Indian City

When you travel around the world you will see literally amazing things. Things that sometimes even the strongest imagination will find difficult to create.

The Blue City

However, India is a country that can deliver great amount of beauty for the all 4 senses. This is proven once more by the beautiful city of Jodhpur or “The Blue City”.

The city is located in the state of Rajasthan- one of the poorest in the country. Partly this was the reason for the strange and in the same way beautiful colours of the place. The people of the lower castes paint their houses in order to show their lower social status. The Brahmins, the poorest in the caste system decided that they need to differentiate from the other casts and that this is the proper way for doing that.

However, a simple walk in the city gives much more than the blue houses view. A whole bouquet of smells, feelings of great silk and other sensitive materials, beautiful colours. The city is located in the foot of the Mehrangarh Fort. Other popular name of the city is the Sun City because of the bright and nice weather during most of the year.

At the moment the city is a major and important education centre thanks to the “Indian Institute of Technology”, NLU - National Law University ,Jodhpur National University, NIFT - National Institute of Fashion Technology, Ayurveda University, JNVU - Jai Narayan Vyas University, , which falls under JNVU university, is the world's only institute which has its own mines.

The Ancient Vimanas and Their Capabilities

It looks like more and more people start to believe that the world will not end in 2012 and that the ancient people were not a bunch of drugged hunters and shamans but actually well educated people with knowledge way more developed than we ever thought.

Vimana

So, what I found these days is some info about flying machines mentioned numerous times in ancient texts as “Ramayana” and “Rigveda”. Those texts describe not only how the machines looked but also the sounds they made and the destinations which the people were capable to reach with them.

The outside was shiny, made of special metals, wood and alloys. The engines used mercury and they were driven by men. The people were inside the machines, staying in well looking and comfortable room. It is described that they had special costumes and that they had to eat special things because of the flights.

It is said that the machines were different for the different purposes. The writer describes the sounds these were making. Some were very loud while other sounded like birds' song.

Here is what one of the texts say:

“Thanks to powers hidden inside the mercury, which creates air vortex, the person inside the machine can travel to the end of the sky. Thanks to the mercury we can produce power equivalent to the one of the thunder. You only have to fill the engine with mercury and heat its top. This creates the needed amount of power for the flight.“

Other interesting thing is that these “planes” can move in all directions and can be very fast. According some texts, thanks to these, people had reached the moon.

Other interesting fact is that during the 30s, officers from Hitler's army bought many Indian books where this sort of machines were described and according some people they've tried to build them.

Will you believe to this, it is up to you, but it certainly very interesting hypotheses.

Eve - Trains

I watched a video of a man travelling in a wagon full of women and all of them were beating him furiously. I got curious and here is what I found :

An interesting type of services becomes more and more popular in India, Japan and Indonesia – women only trains. Obviously, the women in these countries like and value very high their private space, because after the eve-floors, now they have eve- trains.

The whole idea behind this, is that the sexual harassment is a serious problem there, so the women decided that they want to feel comfortable at least for their travel to work. That is why the transport companies secured them with a special wagon and sometimes whole trains which can be used only by women. This way, they do not have to worry that some men will stay next to them in the crowded train and will make them feel uncomfortable.

The first train of such type was introduced in 1995 and since then their number had become very big.

However, if you think that this is some kind of exception, you are wrong. Similar trains can be seen in Japan and Indonesia too. Till 1977 such train was travelling in England too, so obviously the idea is not new. 

India's Biggest Companies

India today is one of fastest developing countries in the world along with China and Brazil. Some of the richest people in the world are Indians.

The country becomes more and more interesting for the big international investors because of it's vast sizes and billion population. The economy of India has approximately 47 big companies which creates the main part of the GDP of India. The gross domestic product of India had tripled for the past ten years and today it is 1.4 trillion dollars and keeps increasing. So which are these giant companies and what they do.

First we will start with number 3:

The State Bank of India. It is the largest bank in the subcontinent and it offers bank services not only in India but also overseas. It has more than 16 000 branches which makes it the bank with the largest branch network in the country.

Second biggest : Oil & Natural Gas Corporation

It has an award for best company in Asia in it's branch. It is main producer of oil and natural gas in India and also one of the biggest in the world. The profit of the company is the highest in India. The ONGC refines, explores, produces, markets and transports oil and natural gas.

The biggest company in India is Reliance Industries Limited

Just to help you to imagine exactly how big this company is I will tell that it's turnover for and year is 45 billion US dollars. Impressive, isn't it? It is among the leaders in it's branch not only in India but also around the globe. It is the biggest producer of fibre and yarn in the world.

These will be the names that you will hear about when Indian progress is mentioned. Keep an eye on them because they will be more and more important for the international economy over next the years.

History of Diamond Industry In India

The historians say that the first diamonds in India were found in the 4th century BC. At that time the Indian diamonds were very expensive because of their size and beauty.

India's most famous, expensive and wonderful diamonds were known as the “diamonds of Golconda”. Among them are the famous Koh-i-knor, which is now on the British crown, Darya-i-Nur, the Hope Diamond and many others. The largest of these precious stones was the Darya-i-nur, - “Sea of light”. It weighted over 35 grams, which for a diamond is a huge number.

How the diamonds were created?

The diamond is one of the strongest materials known to the human kind. It is almost unbreakable and it is used for cutting through rocks and other very hard and solid materials. The reason for this enormous strength of the diamond is the way it was created. The Indian diamonds were created deep in the earth, when the two gigantic tectonic plates – the Asian tectonic plate and the Thehis Oceanic Crust collides to each other. This collision generates incredible forces, which are able to change the structure of the chemical elements. Although, this happens in incredibly slow rate – only 10 cm per year, the forces was enough to create the Himalayas and to change the overlook of this part of the planet.

According to the ancient Indians, the perfect diamond had to be a perfect octahedron with sharp edges and very pure ( with no stains on it ).

In the second half of the 14th century, most of the diamonds brought to Europe originated in India. This long journey was the reason for the diamonds to become very rare and also expensive. The route of silk was used for transporting the diamonds, which meant that the caravans had to go through the lands of the Persians. who were keeping some of the stones, as a tariff for going through their territory. So, the Europeans had to find a new route, which they did with finding the sea route around Africa.

Today India has only one active diamond located in the centre of the country. It is owned by the state of Madhya Pradesh but the quantities which the mine is yielding are not very big.

Indian Radio

Do you remember which was the main way of informing before the internet? What were you doing, when you wanted to understand something in the time when google was not existing? How were you finding all the news? Maybe the answer will be identical for most of us - just listen to the radio. Even today, when everything is just a click from us we all listen to the radio.

So what is the most popular radio in India?

All Indian Radio or Akashvani, is the national radio of India. It was established in 1936 when India was still under British rule. It is a division of a bigger institution called Prasar Bharati (This the national broadcaster in India. It is also broadcasting the Indian National television).

The history of the radio starts in 1923 when the first radio broadcastings started. The station was located in Bombay. In the time when India became independent there were only six stations in the main cities – Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and etc.

Today the AIR has stations all over the country. This may look strange to some people but do not forget how big India is and that all the regions are having their own language, so one station is just not enough. That is why AIR is broadcasting in eleven Indian languages and sixteen foreign languages. The radio is broadcasting even in Europe these days, thanks to the latest technologies. Akashvani is trying to be a modern and open minded radio station. That is why it has youth division, drama division it offers news on the phone service, direct to home service and many others.

Future.
The Akashvari or Sky's Voice (what actually akashvari means) will become bigger and more modern. How big exactly, we will have to wait to see.