Kapoor family tree | Foucault pendulums | Indira Gandhi's sarees | Thanda matlab | Partition Museum
Five unique things to explore about India this week
First family of Bollywood: the Kapoor family tree
The Kapoor family, descendants of Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj Kapoor are often called ‘the first family of Bollywood’. Films have been their main profession from the times of the patriarch ‘Prithvinath’ Kapoor (later known as Prithviraj) started his career as an actor in the silent era of Hindi cinema. His father, Basheshwar Nath Kapoor, also played a short role in his movie Awara! Here’s a peek into the Kapoor family tree: four generations of film actors and the youngsters still active today!
Foucault pendulums in India
The Foucault pendulum is a device invented to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. It was exhibited to public for the first time in February 1851 in the Meridian of the Paris Observatory. It is fascinating to watch and you can see it in multiple places in India too! . Here’s a list where.
Indira Gandhi’s saree statement
Indira Gandhi was India’s only woman Prime Minister. She used the saree to make strong powerful and cultural statements. She often wore fabrics and crafts from regions where she was travelling to, and a range of sarees that represented the wide variety of patterns found in India, be it be a humble khadi saree to a rich silk one.
One story goes that she noticed a saree while travelling and asked her intelligence chief (the person responsible for providing information to the PM on many things): “What saree was that?” The best he could answer was: “Maybe, a silk one?” To this she quickly said: “That's not a silk saree, but a handloom one from Coimbatore. What kind of intelligence are you gathering?”
For more such stories and interesting Indian textiles, play the Iconiq 10 quiz on ‘Sarees and Textiles’. Download in a quiz-format and play with your family just for ₹99.
Cool ads: Thanda Matlab Coca Cola
The Aamir Khan-starrer 'Thanda matlab Coca-Cola' ad campaign made the almost universal rural word for soft drinks a hot catchphrase. Battling a war with Pepsi, Coca Cola took to mass appeal and made inroads massively into the population with this series of ads, getting worldwide compliments. Relive them here.
The world’s first Partition Museum
India and Pakistan split into two nations in 1947, causing mass migrations across the newly made border. It’s the darkest point of recent Indian history, that caused massive deaths, killings and losses. All this is captured in a unique museum in Amritsar, the Partition Museum. From exhibits to refugee artefacts and oral histories, take a glimpse of it here.
Love this? Tell us about the unique things you have discovered about India! Just reply to this mail and tell us what you like.