Solapur chaddar | Morchang | Rat temple | India's Notre Dame | 'Loh Pathgami'
Five unique Indian things to learn this week
Solapuri chaddars
The town of Solapur in Maharashtra is known for its textile industry. Once it had Asia's largest spinning mills. The Solapuri chaddar is a cotton bed-sheet which are manufactured using hand-looms in Solapur are popular all over the country. It was the first product from Maharashtra to get the "Geographical Indicator" (GI) tag. Do you know what that means? To know more such “unique products”, play this unique quiz just for Rs 99.
Morchang: Musical instrument from 1500 years ago
Morchang is an instrument used in Rajasthani folk music. This wind percussion instrument is held firmly between the teeth and the movement of the player's tongue, blowing and sucking of air through the instrument produces the sounds. Check it out.
Temple of Rats
The Karni Mata temple, aka the Rat temple near Bikaner dates back to the 1400s, when Karni Mata, an incarnation of Durga, asked the death-god Yama to reincarnate the son of a grieving storyteller. When death refused to help, Karni Mata promised that all-male storytellers—members of the Charan caste—would be reincarnated as rats in her temple. The temple has around 20,000 rats in residence. Read all about what they are fed here.
India’s Notre Dame
Who can forget the sight of the Notre Dame in Paris burning down last year. Did you know, Eglise de Notre Dame des Agnes Church in Puducherry, India is inspired from the famous Notre Dame church in Paris. Puducherry continues to have close connections with France since it was a French colony for many years. Did you know that in the last French Presidential elections in 2017, there were close to 5000 French voters in India? Read this article about the 2017 French elections in Puducherry.
Phrase of the Week: "Loh Pathgami"
"Loh Pathgami" in Hindi means 'train'! Dharmendra talks about the 'Loh pathgami agnirath' in the film 'Chupke Chupke'. Well, that film was made in the 1970's. These days most trains run on electric engines. So 'Loh pathgami vidyutrath' is the more accurate translation of the word in Hindi.
Kids usually love such quirky words and phrases. A bit of homework for you: do you know what ‘cricket’ is called in Hindi?
That’s all for this week. Are you playing our Family Quiz Night yet? Join us everyday LIVE at 7 pm IST on Zoom. See you then.