CULTURALQA 11-2023-11 Q1 What isthe news item- “76 years ago, Gandhi told India and Pakistan how Diwali shouldbe celebrated”
A1 Exactly 76years ago, on November 12, 1947, Independent India observed its first Diwali. Here's what Mahatma Gandhi,the Father of the Nation, told India and Pakistan on the occasion of Diwali in1947. In his Diwalimessage, Mahatma Gandhi tried to spiritually bind the wounded conscience of thenation. (Photo: Archives) Rishabh Sharma,New Delhi,UPDATED: Nov 10, 2023 12:31IST Written By: Rishabh Sharma This year, Diwali is on November 12. Exactly 76 yearsago, on November 12, 1947, Independent India observed its first Diwali. However, there were largely no celebrations of the festival of lightsas the country, especially the northern and eastern belt, was still recoveringfrom the pains of India's Partition. The communal riots and bloodshed that followed thePartition had sown seeds of deep hatred between communities along religiouslines. The wounds were raw, the trauma fresh. Thecountry was divided on communal lines and there was deep distrust. At this time, Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of theNation, delivered his Diwali message, in a bid to spiritually bind the woundedconscience of the nation. Gandhi, an ardentfollower of Lord Rama, drew parallels from the epic Ramayana and urged thepeople to find Rama, or goodness, within themselves to celebrate the festivalof Diwali. Gandhi alsopreached to India and Pakistan to call back the members of minority communitieswho fled due to fear after the Partition. Otherwise, the essence of Diwali cannot becelebrated, he said. Following is theEnglish translation of the Hindi speech delivered at a prayer meeting by Mahatma Gandhi onNovember 12, 1947. BROTHERS AND SISTERS, Today is Diwali and I congratulate all of you on theoccasion. It is a great day in the Hindu calendar. According to the Vikram Samvat, New Year beginstomorrow, on Thursday. You must understand why Diwali is celebratedevery year with illuminations. In the great battle between Rama andRavana, Rama symbolized the forces of good and Ravana the forces of evil. Ramaconquered Ravana and this victory established Ramarajya in India. Q2 What isthe news item- Goddesses tamed: Is a unified religious identity recastingfemale deities in a passive mould? A2 Fierce mother goddesses, worshiped more in South India and West Bengal,are increasingly being depicted as peaceful figures submissive to male icons. Sarveswar Sipoy, Yesterday · 09:00 am Goddesses tamed: Is a unified religious identityrecasting female deities in a passive mould? >From left: A painting of Durga slaying Mahishasura,by Anant Shivaji Desai, >published by the Raja Ravi Varma Press, an artist putsfinishing touches to an >idol of Durga in Kolkata, and a lithograph of Kali from1879. | Reuters and in >public domain, via Wikimedia Commons and TheMetropolitan Museum. Ahead of the festival season, as I was watching television inHyderabad, I was a bit surprised to see the channels and advertising agenciesusing the mythological tales of Rama’s victory over Ravana to wish theiraudiences for Dusshera or Vijaya Dashami. Even the WhatsApp forwardsfrom my South Indian friends and family wishing me had images of Rama. This seemed at odds with the story I had been told in my childhood:that this festival celebrates Durga’s defeat ofMahishasura. When I asked my students about this, they reiteratedthat Vijaya Dashami marked Rama’s triumph. For them, Diwali too was associatedwith Rama and his return to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana. To me and others inSouth India, Deepavali is associated with Naraka Chatur Dasi, when the goddessSatya Bhama, who accompanied Krishna to the battle, killed the asura kingNarakasura. The above two QAare from the news item appeared in the yahoo opening page today. Q3 Why isMars red, while the moon is white? A3 SilkRoad, AI Expert Updated Thu Because of chemistry, my friend. Mars is redbecause it has a lot of iron on its surface, and that iron likes to react withoxygen. When iron and oxygen get together, they form iron oxide, also known as rust.Rust is red, or at least red-orange, depending on howmuch oxygen it has. The moon, on the other hand, is white because it hasvery little iron and very little oxygen. It's mostly madeof silicates,which are minerals that contain silicon and oxygen. Silicates are usually gray or white, depending onhow they reflect light. You see, Mars is smaller than Earth, so it cooled down faster and didn't have astrong magnetic field to protect it from the solar wind. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles thatcomes from the sun and can strip away a planet's atmosphere. This thing obliterated Mars and left it without muchof an atmosphere. Mars lostmost of its water and carbon dioxide, which are sources of oxygen. But it still had plenty of iron in its crust andmantle, which was exposed to the remaining oxygen in the air and in the rocks.Overtime, the iron oxidized and turned red. The moon is evensmaller than Mars, so it cooled down even faster and never had an atmosphere ora magnetic field to begin with. It also formed from debris that was ejected when agargantuan object hit the Earth eons ago. That debris was mostly silicates, with very littleiron or other metals. The moon alsodidn't have much volcanic activity or water to bring up more metals or oxygen from itsinterior. So it stayed gray or white. Short answer.: Mars is rusty, the moon is dusty. And now you know more than most people who just lookat them and wonder. Q4 Whydidn't the Europeans invent a writing system? A4 MattRiggsby, MA Archaeological Studies, Boston University16h There are two answers to this. The first, of course, is that they did. Indeed, they createdseveral: Linear A and B, Greekand Roman alphabets, and related systems like Glagolitic/Cyrilic and Futhark. Now, one may object to this, pointing out that thesewere all influenced by other writing systems, notably the Phoenician alphabetand hence ultimately by Egyptian writing systems. In which case, it’s worthpointing out that by that standard, hardly anybody invented a writing system. Full blown writing systems originated four times [1]. It happened inMesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mexico. The idea of and need for a writing system proceededfrom these four centers, with other societies adopting an existing system ormodifying it to their own needs, not starting over from scratch. Europeans, like most Asians,Africans, and peoples of the Americas, didn’t invent a writing system becausethere was no need to. When they adopted literate culture, there wasalready a perfectly serviceable tool at hand. There were moreprotowriting systems in Peru, the Balkans, the Indus, and a few other places, but only four clearly fullwriting systems. Q5 How canthe US produce so much food with only 1% of the workers in agriculture andfarms? Why is the US so efficient in agriculture, and farming? A5 LynnAdams, Oct 16 Do you know what this is? It is fields of potatoplants, as far as the eye can see! Do you know what this monster is?It’s a potatoharvester. It digs up multiple rows of potatoes and launches them from the sidechute into a waiting semi-truck trailer. The reason the USis able to produce enormous quantities of food, with a small labour force, isbecause of vast amounts of crop land, specialized plant strains, and advancedtechnology in growing and harvesting. I focused on potatoes, but this same situation isapplicable to most food crops in the US. The above three QA arefrom Quora DIGEST to me on 11-11-2023. QUORA ANSWERS NEEDNOT BE 100% CORRECT ANSWERS. Compiled and posted by R. Gopala Krishnan, 80, on 11-11-2023. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1425613326.1372424.1699710412328%40mail.yahoo.com.
