I have decided to write something a “Did you know?” section on my blog. Its not an attempt to holier-than-thou. It would actually be a representation of my naivety; every time I learn something simple, I intend to put it on the blog – my space where I can say anything unabashed, including calling Mayawati and Mamta a joint curse on India.

 

So here am I.

 

Did you know that Honey is a substance that doesn’t rot? Ever. Time would crystallize, but never destroy its basic composition. In ancient times it could be used for mummification or simply to preserve bodies. Its said that Alexander the Great’s body was preserved in white honey.

 

Good thing is it does get digested J

The Bird Flu, SARS, Foot and mouth diease, mad cow disease…… and now the Swine Flu??? All related to eating non-vegetarian; and few people know that Sars had its origins to eating cats, a Cantonese delicacy!!

 

Have you heard of Cabbage flu, lady finger epidemic, wheat disease or vegetable fever? Porbably God is sending signals to the mankind to become vegetarian. A fellow traveler argued with me, where would the food grow for so many vegetarians. He didn’t seem to know that to get 50 kg meat from a real fat pig, the poor thing consumes much more than 500 kgs of grain in its life time.

I am right now in Hong Kong, my 25^th visit probably; and I don’t stop discovering. The tram to the Victoria Peak was the first mechanized transport in HK (later than the first trams in my Calcutta, and the clock stopped for us). There was a First class and a Servants’ class! The Servant’s class ran unabated until 1960.

And the British called us class conscious!

The big difference is while rest of the world moved on from classes, segregation, apartheid, and so on, we stick to them and even win elections riding on them. Quite a class, we Indians.

 

Yes, that’s true. In a sport called Luge, where you jump with skis on from heights from a snowcapped hilltop. Most of us don’t know it (nor did I, thanks to cricket) in India.

 

Keshavan, 28, who lives in Himachal Pradesh shall participate at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, and has been sponsored by Swiss Air (who else) and Limca book of records.

 

And here’s the real piece: Keshavan originally belongs to Kerala, the southern Indian state where leave apart winter sports, people don’t even know what Winter Clothing is!!