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Espire Indepenedence Day Celebration: Children from an NGO (CHETNA WELFARE SOCIETY) performing a dance number.

• the King of hearts is the Only King without a mustache.
• men are struck 4 times more frequently by lightning than women.
• a giraffe can clean its ears with its tongue.
• every Continent has a city called Rome.
• the 14 deadliest snakes can all be found in Australia.
• your mouth produces 1 litre saliva every day.
• ostriches can run up to 70 km/h.
• all Kittens are born with blue eyes.
• the garbage disposal was originally called “Electric Pig”.
• the average person falls asleep in 7 minutes.
• tongue prints are unique to every person.
• the first woman on a US postage stamp was Queen Isabella of Spain.
• Mozart composed hist first Opera at the age of 12.
• a cat can be either right-pawed or left-pawed.
• the dot over the letter “I” is called a title.
• African elephants have only four teeth available to chew their food.
• Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
• a snail can sleep for three years.

Source: Meebo.com

Holi: The Festival of Colours

Holi as we play here in Delhi is a little different from the one we have in Manipur.

Holi in Manipur (my home state) is known as ‘Yaoshang’. It continues for six days starting on the full moon day of ‘Phairel/Lamda’ (February/ March). Thatched huts of hay, twigs and sticks are built in the afternoon to perform puja. Later in the evening the hut is set ablaze at the very first sight of the full moon, which announces the start of the Yaoshang festival.

Then little children in colourful attire go to the neighbourhood and to their relatives for ‘alms’ (known as ‘Naktheng Khaiba’). I have vivid memories of those days. We sometimes got Bidis and Cigarettes! instead of money. Getting around 150 to 200 Rupees was considered a good sum at that time. From that money boys buy powders, colours and Pichkaris (water pistols). Girls open their own “stall” of eateries from that money. Then the boys make groups and play colour with the girls. Girls extract money from the boys for playing colous with them.

Sometimes bigger/elder girls snatch shoes jackets from us and did not return it until we emptied watever we had in the pocket. We even got thrashing from the bigger girls.

A special Manipuri dance, called ‘Thabal Chongba‘ is also associated with this festival where boys and girls hold hands and dance in a circle. Thabal, means moonlight and Chongba means dance. Though earlier only drum or dholak, was allowed to be used for this special dance, now modern musical instruments are also used. This dance is performed on all six-days in every locality and gives a chance to the young boys and girls to meet.

Picture Source: Getty Images

I have seen The Great Escape many times before. It tops as my favourite among the oldies. Some rate it as slow and boring but I loved every bit of it. A great movie about hope, team work, faith, patience, freedom unity and responsibility. Steve McQueen (The Cooler King) was the star among the stars. It ended sadly as only three of them could make it but happy that “Danny”, who actually dug the tunnel, was among them.

Ennio Morricone’s whistle-hoot from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was simply awesome and is my new ringtone!!