Hermann Kallenbach (1871–1945) was a South African architect who is best known for being a very close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, starting from the latter’s early days in South Africa. Kallenbach was born in 1871 in East Prussia to a German-Jewish family. He went to study architecture in Stuttgart and Munich. In 1896, he went to South Africa, where he …

Many hundreds of years ago, Russia was full of different tribes and races of people who had made their way from the great plains, or steppes; and mountain ranges of Asia. One of these races – the Cossacks – settled along the banks of the River Don which flows into the Sea of Azov, near the Black Sea. At the …

Of the 95 wettest countries in the world, Guinea, Solomon Islands and Sierra Leone are ranked the top three in order of maximum rainfall received on an average in a year, according to the World Statistics Pocket Book and the Statistical Yearbook of the United Nations. The records are for the period 1931-1960. Guinea, also known as the Republic of …

Though the origin of billiards is lost in history, an account by Greek traveller Anacharsis suggests that a rudimentary version was played by Egyptians around 400 BC. This form was adopted by the Greeks. The word ‘billiard’ has its roots in the French words ‘billart’ meaning stick, and ‘bille’ meaning ball. In 1470, the first billiards table was found among …

Ancient Mesopotamian women were possibly the first women to invent and wear lipstick. They crushed semi precious jewels and used them to decorate their lips. Women in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization applied lipstick to their lips for face decoration. Ancient Egyptians extracted purplish-red dye from fucus-algin, 0.01% iodine, and some bromine mannite, which resulted in serious illness. Cleopatra had …

Conflict diamonds came to the attention of the world media during the extremely brutal conflict in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The UN, governments, the diamond industry and non-governmental organisations , recognised the need for a global system to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate diamond supply chain, which helped fund conflict. The Kimberley Process (the first meeting was …

Lapis Lazuli is an intense blue semi-precious stone. It has been mined for 6,500 years in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. It has lazurite as the main component. It’s used in jewellery, mosaics, architecture and as a pigment called ultramarine in tempera paintings. It was used by Assyrians and Babylonians for seals, as an eyeshadow by Cleopatra and Romans believed it to be …

∼ Benita Sen

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Perhaps the greatest musical genius who ever lived, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, Jan. 27, 1756, the son of Leopold Mozart, concertmaster at the archiepiscopal court, and his wife, Anna Maria Pertl. Leopold Mozart was a successful composer and violinist, whose famous treatise on violin playing (Versuch einer grundlichen Violinschule) was first printed …

Winston Churchill — Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also …