The plane that flew away without a pilot
On the 16th of January, 1961, a plane belonging to the Lucknow Flying Club climbed into the air on its own from Safdarjung aerodrome. Find out more...
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Booksploring digs out tidbits from books written long ago. It's not textbook history but interesting things you probably have not heard about
How scientists found monkeypox, and why it's not a big threat
News of the monkeypox virus’s spread in Europe in 2022 has alarmed people everywhere, but it is not a new virus. It had lurked in the rainforests o...
Did Nehru dislike Subhas Chandra Bose?
There are some politicians today who question Nehru’s patriotism and insinuate that he slighted the memory of Subhas Chandra Bose. Had Nehru really...
The American nurse who became Maharani of Indore
Yeshwant Rao Holkar, the young Maharaja of Indore, fell ill in Los Angeles sometime in 1938. Marguerite Lawler, the nurse who looked after him at G...
Girmitiyas: India’s forgotten sugar slaves in Fiji
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Why rents were so high in Chandigarh in the 1950s
By 1957, the government had allotted thousands of plots to individuals, but only a few hundred had been built. The resulting shortage of houses pushed...
What was Chandigarh like in 1957?
It was a city of government employees, and a place where you saw far more men than women. But 6-year-old Chandigarh had one positive distinction -- th...
Why Chandigarh’s private houses are built inside frames
If you look carefully at a block of private houses in Chandigarh, you will notice that each house is built inside a box or frame. Adjacent houses can ...
Chandigarh: First Indian city with toilets for all
In the 1950s, flush toilets were a novelty for most Indians, but in Chandigarh they were an essential part of even the smallest houses. However, you’l...
Chandigarh had a wide rich-poor gap from the start
In the 1950s, the top government officers in Chandigarh earned 50 times more than the most junior employees, and their houses set near Sukhna Lake wer...