Nicknames can be funny, sweet and very endearing. Often, they also tell a story. Can you name India’s City of Destiny or the City of Red Gold? Read on for some unusual names that India’s cities and towns have acquired and what they reveal about them.
Visakhapatnam – City of Destiny (Andhra Pradesh): Coined by Founder-Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University, Sir C R Reddy. He shifted the university from Bejawada to the fishing village that Visakhapatnam was back in the 1930s, so that the city could ‘meet a great destiny’. 2/7
Muzaffarpur – Land of Litchi (Bihar): The city is the single-largest producer of litchis grown in India. Its Shahi Litchi is the fourth product in Bihar to get a Geographical Indication tag, after Jardalu mango, Katarni rice and Magahi paan. 3/7
Ahmedabad – Manchester of India (Gujarat): Situated in the heart of a cotton-growing region, the city became an important textile hub. The first cotton textile mill was set up here by an entrepreneur, Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, in 1861. It was called Ahmedabad Cotton Mill. 4/7
Panipat – Cast-off Capital (Haryana): It is a global centre for recycling textiles. Its mills take discarded clothes from Western countries and convert them into recycled cloth.
5/7
Solan – City of Red Gold and Mushroom City: The first nickname comes from Solan’s bulk production of tomatoes and the second from its thriving mushroom farming industry. Also, the Directorate of Mushroom Research is located here, in Chambaghat. 6/7
Coorg (Kodagu in Karnataka) – Coffee Cup of India: It’s one of the leading producers of coffee in the country. 7/7
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Every time you sip a tall glass of sugarcane juice, spare a thought for a brilliant and gutsy woman without whom this thirst-quencher wouldn’t taste quite as sweet. Janaki Ammal was India’s first botanist, and she created the indigenous sugarcane hybrid that we savour today. 1/6
Ammal, who was born in Kerala in 1897, is likely the first woman in the US to earn a PhD in Botany, from the University of Michigan in 1931. She travelled between India, the US and the UK to study and work as a single woman who chose scholarship over marriage.
2/6
The world-renowned Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, England, has named a variety of magnolias after Janaki Ammal, to honour her work on these plants at the institute in the 1940s. Called ‘Magnolia kobus Janaki Ammal’, the shrubs still bloom on the campus. 3/6
India’s first multi-media ad campaign rolled out in 1939 and it was totally offline. It promoted a vanaspati ghee brand once familiar to every Indian kitchen – Dalda. It was executed by Lintas for the Lever Brothers (later Hindustan Unilever), who then owned the brand. 1/6
The Dalda ad campaign involved sending a round, tin-shaped van to roam the streets; screening a short film in cinemas; roadside stalls where people could sample the product; roadside stalls selling tasty snacks cooked in Dalda; print ads; and leaflets for distribution. 2/6
#DidYouKnow that the Dalda ad campaign of the ‘30s & ‘40s roped in wandering storytellers in India’s villages, where they talked about the vanaspati brand and its benefits? Talk about smart product placement! 3/6
Sound is one of the primary elements of cinema and, ushering in the ‘talkies’ era to Indian cinema was the movie Alam Ara. The film released #onthisday in 1931 at Majestic Theatre in Bombay and was such a hit that police had to control the crowds. 1/4
Alam Ara (Ornament of the World) was directed by Ardeshir Irani, who also produced India’s first colour film Kisan Kanya (1937). Based on a play of the same name written by a Bombay-based Jewish dramatist, it revolved around an ageing king and his two rival queens. 2/4
The cast of India’s first ‘talkie’, Alam Ara, was led by Zubeida, Master Vithal and Prithviraj Kapoor. Unlike the silent era, where actors of foreign descent were often cast, Alam Ara needed actors who were fluent in Hindustani, the language in which the film was made. 3/4
Her parents called her ‘Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehalvi’ but the world knew her as the ‘Marilyn Monroe of India’. Her screen name was simply ‘Madhubala’, the most celebrated star in Hindi cinema in the ’50s and ’60s and whose 52nd death anniversary falls #OTD.
Madhubala was so beautiful it drove her co-stars to distraction. Shammi Kapoor said of their time on the sets of ‘Rail Ka Dibba’: “I was so nervous that I kept forgetting my lines. She was fully aware of the effect she had been having on me and was relishing it thoroughly.” 2/6
Enchanted by her, popular Greek singer Stelios Kazantzidis dedicated a hugely popular song to her. He titled it ‘Mantoubala’:
“I wish I could see you and then die, my dear
My soul wants only this
Since I lost you, I’m melting
I cry out your name with pain
Madhubala, Madhubala”
"A 100 yards of it can pass through the eye of the needle, so fine is its texture, and yet the point of the steel needle can’t pierce through it easily. It is so transparent & light that it looks as if one is in no dress at all but has only smeared the body with pure water"
(1/4)
This is how the 14th-century Sufi poet and scholar Amir Khusrau described the almost invisible but highly valued cotton fabric, Dhaka muslin, in his text Nihayatul-Kamaal (The Height of Wonders) in the 1320s. Under the Mughals, the weavers received royal patronage.
(2/4)
It was referred to in poetic terms like abi-rawan (flowing water), baft-hawa (woven air) and shabnam (evening dew). It became one of the most lucrative exports with the best valued at 1600 silver pence - the longer the length and lighter the weight, the higher the price.
(3/4)
The Great Exhibition was held in 1851. A special Crystal Palace was created in London's Hyde Park. It was sponsored by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the theme was 'Works of Industry of all Nations'. India was gifted 30,000 sq.ft of exhibition space. One of the exhibits was
The Ivory Throne gifted to the Queen by the Raja of Travancore to demonstrate the skills of his craftsmen. The densely-carved elephant-ivory plaques incorporate Indian and European motifs, and the conch-shell emblem of Travancore forms the cresting. Another exhibit was
The howdah presented to Queen by the Nawab Nazim of Bengal. The stuffed elephant was on loan from Saffron Walden Museum in Essex. In the background, you can also see the embroidered muslin from Dhaka! However, the exhibit which was the center of attraction was