When Dr. Kalam was Director DRDO, he selected the Wheeler Island in Odisha Coast near Chandipur for Missile Testing Center. He approached the then PM P V Narasimha Rao, and expressed his desire. PM said no problem you will be given the land. Kalam asked,Sir how much time would be required to complete the documentation from the related revenue department. PM replied that it will take about 6 months to complete all formalities. After few weeks when Dr Kalam happened to visit DRDO Chandipur

The date was Tuesday, June 8,1948 &Air India's aircraft-Malabar Princess, a 40-seater Lockheed L-749 Constellation, registration number,VT-CQS,with Capt KR Guzdar in command-was in the final stages of preparation for its 5,000 mile journey from Mumbai to London via Cairo& Geneva The flight's time of departure was late in the evening &of the 35 passengers that were to board the flight, 29 were bound for London & six for Geneva. Months of meticulous planning had finally paid off. General preparations for the flight had been under way for a long time.

Just as we have Rajnikant jokes, in Russia they have Putin jokes.....

When Putin was late for school, the teacher punished the whole class for being early.

When Putin's phone rings in the theatre, they pause the movie. Doctor: "You have Cancer".
Putin: "Tell it, it has two weeks to live".

When Putin looks in the mirror, there's no reflection because there is only 1 Putin.

When Putin was born, he named his parents.

Russia didn't choose him, he chose Russia.

As India celebrates her 72nd Republic Day, some facts about Indian Constitution. It was written by hand. No instrument was used to write the whole constitution.Prem Behari Narain Raizada, a Delhi resident, wrote this huge book,the entire Constitution,in italics with his own hands Prem Behari was a famous calligraphy writer of that time. He was born on 16 December 1901 in the family of a renowned handwriting researcher in Delhi. He lost his parents at a young age. He was brought up by his grandfather Ram Prasad Saxena&uncle Chatur Bihari Narayan Saxena.

In 1976 a rake (railway rake is coupled coaches without engine)was placed at one of the disused sidings temporarily, as there was no place available along the platforms at Assam’s Tinsukia main station,about 480 kms northeast of Guwahati&about 80 kms from the Arunachal border. Railway records show that this train reached there at 11:08 AM on 16th June 1976. The engine ('power' in railway parlance) was disconnected from the rake and brought back to the station to assist in placing of certain goods wagons.

Biju (Bijayananda) Patnaik (1916 - 1997) is the only person in India on whose death his body was wrapped in the national flag of three countries. India, Russia and Indonesia.

Biju was also the Chief Minister of Odisha for 2 terms Biju Patnaik was a pilot & when the Soviet Union was in trouble during World War II, he bombed Hitler's forces by flying a fighter aircraft Dakota, which forced Hitler to retreat.  The highest award was also given to him and he was granted honorary citizenship by the Soviet Union

A number of Indian&British officers captured by Italians in Middle East theatre in May 1942.All 3 commanding offrs of regiments of 3rd Indian Motor Brigade;Lt.Col Fowler CO of 18th Cavalry,Lt.Col De Salis CO of 2nd Lancers&Lt.Col P.R. Tathem CO of 11th PAVO Cav bagged by Italians In the Aversa POW camp in Italy, a very strange chapter of Indian military history was recorded. Italian commander of the POW camp, Colonel Errera appointed several Indian officers for management of prisoners.

Have you ever noticed that on the wings and body of all airplanes in India, the name starting with VT is prominently written. The name of every airplane in India starts with VT but what is VT after all? Actually, this two-letter word tells how we have been carrying a symbol of slavery for more than 90 years.

VT means:
'Viceroy Territory' meaning - Viceroy's Area.
What is the meaning of this 2 letter code ..?

During the 1800s, Aden had become an extremely prosperous port city and a home to thriving business. About a thousand Parsis (Zarathustis) belonging to business & shipping community had settled in Aden by the end of 19th century. The Parsis also built a fire temple in Aden to cater to their spiritual and religious needs. A unique characteristic of Parsi religious fire - known as 'Atash' - is that it is an amalgamation of fire from 16 hearths, of which 14 are from different occupational hearths

In the 1880s,a Shiva temple in Agar Malwa,Madhya Pradesh, was renovated&almost rebuilt by Lt.Col.Martin as per his wife’s wish-the only Shiva temple ever made by an Englishman in India. In 1879,Lt.Col.Martin of Agar Malwa was leading the British army in war against Afghanistan Col. Martin used to regularly send messages of his well-being to his wife. The war continued for long & Lady Martin stopped getting messages. She was very upset. Once riding on her horse, she was to pass by the temple of Baijnath Mahadev.

1986 - Darshan Patel without any formal education in marketing started running his family business, Paras Pharmaceuticals.

He created some great consumer brands like Moov, Ring Guard, Set Wet, Dermi Cool and Dcold all of which became household names in India 2010 - Reckitt Benkiser Group bought over Paras Pharma for $850 million from Mr. Patel. Armed with this new capital, Mr Patel setup Vini Cosmetics and started searching for the next big idea
Around that time, deodrants were fairly popular among teenagers & young men.

In 1920 Mahatma Gandhi had declared the Non Cooperation movement. There was excitement & fervor in the air. A lot of young Indians took part in peaceful demonstrations, across India.
One of those young Indians, was a boy studying Physics in Calcutta Univ. His name was Noni Gopal. Young Noni took part in a small but loud demonstration against the British Rule, near Elgin road,Calcutta. He was also the person, who wrote the pamphlet against the British Rule, distributed by the protestors that day. Young Noni had his final exams in 2 weeks.

On 22nd July, 1947. A former Commander of the then Royal Air Force was having dinner with his wife at his residence. At about 10pm the phone rang.
Within minutes after lifting the phone, he could well understand that the call was from none other than the PM designate Shri Jawahar Lal Nehru. Nehru, who incidentally was one of his close friends &well wishers too. After talking to him for few minutes he returned to the dining table visibly extremely disturbed.

Hathras in Western UP,currently in news for dubious reasons,has 4 railway stations (City, Jn, Kila, Road)
Hathras can be recalled as being remembered for other reasons, quite opposite of what it’s today, when people are calling it a rape city,was actually once a city of Saints Tulsi Sahib (1763-1843),heir to the throne of Poona (Pune), renounced his royal heritage to seek mystic reality, moved to Hathras,attracting a devoted following.Initiated many followers who later themselves became big Saints starting their own sects-one being the Radhasoami Sect

In 2013 there was a huge case in a western UP village of a Jat girl eloping with a Muslim boy.She was 19 &first year BA student.A huge Maha-panchayat was organised by the girl’s family with approx 3000 people attending.I also attended. I was the only female in that Maha-Panchayat I went there in my personal capacity, to see how things work in villages. Attendees were mostly upper caste men, they had gathered to basically castigate Muslims, blame the boy, & find a solution. I saw some local BJP leaders also there. This was August 2013.

Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) was launched 01 April 2003, all thanks to the efforts of late Jaswant Singh, who was Defence Minister in Vajpayee Govt & later Finance Minister. Jaswant Singh was an ex Indian Army Major himself from the National Defence Academy. Jaswant Singh was as Armoured officer from the Central Indian Horse (CIH) regiment. His cousin. Lt General Hanut Singh was Commandant at Poona Horse.
Defence Ministry was resistant towards the ECHS scheme & the file was not being cleared.

Looking at what Shiv Sainiks did to a retired Navy veteran the below given story tells us how other nations value veterans.

In his book `Toward Resurgent India', Lt. Gen. (Retd.) M. M. Lakhera, writes: “I had gone to UK in 1995 as Deputy Leader of the Indian Delegation to take part in the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the victory in Europe during the Second World War.

I, along with four other Army officers, had just stepped out after attending the inaugural session

How lack of facilities & refusal to admit Covid infected veterans in hospitals is killing them, both civilians and defence personnel.
Last week a 76-yr old retired Indian Airforce Wing Commander in Gurugram fell ill. He had a history of cardiac problems.His children took him to Army Hospital Research & Referral , commonly known as R&R. After struggling for more than an hour the veteran was denied admission. Main argument was that they have orders not to entertain veterans.

Message from President Navy Foundation Mumbai Chapter.

The Provost sailors are the Navy equivalent of Military Police.

In view of yesterdays sad event where Madan Sharma Ex-Chief ELP was brutally attacked by miscreants allegedly from Shiv Sena The Managing Committee has decided *not to hand over the donation* of Rs. 9,17,872/- collected from 183 out of 1253 members to *CM relief fund for COVID-19* . We will review the decision in early Dec ‘20 .

Not one bit surprised at a single successful woman taking on the system single handedly, being hounded by circumventing laws.

Long back a lady officer made a sexual harassment complaint against a married army officer,at a particular base She met the army legal officer of that formation, who advised her to write down the full incident in small paras. She wrote how the married officer used to hound her & that day misbehaved with her in a drunken state at a officers mess party,in front of two bachelor officers.

The Bombay Plan- In January 1944, just three years before Indian Independence, a document was published, that caused great consternation and concern amongst the British rulers of India. This pamphlet was priced at exactly One Rupee, and immediately attracted a lot of attention. It had to be reprinted a couple of times in India during the same year. Within a few months, Penguin also published it in the United Kingdom. What was this document, and why did it create all these ripples ?