Bigger India

Odds & Ends

London to Delhi by Auto-Rickshaw

"It has driven 10,200 kilometres and only got one flat tyre."

Faster Than Light

“If it is true, then we truly haven’t understood anything about anything.... It looks too big to be true. The correct attitude is to ask oneself what went wrong.”

The Real Slumdog Millionaires

The poverty and filth of Mumbai's sprawling shanty towns, made famous in film Slumdog Millionaire, are being replaced with fully furnished homes kitted out with every modern appliance.

Amitabh Bachchan Has Got Your Number

"I am at my wits' end. I feel like committing suicide. I will seek a compensation of at least Rs.50 lakh from the TV channel and the host for this harassment and constant mental agony."

Intel Spied on Women Agents in Toilet

Counterintelligence equipment, including a hidden camera, was used to bug the bathroom of its security and counter-intelligence director in NTRO headquarters in Delhi.

Sanjeev Trehan mans busy traffic at a highway underpass to ease the troubles of commuters.

He Mans Traffic, As Good Samaritan

"I started this as a social service after I was stuck here for 40 minutes a few years back and was shocked that no one cared to manage it for a while. And then I thought something should be done about it and here I am."

$4.6 Million Gold Plated Nano

The most expensive cheapest car in the world is set with 200 lbs of gold and 10,000 gems and precious stones.

Asia's Tallest Church Grows Taller Through Charity

Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Dolours near here - billed as the tallest church in Asia at 260 ft - has decided to donate 125 sovereigns of gold to marry off 25 underprivileged women from different communities.

Westerners Teach Yoga -- to Indians

"When I first came, I found it strange that I was learning all this from an African American woman. It was a novelty. I loved it."

Astrologer Seeing Stars

For a quarter of a century, Ashok Kumar Sharma has been making a living by foretelling the fortune of people. But now hospitalised with quake injury, he admits he had no inkling of what lay in store for him

Tagore: Suspect No 12

“That bearded man in robes who is a poet apparently of some repute.”

Mumbai's Star Paanwalas

One has a website and the other holds a Guinness record for his bell collection.

First Printed Depiction of Taj Mahal

In the drawing by William Hodges who travelled through India in the 1780s executing drawings on the spot, the Taj appears in the background of a view of the Fort of Agra suggesting that Hodges was more interested in the military installation than the Taj.

Five Habits of Highly Annoying Indians

Here’s a news flash: there’s no point scrambling to get off that plane when your baggage won’t arrive for another half hour.

Flirting Lessons From Animals

"Animals can trump anything that humans do – their courtship behaviour is hugely varied and in some cases quite extreme."

The Art of Flirting

"In New York, they believe you have to be obvious, while Parisian women are thought of as being easy if they look at a man they like, so they show interest by averting their eyes. In Stockholm, it is more like they are blinking than making eye contact."

The Other Kushwant Singh

His books are mistaken for those of his famous namesake, and he has often faced charges of being an imposter. It is harrowing to constantly defend one’s name.

Goa's Barbers Thinning Out

Where they were once found in abundance in the bustling side streets of Panaji, the traditional hair-cutting salons are now becoming as thin on the ground as hairs on the head of a balding man.

British Men Spend 18 Minutes Daily Looking Handsome

An average British man spends as much as 18 minutes making himself look presentable in the morning, a research has found.

White House Gate-Crasher Crushed

Celebrity White House gate crasher turned reality-TV star Michaele Salahi has left her husband to be with another man.

The Last of the Aryans

Regarded as long-lost members of a purebred ‘Master Race’ settled in the Himalayas, Brokpas attract curious visitors, some of who try to satisfy their fantasy of having pure Aryan babies.

Film Spoofs Are Joy on a Shoestring

The actors of Malegaon are usually paid nothing, or almost nothing. They come for the free food on the sets, the excitement of being part of a movie, the minor fame that will come their way if a film is completed and released, and the hope that someone in Mumbai’s film industry might spot their talent.

Why a Deep Voice Can Win a Woman's Heart

Men who sound like Barry White or Morgan Freeman can get ahead in the dating game because women remember a deep voice.

Cell Phones for Birth Control

!DEA cell phone carrier is marketing 3G service as a form of population control. With all they can do on their phones, the ad suggests, Indians will be too busy for making babies.

Bollywood to Inspire Indian Cops

It is hoped the example the fictional character "honest cop" Bajirao Singham on the big screen will inspire real-life officers to turn their backs on crime.

Tongues of the Fathers

"Whether in European, Indian, Chinese or other languages, the expression ‘mother tongue' and its concept is firmly embedded in popular imagination – perhaps this is the reason why for so many years the role of fathers ... in determining prehistoric language switches has not been recognised by geneticists."

Britain to Recycle Diapers Into Roof Tiles

An average British baby uses 6,000 before being trained to use the potty. Each disposable diaper takes around 500 years to decompose.

I Just Called to Kiss You

The kissing simulator, which involves a moisture sensor on the smoocher's phone and a motorized "wet sponge pushing against a membrane" on the receiver's phone, can differentiate between a peck on the cheek and a full on sloppy kiss -- moving the wet sponge to simulate accordingly.

Richest Indian Prisoner

Janardhana Reddy has had to swap his gold and platinum fixtures in his lavish bathroom, for baths under a tree.

$22 Too Much for a Ferari?

Chirag Patel, a millionaire dentist, dubbed a "skinflint" and a "miser" by the British media, used a fraudulent disabled badge, to avoid $22 in parking fees for his Ferari.

Chasing The Ultimate Flying Objects

Indian cities are playing host to a hippy sport with a makeover. What draws Indians to Ultimate Frisbee?

Around the World on Vegetable Oil

He converted the bus to run on waste cooking oil and installed a filtering system and a 1,200 litre tank under the bed before setting off in September 2009 determined to prove what can be achieved with people's rubbish.

Janardan Reddy's Emperor Life

From owning helicopters lying in his indoor swimming pool and watching movies on an expansive 70mm close by' former minister and MLC G Janardhan Reddy lived like a king.

Microspider to Repair Blood Vesels

A new spider-like micromachine could swim through a person's blood vessels, healing damaged areas and delivering drugs as it goes.

Why Ketchup Squirts

How can ketchup seem solidly stuck to the bottom of a bottle, then squirt copiously on to your chips as soon as you give it a squeeze? Cornell University researchers think they have the answer.

800-lb Baigan ka Bharta Seeks to Make Bharta of Bt Brinjal

Activists pooled in 200 kg of brinjals and 300 kg of spices and ingredients like tomatoes, onions and green chillies to make the world's biggest organic 'baingan ka bharta' -- the mashed and char-broiled brinjal dish -- ever cooked in protest against genetically modified food.

Villagers Want Permission to Kill Themselves

Fed up of government apathy, over 150 farmers in a village in Jharkhand's Palamu district have sent a petition to the chief minister asking for permission to take their lives.

Why State Surveys Asked About Bras and Haddock

Mass Observation decided to visit and test the legend of bonking on the beach out. They went out at night and fell over couples on the beach and noted down how many were having sexual intercourse."

Size Does Matter

The more testosterone – the male sex hormone – a baby is exposed to, the longer his ring finger is likely to be.

Green Cremation Offers Clean Departure

A Scotland firm has created a greener alternative to cremation it calls "resomation" -- a high-temperature water and chemical treatment that dissolves mortal remains.