Some of these facts may be known to you. They were recently published in

a German magazine which deals with world history. It takes a German

magazine to publish hitherto unknown information, even to us Indians.

a. India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history.

b. India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

c. The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700BC.

More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60

subjects. The University of Nalanda, built in the 4th century BC, was

one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of

education.

d. Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. It is the most

suitable language for computer software. - (A report in Forbes magazine,

July 1987.)

e. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka,

the father of medicine, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today

Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization.

f. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of

development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of

the British invasion in the early 17th Century.

g. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The

very word 'navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATH. The

word 'navy' is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.

h. Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the

sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth

to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.

i. The value of "pi" was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained

the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered

this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians.

j. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic

equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest

numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used

numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of (53) with specific names as

early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used

number is Tera

10**12(10 to the power of 12).

k. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896,

India was the only source for diamonds to the world. (C.Suresh: I saw

this statement written in one of the captions at Tower Hill, London.

This is the place where they have kept our Kohinoor Diamond and ornaments taken over by British from different places)

l. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in

the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

m. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

n. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake

called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during

Chandragupta Maurya's time.

o. Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.

p. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health

scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like caesareans,

cataracts, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic

surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient

India. Over 125 surgical instruments were used. Deep knowledge of

anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism,

genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.

q. When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years

ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley

Civilization)

r. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in

100 BC.

QUOTES ABOUT INDIA

a. Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how

to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have

been made.

b. Mark Twain said: India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of

legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and

most structive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India

only.

c. French scholar Romain Rolland said: If there is one place on the face

of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the

very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

d. Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said: India conquered and

dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send

a single soldier across her border.

All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg, the list could be much

much longer.

But if we don't see even a glimpse of that great India in the India of

today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential and

that if we do, we could once again be an evershining and inspiring

country, setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow.

India did a grave mistake by considering Hindi as the National Language, when there are very old languages like Tamil and Sanskrit. Just because more people talks means, we don't need to accept it. Few decades back, good opportunities and resources circulated

around Hindi speaking states and it was mandatory for people to learn Hindi so that they can utilise the good opportunities. Now the days have changed and everyone have more opportunities in Chennai and Hyderabad (also many parts of non-Hindi states). The difference is, person going to Chennai will try to learn Tamil for his survival. At the same time, person going to Hyderabad need not learn Telugu. He can survive there with his Hindi. As more and more people go out of Hyderabad, the number of people talking Telugu will reduce day by day and will lead to the death of that language. People may tell, this is just an exaggeration. But in Scottland, people were once talking a language called Gaellic and it become extinct with the people started talking their National language everyday.

Our Indian pride lies in our National Animal, National Bird, National Flower, National Anthem but not with our National Language Hindi. In Tamil, software tools have now come to do even Spell Check and Grammar for the entire Tamil Language. People were doing

lot of R&D on that. There is one software called "Murasu", which provide you with the 2 varieties of Tamil Keyboard. One is old Typewriter Keyboard and another one which understands Phonetics of typed English Alphabets to Tamil Equivalents. If at all we need

a National Language, it should be one that will take us to the next century. If everybody doesn't agree to it, well let us consider every language in India as an Official Language.

Another comment, everybody tells normally is, We need a National Language to do basic trade/commerce between states. This is exactly not true. Tamilnadu has become Economically second in India. Please visit www.focustamilnadu.com for more details.

Conclusion is, Language is a sensitive issue to atleast people of few Indian states. It is not right in imposing some language or script all over India against the wishes of native people or to create an impression, same language or script will unite us.

In diversity, lives our unity!!!!!!!!!!!! Hating a language doesn't mean Hating a nation. We love India more than anybody else in the World.

As old as Egyptian pyramids and still alive - Tamil Language

This mail is intended to popularize our Tamil Language. Tamils first literature named

"Tholkapiam" is written in BCs. The speciality of this language is, it is as old as

Latin and Greek, rich in literature and talked by about 60 million people today all over the world. Like English, various software tools have been written for this language. Lot of

R&D is going on to make Tamil the language of future. It is the link of past, present &

future.

You can visit the following websites to know more about Tamil Language.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5180/index.html

http://www.tamilweb.com/webdesk/messages/1102.html

http://www.tamilnation.org/

http://www.murasu.com/

http://www.tamilpages.net/

http://www.tamil.dk/

http://tamil.luxmi.com/

http://www.tamilcanadian.com/

http://www.tamils.com/

http://www.tamilforum.org/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tamil/program.htm

http://www.chicagotamilsangam.org/

http://www.crl.com/~orpi/TamilSangam/

http://www.asanet.com/njts/

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/4708/

http://www.pix.za/tamilsa

http://members.tripod.com/~Tamilsangam/

www.worldtamilsbusiness.com

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8780/

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/tamilweb/tamil.html

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4715/ AND for further links

do the search for Tamil in the WEB, you will have loads and loads of

Web Sites Available.

My hotmailid "Vanakkam" means Hi or Good Morning in Tamil. You can try to use

"Vanakkam" next time.

I apologize, if you think this mail should not have been sent to you.

Well, why am I writing this letter? Because I am desperate. Most of my days are long and boring that I drag through them with sigh after sigh. Even the days that I call happy are randomly pierced with pain, realizing that I am laughing standing on thin air. My problem is that I am not bonding with people. I do not make friends not even with my relatives.

..I live in my ..I live in my own shell, afraid to reveal my personality and to express my opinions. Although it took me a long time to realize, I am very shy. I blush at every little thing. . . . The mention of U.S. might make you think, OK the person is one of those successful people who made it in life. Unfortunately, I don't feel one tiny bit of the success. Despite the outward glory, I live in pain. All my life I have been plagued with social problems. All my life I have been wondering why I were not as happy or content as even the poorest or the stupidest person that I have met in my life. I always felt insecure and lonely. As far as I can remember my life has been hellish . . . Year after year, I became lonelier and lonelier, I see friends deserting me. They would take every chance to show me that they did not have any love or respect for me. They made me sit by myself when we went for long school trips. I stared out the window while they have fun sitting together. I had to swallow my pride to start talking to them to prevent pitying looks from other students. All this time I was becoming an outstanding student and one not many people knew. High School turned out even worse. I got one of the best school in the country where the children of the very rich went in a country where rich & poor could be told apart at one crazy glance. Day in and day out, I cried my head off; I was so lonely. If I went early or left late I would be roaming the yard and deserted hallways alone while other students roared with laughter and talked their hearts out standing in groups. Home was not a comforting place. I swallowed my pain and anguish just as my siblings did to theirs. I was so lonely. But I hung on tight because I wanted to come to the States in hope of a solution. The only way I could do it was through academic excellence, to get scholarship. So I made the best use of my empty days. . . . Now I dont care about the past. . . (But) if I live, I want to be out therein the world. Just like those my age, I want to have friends, eat with friends, spend hours on the telephone, go to parties, and if ever possible, have spl. friends. But I find it so hard. When I am with a group of people, I keep so quiet ( I have nothing to say) that I send chills through those who notice me. Then I cry when people forget about me, or dislike being with me. When I am with one person, I shake with nervousness fearing that we will run out of things to say and he or she will be bored. For math I had a teacher; for painting I had a teacher; for social life I had no one. . . . I write a lot of diaries, I make a cassette recorder listen to my problems, I recite meaningful sayings to give me encouragement, I probe deep into myself to solve emotional pains I go thorough, I meditate to keep myself stable. . . I read true stories in search of solutions & so on & so forth. I dont want to give up and this year I will try harder making use of all the help I can get. . The one help I believe and have always believed would be very crucial for my success is someone who will constantly check in on me and share both the good and bad part of my life with me. . . . one ordinary person who will invite me for jogging or taking a walk, for shopping, for watching TV together, for having dinner together a few times, etc. In these petty, but constant activities, the tips about living that I would pick up, the skills that I would develop and the peace of mind that I would get are immeasurable. After all a pat on the back means a whole lot more than a recorder that squeaks when it is done. . . I am like a person who can't swim chocking (sic) for life in a river. You are one of the very few people who see me struggle. . . And you have to do is give me a hand and put into words what you already know. No expenses are involved and there are no risks. I am sure one of your concerns, if you have gotten this far in the letter is, what if I am one of the criminals lurking around. But believe me, right now I am not strong enough. I would have been aggressive rather than shy if I was to hurt others. Also, if I had no control over myself, I would not have made it to US all the way from Country in the East. Finally happy days came with meeting of a person. The person was wonderful in company. One and half years went nicely. Then due to a problem, the person deserted me. Life become hell again. I want to commit suicide. Before that I will kill that person. All it takes is a few hours from your week and some energy. Me, I have nothing to lose. I am so desperate; please do not close the door in my face. Even if you are not interested, please give this letter to a friend or relative who might be. I would be forever grateful to hear from you. I anxiously wait to hear from you. Note: This article was taken from a very nice book. I neither remember the author nor the book title.