Hello & welcome to this fortnight’s GK nugget.  December has seen the birthdays of some iconic figures-  the original showman of Hindi cinema – Raj Kapoor – was born on 14th December 1924 .  The Lord of tamil cinema – Rajnikanth – was born on 12th December 1950 .  Dilip Kumar was born on 11th December 1922 while 11th December 1969 was when India’s first chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand made his first appearance on planet earth. Of course there are many more names to add to that list, but while going through all these dates I realized that this will be the last GK nugget of 2016.  So instead of sharing trivia on a single topic, this weekend’s GK Nugget will do a quick recap of the momentous events that unfolded across the globe on its this year’s journey around the Sun. January 2016: Jan 16 – Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party chairwoman and nominee Tsai Ing-wen garnered 56.1% of the presidential vote thus becoming the First Female President of Taiwan. Sh

Hello & welcome to this weekend’s GK Nugget. While demonetization has clearly not left the front pages of our newspapers, a headline that caused quite a ripple (if not a rumble) through the news media last week was the death of Cuban leader, Fidel Castro on 25 th Nov, at the age of 90. While we’ve read about his politics, his views and quite a few jokes about him (My favourite being a CM, on being informed of Castro’s death, asks “Outside which bank branch was he queueing up when he died?”), here are some lesser known facts about the man who was never far from the front page of global newspapers. Diplomatic relations between the US & Cuba have been far from friendly since the 1960s. Depending on which side of the Gulf of Mexico you live in, Fidel Castro was either a visionary or a dictator . He converted Cuba into a one-party socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. In 1959, at the age of 32, Castro and a small band of revolut

Hello & welcome to this weekend’s GK nugget. It’s been a hectic & chaotic 12 days since the demonetization announcement was made by the PM on 8 th Nov. All our conversations,  emails & especially our WhatsApp messages have revolved around the facts, some rumours & a lot of jokes about the currency ban. This weekend’s nugget is taking us away from all of that, on a journey through sea faring history . On 17 th November 1869 , the Mediterranean & Red Seas were officially united by the opening of the Suez Canal , a move that changed maritime history for ever. Built by French diplomat and engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the 101-mile long waterway took 15 years to be completed , amidst political disputes, labour shortages and even a cholera outbreak.   Construction began in 1861 using manual labour but picked up speed after 1863 when machinery was brought in to increase the pace of construction. 75 million cubic meters of sand was excavated for its

Hello & welcome to another GK nugget. It’s the start of a week that will define the next 4 years and possibly the future of not just one of the most powerful countries in the world, but the entire world.  That’s right, America goes to vote on Tuesday 8 th November to decide whether Melania Trump becomes the First Lady or Bill Clinton returns to the White House, albeit this time as the First Gentleman (1 st time in history). (Though some say that as per protocol a former President is always referred to as “President So – and – so”. So, if Hillary wins, there’ll be 2 President Clintons in the White House – another 1 st . Formally, though, they would be introduced as "The President of the United States and President Clinton”). There’s been a lot said & written about these 2 candidates and many wish that Barack Obama could continue for another 4 years. But the US Congress passed the 22 nd Amendment to the US Constitution in 1947 that limited a US Presid

Hello & welcome to this weekend’s GK nugget . First up I’d like to wish you, your family, friends & colleagues a very Happy Diwali & a prosperous New Year . Since Diwali is the time of a lot of bonuses & superb sales where you get more bang for your buck, I thought of giving you more information this weekend than normal . So this weekend’s GK nugget is about Diwali of course, but also about Bill Gates (his birthday was on 28 th Oct). Let’s begin with Diwali. Now we all know why Diwali is celebrated and how it is celebrated, but did you know that it is a national holiday in India, Trinidad & Tobago, Myanmar, Nepal, Mauritius, Guyana, Singapore, Surinam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Fiji . And is an optional holiday in Pakistan . In Nepal , Diwali is referred to as ‘Tihar’ or ‘Swanti’ & the God of death, Yama is worshipped for a longer life of the people on the fourth day.  While in Orissa , Diwali celebrations include calling upon the spirits of t

Hello & welcome to another GK Nugget . This time we’re travelling 15 years into the past where on this very day the portable music player industry changed forever. No prizes for guessing, 23 rd October 2001 was when Steve Jobs unveiled the very 1 st iPod … and the rest, as they say, is history. Over its 15 year journey, can you guess how many times has the iPod evolved? Available now with a maximum memory size of 128 GB , the 1 st edition had a capacity of only 5 GB & was marketed as being able to offer “ 1,000 songs in your pocket ”. Nobody expected Apple to release a MP3 player. In fact, the 1 st generation iPod received much criticism ranging from its US$399 price to the scroll wheel and its lack of Windows compatibility. (Windows compatible iPods came out in July 2002). The name "iPod" was inspired by “ 2001: A Space Odyssey ” – the 1968 epic science fiction movie produced & directed by Stanley Kubrick. The immortal line: “

Hello & welcome to this week’s GK Nugget. October 13 marks the day on which the Greenwich ( pronounced Gren-itch, not Green-which ) Meridian in UK was established by the International Meridian Conference in 1884 as the starting point for measuring time zones across the globe. So on its 132 nd anniversary , we’re going to look at why it was important to establish GMT in the 19 th century, why it’s still significant and also at some quirky facts about time. GMT was born at the world-famous Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, established in 1675 by Charles II. According to the Observatory's website, the site " is, by international decree, the official starting point for every new day, year and millennium ". The growth of shipping & railroad travel led to great confusion about the correct time at different parts of the globe which made it necessary to establish the prime meridian. The Greenwich Meridian maintains a position of Longitu

Hello & welcome to this weekend’s GK Nugget. The Nobel prizes have been announced this week and no prizes for guessing, but that’s the subject of this weekend’s nugget. Now we’ve all stayed abreast of the news and know that the Nobel Prize for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine & the Nobel Peace Prize have been announced. The Nobel Prize for Economics will be announced on Monday while the prize for Literature will be announced later. Here’s some trivia that you might not have been aware of, about these prestigious awards. The Nobel Prizes are named after Alfred Nobel , a Swedish entrepreneur, who was famous for inventing dynamite. As per his will, after his death in 1896 , his fortune was used to annually award individuals who have bestowed the greatest benefit on mankind . The Nobel Prizes were originally handed out in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine or Physiology, Literature & Peace but in 1968 Sweden's central bank ( Sveriges Riksbank ) establi

Hello & welcome to this weekend’s GK Nugget. The high point of this week has clearly been India’s surgical strikes on Pakistan to nip infiltration of terrorists in the bud. But this week also saw a low point in the sporting world, particularly for ardent golf fans, with the passing away of golf great Arnold Palmer . So this week, the GK nugget tees off with some lesser known trivia about Arnold Palmer and the game of golf . Born in 1929 in Pennsylvania, USA , Arnold Palmer was regarded as one of the greatest professional golfers. He was one of golf’s most dominant players in the late 1950’s & early 1960’s ; so much so that he was nicknamed “ The King ”. He was the 1 st golfer to make $1 million from the sport. He collected 7 major titles in a 6-plus-year explosion, from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters & also notched up 62 PGA Tour wins . Palmer was the trailblazer in sportsmen taking on brand endorsements. Even at the age of 86 , he ranked as t

When was the last time you walked to the corner stationery shop? Most of these shops double up as mobile recharge dispensers & photocopy stations.   As the world goes digital the physical photocopying business has lost some of its foothold to scanning. Well, 16 th September 1959 was a monumental day in the world of photocopying & this weekend’s GK nugget will shed some light on that.  16 th September 1959 was the day when the Xerox 914 , the first successful commercial plain paper copier (which revolutionized the document-copying industry) was introduced to the public in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, shown on live television. Chester Carlson , the inventor of photocopying, was a patent attorney who invented the technology since he found the task of making multiple copies of important papers by hand extremely tedious. He experimented with photoconductivity to develop a process called ‘ electrophotography ’ which he patent

Do you remember playing the board game ' Scotland Yard ' as you grew up? And the excitement of acting like the elusive criminal 'Mr. X' or the quick thinking policemen of London's Metropolitan Police service -Scotland Yard? Well, we might have moved on from the game, but this week its time for the London police force to move on to their new headquarters & that's what this week's GK Nugget will talk about. Let's start with why the London Police force is called Scotland Yard . The name derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police (Met) headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard . The Scotland Yard entrance became the public entrance to the police station, and over time the street and the Metropolitan Police became synonymous. One version of the story says that when the crowns of England and Scotland merged in 1603 , James VI of Scotland became James I of England . Seizi

The temperature in Mumbai has been erratic & I’ve been enjoying a few ice creams on the hot & humid days. The other day I popped into the nearby Baskin Robbins shop to try their Paan flavoured ice cream, which sent me down memory lane. Do you remember when the company 1 st entered India in 1993 & customers were allowed to sample ice cream flavours using their iconic pink spoons before choosing which one to buy? That was pure heaven for a kid.  Anyway, Baskin Robbins celebrates 71 years this month & so today’s GK Nugget is about one of the world’s largest chain of ice cream stores ( over 2,800 in the US & 5,800 around the world ). The company was formed by brothers-in-law Burton Baskin & Irvine Robbins merging their respective ice cream parlors, in Glendale, California, USA. Burton's Ice Cream Shop (opened in 1945) and Snowbird Ice Cream (opened in 1946) (owned by Irvine Robbins) merged in 1953 to form Baskin Robbins. The brothers-in-law

The Guinness World Records’ 2017 edition is being released on 8 th September (a day after the iPhone 7 goes on sale, no connection though). But they’ve already declared some of the record holders. 22 year old singing sensation Justin Beiber walks away with 8 titles in the record book, some of them being Most streamed track on Spotify in one week (The song “What Do You Mean?”), Most viewed music channel on YouTube (individual) , Most followers on twitter (male) (85 million and counting), etc. Also, in the week gone by, Majuli, Assam (in the Brahmaputra river) was recognized as the largest river island . It covers an area of around 880 km² (340 miles²). So this week’s GK Nugget will look at the Guinness World Records: First published in 1955 , the Guinness Book of Records was the brainchild of Sir Hugh Beaver , Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery , UK. (It was later renamed the Guinness Book of World Records and finally, the Guinness World Records).