A history and a story

Maratha power first consolidated themselves in South India and later in Orissa. In Aug 1757, in response to the Afghan invasion, the Marathas send a large force to invade Delhi. Once conquered, the Marathas continued to gain control over Punjab and made incursions into Afghanistan. It was answered by Ahmad Shah Durrani amassing a large army to halt the marauding Marathas. They finally clashed on 14 Jan 1761 at Panipat which is the Third Battle of Panipat. 

Between 1761 and 1764, the Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II tired to consolidate his hold over the central province areas. After striking a deal with the Bengal, Benaras and Awadh State, they went to war with the East India Company which is the Battle of Buxar in which the British were victorious. 

British placed a garrison of troops for the first time in 1765. The Treaty of Allahabad was signed on 16 Aug 1765. It gave the British access to provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. It also provided the East India Company an opportunity to directly influence the politics of Central India. From the word go the East India Company tried hard to gain control over the fort. Once the Nawab of Awadh was bankrupt, he finally handed over the fort to British on 1798. 

For the British, the Allahabad Fort was the ultimate prize because it gave access to Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. The fort could garrison large number of troops and stores due to the huge size of the fort. It was the largest fort that Akbar had built. 

Meanwhile the architect of the Alliance which went to war, the Mughal Emperor was almost in a house arrest inside the fort. He knew that a day will come when the British will have complete access. Shah Alam II finally got the opportunity to move out of Allahabad Fort and move to Delhi in 1772. 

The Mughal Emperor was brought in Delhi by Mahadaji Scindia. Together they started consolidating their power and position. First the took care of the Rohillas and drove them to the mountains out of Rohilkhand. This expedition enabled the Marathas to control Delhi, Haryana and the regions on UP upto Prayagraj. A permanent garrison of Maratha troops was stationed at Delhi. This scenario remained till 30 Dec 1803 when Daulat Scindia, the son of Mahadaji Scindia signed a treaty with the East India Company and handed over all the territories to the British.

But 1772 was not the first time the Marathas were in Delhi. Before that they send a large force which camped outside Delhi. The Afghans had kept the Rohillas in charge over a puppet Mughal Emperor. After two weeks of intense fighting, the Marathas drove out the Rohillas out of Delhi. The administration of Delhi was placed under Antaji Mankeshwar as a Governor of Delhi. This event happened in Aug 1757. 

So technically, we have the Marathas in control of Delhi from 1757 to 1803. While East India Company first placed a garison of troops in Allahabad Fort in 1765 and finally taking control of the fort in 1798. 

Central India was split into two power centres. One at Delhi controlling Haryana, Punjab and Western UP. Other at Prayagraj controlling  Eastern UP, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. This situation continued for around 50 years. Allahabad Fort was the key for gaining control over the Eastern portion of Central India.

If you check out India 100 years ago, it was mostly divided into zones with large tracts of unoccupied or sparsely occupied lands and areas. The Ganga Yamuna region is the most fertile land and the cradle of civilisation. Cities and kingdoms have always been made next to rivers. So as per that definition, Prayagraj was a bottle neck. A place where someone could set up a fortification and exert control.

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Today the railways is on time, spick and span and is managed efficiently. The year is 2024 and it is very important to mention this because running Railways efficiently is an important part of the govt functioning and spending. The present govt has done exactly that by heavily investing in railways and infrastructure. Today rail travel is an enjoyable experience which builds up on history.

1.   The first passenger train in India ran between Bori Bunder and Thane on 16th April 1853 covering a distance of 34 kms. It carried around 400 passengers. The train was operated by Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR). The train had 14 bogies and was pulled by three steam engines by the names, Sahib, Sindh and Sultan. This railway line was extended to Kalyan in the same year in the month of May. The railway line was a double line. 

2.   The Great Indian Peninsular was a company formed in the year 1845 for building and operating railway networks in India. Another company on similar lines was formed in the same year by the name East Indian Railway Corporation. Since India that time was ruled by the East India Company, these railway companies were operated by private entrepreneurs. 

3.   The first goods train hauled by a steam locomotive ran in England in 1808. Within four years, 1812 the first of the passenger train started running in England. By 1830, the commercial railways started running all over England. Within the next 20 years, this technology was brought to India. Primarily for faster movement of good within the country and also generate revenue through passenger ticket sales.

4.   Bori Bunder could be the first railway station in India. It was built before 1853. Bori in Marathi means sack and Bunder is like a warehouse or rather a port. Later the railway station of rebuilt into a massive terminus the house the trains as well as the railway offices. Construction finished in 1888. Since then it was known as Victoria Terminus or VT for the locals until 2017 when it was renamed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or CST. 

5.   Swachh Rail, Swachh Bharat campaign launched in 2015 has bore fruit 10 years later. Overall improvement in cleanliness on the railway track and platforms plus a competition between stations to bag the honors of the top slot. 

6.   Srikakulam Railway Station has bagged the award for the cleanest railway station in India. Other railway stations which keep figuring on the list of top 10 are Jaipur, Jodhpur, Surat, Beas, Rajkot, Surat, Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam and Anand Vihar Terminus. 

7.   While the railway stations of UP are giving the state the reputation it deserves, the honors for the dirtiest railway station in India has been taken by the Perungalathur Railway Station in Kerala. The next station on this list is Sadar Bazar Railway Station in New Delhi which is simply overwhelmed by the footfall of people. The other notable railways stations are all in Uttar Pradesh like Shahganj, Jhansi, Khurja and at times Agra and Kanpur too. 

8.   With such a vast network there is bound to be some paranormal activity reported. There are two officially recorded haunted stations in India. The Begunkodor Railway Station in West Bengal was closed for nearly 42 years when passengers reported seeing a woman wearing a saree in the station premises. It also led to unexplained deaths of people who reported seeing the woman. The station was reopened in 2009. In contrast Naini Junction Railway station near Prayagraj is haunted by good spirits. Many passengers have felt the presence of these spirits. These spirits are of the freedom fighters who were hanged in Naini Jail during the British rule. 

9.   Howrah Railway Station is not only one of the oldest railway station in India, it is also the busiest. Right from 15 Aug 1854, the train services running from this station are phenomenal. 600 passenger trains pass through it’s 23 platform with 1 to 16 in the old complex and 17 to 23 in the newer Terminal 2. Once Platform No 1 is ready it will be 1296 meters long making it the third longest platform in India. Rough estimates put the number of passengers handled at almost 10 lakhs. At the international level, Shinjuku Station in Japan handles 35 lakh passengers in a day. Many website therefore put Shinjuku Station at the top of the list of busiest railways stations. 

10.   The title for the remotest railway station in India is shared between three stations. Dibrugarh is the last stop for the famous Delhi Dibrugarh Rajdhani which covers a distance of 2433 kms in 3 days. Then there is Lekhapani Railway station again in Tinsukia district of Assam which has been closed since 1993. And finally there is Ledo which currently holds the official title of the last railway station in the East. Ledo just has a population of 6,540 people and is again in Tinsukia district. There are some other interesting facts about Ledo.

The first coal mine was started in 1882 and since then Ledo is famous for the railways and high quality coal. Ledo also came into international notice when during the Second World War, the Japanese advance threatened to swallow China and the Imperial Seat of the British power in India. the Allies fully knew that if India falls into the hands of the Japanese, there is going to be a big dent in the war effort. So it was decided to build a road to China from the rail head in Assam to deliver war supplies to China to stop the advance of Japanese Army. The construction of road was completed in record time in 1943 and the army trucks started rolling. Out of 1,726 kms, 1033 kms is in Burma, 632 kms in China and just 61 kms in India. After the fall of Rangoon, the capital of Burma, this road use was stopped and supplies were airlifted over the Himalayas on a route called the Hump. After the war ended, this road went into disuse. 

The starting point of this road was Ledo railway station after which supplies were loaded onto trucks. From there the road went to Mong-Yu road where it joined the Burma Road which went till Wanting on the Chinese border and from there to Kunming. About 15000 US Army soldiers were involved in the construction of this road with 35,000 local workers. Over 1,100 American soldiers lost their life constructing this road of 1726 Kms which makes it one life lost over one and a half kms. No other road construction would have resulted in the loss of so many soldiers. The Japanese on the other hand lost an estimated 3000 soldiers trying to secure the Ledo road, such was its importance. 

11.   The Highest Railways Station in India is Ghum Railway Station in West Bengal along the Darjeeling Toy Train route at a height of 2258 meters. 

12.   The most famous still operational toy train is the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway running between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. It climbs from 100m elevation at NJP to 2200m at Darjeeling. Who in India has not heard the song sung by Rajesh Khanna to Sharmila Tagore, “Mere Sapno Ki Rani” in the 1969 film Aradhana. The route which was entirely run by Steam engines is now a mix of steam and diesel. 

13.   The title of the longest platform in the world is now held by Hubali Railway Station at 1,505 meters which is a kilometer and half. Previously the record was held by Gorakhpur Railway Junction at 1,366 meters. 

14.   If there is a longest platform, then there has to be the shortest railway platform in India and that is Baspani Railway Station in Odisha which is 200 meters. Express trains which have a length of 500 meters cannot halt here. The Penumuru Railway Station in Andhra Pradesh has no platforms. Compare that to Howrah Junction which has 23 platforms!

This list cannot be complete without the mention of the longest train journey in India. 

15.   Logically we should be having a North to South train which happens to be the Himsagar Express between Jammu to Kanyakumari which covers a distance of 3800 kms in 73 hours. But that is not the longest train journey in India. That is the Vivek Express which connects Kanyakumari and Dibrugarh. It covers 4200 kms in 80 hours. You will get to spend four days in this train. 

16.   Ever imagined the most expensive train journey in India. The Maharaja Express which covers a tour of the North will cost around Rs 20 lakh for a couple for a 7 day package which the four day package will be approx 11 lakhs. While the cheapest ticket for a Second Class for 50 kms would be just Rs 30.

Next let us talk about beautiful, but remember, beauty comes at a certain risk. 

The most beautiful road journey which people have been enjoying for a long time is the Bombay Goa trip. But there was no railway on this route. Even the British did not bother with the effort. The challenges were almost impossible. So the best scenic routes were the toy train operational in various parts of Indian hill stations. It was George Fernandes who began the process of building a railway line between Mumbai to Goa. Land acquisition was a major challenge but was completed in a record time of one year because people came forward voluntarily to give up their land in face of development of the region. Next challenge was the terrain. This 760 kms route crosses 146 rivers and 2000 bridges. 

Fastest train in India is now the Vande Bharat which tops the speed at 180 km/h. 

The most beautiful train journey in India is between Dadar to Goa in the Vistadome train coach. It covers a distance of 600 kms in 8 hours with large windows providing un-obstructive view of the natural beauty of this railway route. Two trains are presently fitted with the Vistadome coaches on the Mumbai Goa route. 

This article is incomplete without the mention of the iconic Deccan Queen. It was the first true superfast train between Mumbai and Pune. It has a pantry car which is again a first and the first woman only coach. It was also the first vestibuled train which means that the two cars or coaches were connected to each other by a passage so you can actually walk from one end of the train to another while it is running. 

The Deccan Queen began running as a week end luxury train from 1st June 1930 to ferry rich patrons of the Pune Race Course from Mumbai. The coaches were painted in silver and royal blue. The original coaches were in use till they were replaced by modern stainless steel coaches in 1966. 

Every year on 1st June, the passengers celebrate the birthday of the train. They are regular pass holders who travel from Pune to Mumbai daily for work, railway fans and the railway officials. on 1st June 2030 this train will complete 100 years of its run. There is bound to be a big celebration both at Pune where the train departs at 7:15 am every morning and at Mumbai where it departs at 5:10 pm everyday. Be there or be square.  

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A doctor on a mission

In 1903, Alexander started his professional education and got his MBBS with distinction in 1906. He also got a BSc degree with gold medal in bacteriology. He then took up a job at the same college where he studies till 1914. After that he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and worked as an Army Doctor all throughout the First World War. 

After the war he returned as a lecturer to the same hospital. 

A war zone is a place where hygiene is lacking, health care is more prioritized towards gun shot wounds and soldiers hardly get time to rest. Bacteria thrives in such an environment. This stint of Alexander Fleming in an active war zone must have made a permanent impact on his mind. 

Discovery of penicillin

The discovery of penicillin is exactly how Flemings describes it, “Finding something you are not looking for.”

In Sept 1928, Fleming had proceeded on a holiday with his family after leaving behind cultures of bacteria which he was studying in his lab. The bacteria was Staphylococcus aureus which is found in the respiratory tract and skin. It causes a variety of respiratory infections as well as food poisoning. He accidentally contaminated one of the cultures with fungus and that particular culture destroyed the bacterial culture while keeping the other cultures which were far away, intact. 

Now fungus or moulds have been known since ancient times as bacteria killers. Civilizations in China, Egypt, Australia and India have been using this method to heal infections. The only problem was such kind of treatment was not well documented but was rather passed from generation to generation. Also they could not conduct experiments in labs to isolate the active components. They always used the natural form directly. 

By September end that year, he had re-grown the mould and started testing it against various bacterial cultures. He concluded that there was an active ingredient which was killing the bacteria. The biggest challenge remained creating the mould in large numbers so that sufficient material could be extracted for testing.

Fleming spend the next 10 years publishing his work in various medical journals and making several presentations. All of those met with a lack of response and general disinterest. The final nail in the coffin was the report by British Medical Journal in 1941 which ended with the line, “…and does not appear to have been considered as possibly useful from any other point of view.”

In 1939, a team of scientists from Oxford University who later named themselves as the Oxford Team accidentally stumbled upon his work. They started with his research paper and the sample of mould which was preserved in the lab. They found a way to dry it into a powder leading to its purification. First they tested the powder on animals and they tied up with the US Department of Agriculture for mass production. The team started testing the medicine on human patients in 1941. For two years they kept testing on patients and on 27th March 1943, the Lancet reported successful treatment of 187 cases of sepsis. 

The next task was to take up the challenge of mass production at the govt level. In the year 1942 and 1943 whatever penicillin was produced was used up for treating the patients who were still test subjects. In order for penicillin to make a dent, some production method had to be discovered. The American Corn Industry came to the rescue. 

America traditionally produced the largest crop of corn in the world. A corn kernel consists of corn oil, protein, starch and fiber. Each of this component is separated and used as raw material for various products. This process is called corn wet-milling and there are a lot of processing facilities all across America. One of the by-product of the milling process is the corn steep liquor which was used by an American Micro-Biologist for production of penicillium. Another scientist used the deep-tank fermentation method for producing large quantities in quick time. This is how the War Production Board could produce 64000 crore doses by the end of the year. This enabled enough medicine for the invading forces of Normandy saving an estimated 15% soldiers. 

Did the scientific community ignore discovery of penicillin

Yes, for 10 years no one in the British Scientific and Medical community including the big pharma even bother to check what was discovered. It was the Americans who put effort to mass produce it.

Later he was awarded different medals by United States, France, Greece and Spain. His laboratory where he discovered penicillin is well preserved and now a museum. But in 1936 when Fleming talked about the important of penicillin in the Second International Congress of Microbiology held at London, no one believed him. These ten years however, he was constantly working on methods to produce and extract penicillin single-handed.

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A class with students is identified by a list of Roll Numbers and Names.

A hosting provider like HostGator or Hostinger provides you with a 3 in 1 account which provides a domain name, website and hosting space. Here is how you can understand how this concept works.

Hosting space is like a class room. Once you buy hosting space, you will get a blank class room. Your package can have just one student in a class room or there can be three students or there can be unlimited students in a class. But just like in a regular school, you cannot have unlimited students, similarly you cannot have unlimited websites in one package. There will be limitations and we shall come to that later.

Website is the physical student. The actual person who is going to put on the uniform and will be identified by a Roll Number and a Name.

The Name of the student is like the domain name of a website. It is linked with a Roll Number which is the IP address. Since you cannot remember a Roll Number, you remember the student by name. But numbers are easy to process, hence there is a Roll Number list too.

What to know as an owner of a website

Many times small brand owners will need a website and they will hire professionals to do the same. There will be some tech aspects to it. Here is how each thing is linked and processed.

Your hosting package is registered with an Email address. You need access to this email and no one else should have access. If someone wants to steal you hosting package, the email is the first barrier. Then comes the password. So if any person wants to steal it, the first thing on the agenda is to change the email address.

The hosting provider can give additional security to the account by enabling two factor authentication. That means every login will happen only after password and a code. While the password remains same, the login code will change every time and will be created at the time of login.

One hosting account just like a classroom can have multiple websites, like students. Each website if created in WordPress will have an admin username and password. There are different role enabled for a WordPress Website. So as per that there can be multiple accounts within a website. An admin account will have full control over the website. The account can be in the form of a username or email and a password.

Lastly the domain name also like a roll number is registered within your hosting account. It is registered against your name. If domain privacy is enable, this information is not available to view in public. If someone wants to steal your domain name, they will have to login in your hosting account first and then generate a transfer code from within. All this information will be send to your on the registered Email Address.

A periodic backup of the website is important so that if both the hosting package and the domain name gets stolen, you can still get the website up and running with another domain name. At least your data is safe.

If you are hosting websites on Blogger, it is a good idea to activate two factor authentication on your gmail account.

So here is the master list again

• Hosting package – Username and password
• Website – Admin account username and password

Both Hosting and Website admin details have to be under the control of the owner of the brand.

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The concept of Karma

Different religions and cultures have the concept of Karma deep rooted. Even the leftists who do not believe in religion have concepts like ‘What goes around comes around’. Karma is closely connected to the cycle of boon and curse. Other important part connected to this is the cycle of blessing and prayers.

Positive vibrations generated by a place of worship tend of affect the people visiting that place for prayers. The multitude of prayers being recited add on to the positive energy radiated by the place. Karma can be understood in a scientific manner using the concept of this energy.

The blessing of Gandhari, the mother of Duryodhana was so powerful that it gave immortality to his whole body except for the loins which he covered thinking that it is a shame for him to go naked in front of his mother. It was Lord Krishna who put that seed of doubt in his mind. Once Gandhari removed her blindfold, she was aghast that Duryodhana had covered some portion of his body. He said to his mother that she can put the blindfold back and he will appear once again in front of her without any body part covered. Gandhari replied that when she removed the blindfold, it was a lifetime of penance and sacrifice that came out in the form of a powerful blessing. It cannot happen again. The concept and power of a blessing can be understood by this mighty incident in Mahabharata.

A lifetime of good karma collected by Gandhari by her sacrifice and commitment was transformed into one blessing for her son. We see priests and senior leaders giving blessings and other receiving them. It is the concept of karma and positive energy at play here. Similarly we have heard, ancient rishis placing powerful curses from time to time. Durvasa Rishi had the famed short temper due to which he used to curse people very often. The whole universe was scared of his curse. Sadly due to his curse, Lord Ram had to banish his brother Laxman from Ayodhya. Once Laxman was gone, even Ram could not stay for long in Ayodhya. So attached he was to his brother, that he left his kingdom in the hands of his two sons and left for Guptar Ghat for Samadhi. Once Lord Ram was gone, Ayodhya fell into wilderness. A curse placed by anyone no matter how strong or weak will affect your harmony and will contribute to negative vibrations around you.

The role of a good deed

You might not have any control over the negative energies and vibrations reaching you. Curses, your own mistakes, sins of your past, people not happy with you, etc. All such reasons will cause the pile up of negative energy around you.

There are powerful pilgrim places where your accounts are opened. The balance sheet of good deeds against bad even of previous births is recorded for the day of the reckoning. Some believe that the day of reckoning comes on the day we die. I believe that the day of reckoning comes when you visit Kashi. The sheer amount of temples and vedic schools in that small area of 6 kms of Ganga river front means that not only this place is flooded with positive vibrations, it is also a place to account for your sins and bad deeds. People come to Kashi with also the fear that they have committed sins which need to be washed away. Donations come handy here. Some people even build temples to balance out there deeds.

Definition of a good deed

Imagine a tired street vendor about to close shop and head home after a long hard day in the blazing sun of Delhi. You have a short conversation with him which lifts up his spirits.

Some known acquittance calls you up and wants to share something. You give a patient hearing and in the end manage to convey to that person that whatever he or she is doing, is the right thing. Suddenly you have boosted the morale of that person.

A word of praise or encouragement or simply engaging in an activity with someone, are all good deeds. PM Narendra Modi once mentioned in an interview that if anyone comes to meet him, that visitor gets his undivided attention and he loves to get engrossed in the conversation. Considering he is one of the busiest person in the world, managing to hold a two way conversation and making the visitor feel special is a good deed.

So basically if small gestures from your side make the people in front of you happy, it is a good deed. We get enough opportunities to do a good deed. The only problem is that most people do not understand the definition of a good deed because they are too selfishly minding their own happiness.

Have you really made someone happy today?

A good deed is all about making someone happy. Maybe with money but not always. If nothing is going right in your life, the best way forward is to keep doing good deeds by helping others. Eventually the tide will turn.

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What is link building from Google perspective

You have a brand new website and you are going to seek professional help in announcing your presence to the world. There are just two possible ways to do it.

• Create unique and quality content for your readers
• Let people appreciate your work by dropping links back to your website aka back links

What is a back link

Pooja runs a food blog where she posts an article about the seasonal winter dish called Daulat ki Chat available in Chandni Chowk area of New Delhi. A lifestyle journalist from a reputed newspaper comes across the article and decides to write about it in the newspaper. She makes a reference to the article by Pooja and places a link to the article on the website of the newspaper.

This provides a back link to Pooja’s blog. This helps Google to understand that Pooja has created a quality content which a reputed newspaper has featured. Similarly readers of that newspaper have shared the article on social media and number of other places. All this linking has been picked up by Google crawlers and indexed.

Back link is unfortunately the only way for Google to know how popular is your website and content and how well are you promoting it.

How SEO experts have misused back links

When owner of any website takes the help of SEO expert, chances are that non existent and fake back links will be used to push up the rankings. An SEO expert manages to convince the website owner the shortcut to glory. This is how the modus operandi works.

SEO experts have tie ups with each other and some shady tie up with high ranking and high domain authority. This also includes a compromised website, who is not aware that links are now inserted artificially. SEO forums and groups are replete with webmasters boasting that they can provide high quality links or website are available for insertion of links. This is the point of worry for Google. Since link builders almost convince the website owners to skip creating quality content and pay for back links and link building. People also start dropping links to social media accounts, groups and comments. These are low quality link building techniques. Google wants something else.

How Google wants link building to happen

Link building is as good as promoting your website. As an owner, admin or webmaster you need to reach out to websites of similar categories or connecting businesses and announce to them that you have arrived! If your website is good and has enriching and quality content for people to read, it will get popular, no matter what. Of-course as promoter of the website, you will have to ask people to put in a good word, just like you would do in a real life store.

What Google is actually fighting

SEO experts have brought a bad name to the whole link business. Scores of SEO training academies just teach their students inorganic and unnatural link building. In turn when they reach out to clients, they sell this concept because they believe there is no other way. No SEO expert actually tells their client to create engaging content for their readers. The situation for Google reached such a extreme that in order to be relevant, they had to hit back. And they hit back hard rolling out the Panda updates since Feb 2011. Overnight in one massive sweep, all those websites with thin content, low quality and advertisement saturated and content farms, all lost their rankings. This also put scores of SEO experts out of business because Panda updates are still rolling out and Google is learning and closely watching.

To conclude, the answer is pretty simple and obvious. Always focus on high quality and original content and at the same time reaching out to the world to promote the same. Link building the natural way!

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