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Chozhas - A naval power from South India

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 Happy independence day Hello everyone, welcome aboard the guru time traveller. Today we will be travelling to the 10 th century to visit the Chozha dynasty, the largest south Indian kingdom to ever exist. When you think about the Chozhas you usually think about the 1000 year old Bhrahadheshwara temple in Tanjavur or the 2000 year old Kallanai dam across Cauvery river. But do you know that they were the only Indian kingdom to conquer territories outside of the Indian subcontinent. So, lets have a look at the Chozha history in detail. The Chozha era can be split into two phases: The Early Chozhas   This era is from   600 BCE to 300 CE. King Karikalan is the most famous Chozha king of that era. Not much information is known about the Early Chozhas. Later Chozhas: This is the golden age of Chozhas. This era started from 850 CE. n   850 CE, Vijayala Chozha was the first king of this era.   He captured Thanjavur and declared independence from the Pallavas. Later they slowly gain
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How many capitals do I have?

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  You probably know the capital of India- the letter i, sorry I mean Delhi. But do you know that there are  some countries that have  more than one official capital?  Also some countries have one official capital but have other government departments in an other city, which makes them unofficial capital. Lets have a look at them.  South Africa: South Africa is the only country in the world, that has 3 capitals. They are  …. Wait!! We already told about this in a previous post so if you haven't read it, go and check out here Country Facts Countdown Eswatini: Eswatini, one of the smallest  country in Africa   has two capitals. They are Mbabane which is the administrative capital and Lobamba which is the legislative and the royal capital. Malaysia:  You probably think Malaysia’s capital is Kuala Lumpur. But in 1995, due to overcrowding, the Malaysian government made Putrajaya, which is 25 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur
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Weird borders- they’re basically scribbles

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    You have probably heard of the term “borders”, the lines that separates two countries. Sometimes   they are like a scribble that a 2-year-old drew. Sometimes borders extend from their country like a pan’s handle (maybe the ones who made their border wanted to fry something in their country).   Lets look at some weird borders. Afghanistan First, we have our neighbour, Afghanistan where we find the Wakhan corridor which makes no sense. It's a 350 kilometres and a width of 13 to 65 kilometres. However, is reason lies in the past. In the 19 th century both the British and Russians wanted to expand their territory into the Wakhan corridor region and to solve a dispute between Russia and UK, they both used Afghanistan as a buffer state in-between them but Afghanistan’s border didn't exactly match up with the Russian British border so they extended Afghanistan 350 kilometres east to fill the gap and now it remains, but separates Pakistan and Tajikistan.
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Country Facts - A Countdown.

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 Hi Everyone, It has been a month since my last post. Sorry for the delay. I was having vacation at my paati's house. We have seen countdown being used for many things. Well, today I’m using a count down for counting facts about countries. Without further ado let’s begin. 1, 2, 3, go! One Nauru is the  only country in the world that has only One Highway .   It is called Nauru Ring Road , which circles the island nation.  Nauru is the 3 rd smallest country in the world. It is a single island about 21 square Kms in the middle of pacific ocean.  It was once known for its phosphate reserves, which was due to birds pooping in the island for long time!!! The phosphate exports made Nauru very rich. But due to mismanagement, the money dried up quickly as soon as the phosphate reserves was exhausted. Now it is one of the poor countries.       Two  Italy is the only country in the world that has Two Countries contained within it.  San Marino and Vatican City are two countries that are fu
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France - A Country in 6 Continents

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  Let me ask you a question. In which continent is France located? This might seem like a dumb question. All of us would say, Of course it is Europe. While that is true, it is not entirely true because France is   also located in Africa and North America. In fact, it is in 6 out the 7 continents. This because of overseas territories which France holds. As you would have guessed, it is also the topic of this post. The overseas territories of France are the remnants of the French empire, one of the largest in the world. There are more than a dozen places which are overseas territories of France so let’s just jump in. All overseas territories of France are classified into two categories: Overseas Regions : These are like the Regions in Mainland France in terms of power. Overseas Collectivity : These are areas which have greater autonomy compared to Regions. North America You would be surprised to know that in the 16 th and 17 th century, large parts of North America, were under French
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How many countries are there in the world - I say less than 3,62,947!!!!

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  This post is about how.. I know you read the title so let’s just continue. At first glance, this might seem obvious. Just look at a map and count how many countries are there, but it is not that simple. ( if it is so simple, why am I making this post ). Depending upon whom you ask, the number of countries range from 192 to over 200. What constitutes a Country? Let’s first try to define what constitutes a country. Suppose I want to create my own country, what should I do. There are few steps to do: Acquire Land of your own I should first find some land, which is not controlled by any other country. Leaving out Antarctica, there are very few areas in the world that are not controlled or claimed by any country. The most famous example is Bir Tawil, which lies between Egypt and Sudan.  Great, that means can I go and create my own country there.  Sadly, that is not enough.  Stable Population : To be a country, you need people living there permanently.   Bir Tawil unfortunately has no po
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Cross Platform Interchange - No Escalator Rides ☹

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In a metro system with multiple lines, usually a person transfers from one line to another to reach their destination. A station where one can transfer is called an interchange. In an interchange, normally the lines are stacked one above the other. This means one must use stairs, escalators or lifts to interchange between lines. A cross-platform Interchange ( CPI ) is a type of interchange, where changing from one line to another means just walking across the same platform and does not require usage of stairs, escalators, or lifts. When two lines cross each other,   there is a maximum of 8 possible ways to transfer between lines. I will look at some interesting station designs which enable easy cross-platform interchange Island platforms play an important role in enabling CPI. Full CPI or Paired stacked-island cross-platform This supports all possible interchange movements. This requires two stations. Each Station has two island platforms stacked one above the other.
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