What are some of the least read stories in the Mahabharata?

 Wonder how Gandhari gave birth to 100 children ?

Image source: Cover page of Devdutt Pattanaik’s Jaya.

Let’s delve into awesome journey of Indian mythology and intelligence of Indians.

So let's start …

Birth of Gandhari’s children

Gandhari was angry on learning that Kunti had become a mother before her. She had conceived much earlier but mysteriously her pregnancy continued for two years. She could wait no more and so she took a terrible decision: to force the child out of her womb.

Gandhari ordered her maids to get an iron bar. ‘Now strike me on my belly with it,’ she ordered.

The maids hesitated.

‘Do it,’ shouted Gandhari.

With great reluctance, the maids did as they were told, and struck the queen on her belly. ‘Again. Strike me again. Again and again,’ said Gandhari.

The maids kept striking her until Gandhari’s womb quivered and pushed out a ball of flesh, cold as iron.

‘Does it cry? Is it a boy or girl?’ asked Gandhari. When told what she had delivered, Gandhari wailed. Fate was indeed cruel.

She sent for the sage Vyasa.

‘You told me that I would be the mother of a hundred sons. Where are they?’ she asked.

Feeling sorry for Gandhari, Vyasa instructed Gandhari’s maid to break the ball of flesh into a hundred pieces and put them in jars full of ghee.

They would incubate over a year and transform into sons, he told Gandhari.

‘Can I have a daughter too?’ asked Gandhari, softly.

Vyasa smiled and told the maids to divide the ball of flesh into a hundred and one pieces.

Thus were born the hundred sons and the one daughter of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra. Collectively, the sons were called the Kauravas.

The first among them was Duryodhana.

When his pot was broken, on the day when Kunti gave birth to Bhima, the palace dogs wailed. ‘He will bring misfortune,’ advised Vidura to Dhritarashtra, ‘Let us get rid of him, brother.’

‘I don’t care,’ said Gandhari clinging firmly to the newborn. ‘No one will harm this son of mine. He is my firstborn, my favourite.’

Her second son was named Dusshasana.

The daughter was named Dusshala. She was married to Jayadhrata, king of Sindhu.

During his wife’s long pregnancy, Dhritarashtra had taken for his pleasure a maid. She bore him a son called Yuyutsu. Like Vidura, he was an extremely capable man, but was not qualified for sitting on the throne.

What are some interesting facts about the least known countries in the world?

 Nauru

• Nauru has the world’s highest level of type 2 diabetes, with more than 40% of the population (10,084 in a 2011 census) being affected.
  [1]

• It’s believed that Nauru’s phosphate deposits come from the droppings of seabirds.
  [2]

• John Fearn, the first Western to visit Nauru, named it “Pleasant Island”.

Tajikistan

• Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe means Monday in Tajik, so named because it grew from a village originally having a popular market on Mondays.
  [3]

• Tajikistan has the largest glacier in the world, except for polar areas. The glacier is Fedchenko Glacier.

Azerbaijan

• The first known fireplace and construction in human history was found in Azikh Cave, dating back from 700,000–500,000 years ago.
  [4]

• Neft Dashlar is the first and largest town on stilts to be constructed at sea.

Timor-Leste (East Timor)

• The primary staple food is corn, not rice.
  [5]

• People sending mail to East Timor should include “via Darwin, Australia”, else it may never reach its destination.

Brunei

• Brunei was discovered by Awang Alak Betatar. He said “Baru nah!” which led to the word Brunei.
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• The 29th Sultan of Brunei was the world’s richest man in 1993.

Kyrgyzstan

• Kyrgyz comes from the Turkic word for “forty”, a reference to the 40 clans of the great Manas. The country’s flag has a 40 ray Sun.
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• Kyrgyzstan is worth 30 points in Scrabble.

Footnotes

[1] 

Nauru - Wikipedia

[2] 

Nauru Facts - FactsKing.com

[3] 

Interesting facts about Tajikistan

[4] 

10 interesting facts about Azerbaijan!

[5] 

Interesting facts about East Timor - TravelingEast

[6] 

Interesting And Fun Facts About Brunei

[7] 

25 amazing facts about Kyrgyzstan

What are the least known facts about Kollywood actress “Nayanthra”?

 

• Nayanthara was born into a Orthodox Syrian Christian family later she converted to Hinduism at the Arya Samaj Temple in Chennai on 2011.
• After the purification ceremony, a Certificate of Conversion to Hinduism was issued to her and her stage name, Nayantara, became her official name.
• She also visited a number of holy places, including Haridwar and Rishikesh in May 2014.
• She won the style icon award for south scope style award 2009.
• Among 30 nominations in different awards function she won 18 awards.
• Nayanthara makes comback for Krish's Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum in March 2012 after an 11-months sabbatical. Raja Rani was her first Tamil release after three years that had her in a lead role, which was followed by Vishnuvardhan's Arrambam.
• She also made her Kannada film debut through the Kannada-Telugu bilingual film Super, which is her only appearance in Kannada till date.
• Kochi Times listed Nayanthara in the "List of 15 Most Desirable Women in 2014".
• More remarkably, Nayanthara contributed about 5 lakhs to TN Chief Minister towards the relief aid for Sri Lankan Tamils. To say, her contribution was the highest amount given by an actress.
• Sun Sign: Scorpio
  Hobbies: Listening Music and Reading Interesting books
  Language Known: English, Hindi, Tamil and other south Indian language
  Favourite Food: Chinese and North Indian food
• Nayantara had a tattoo of the name prabhudeva in her wrist as she was in relationship with Prabhu for a small time.
• Nayanthara won the 1st runner up, Best Model in Kerala 2003, conducted by Thrissur Advertising Club. Later made her entry to media.

What are some interesting facts about the least known countries in the world?

 Albania & Kosovo

Albania

• Albanian Flag is one of 5 most interesting flags in the world.

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• Mother Teresa (Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu) is generally celebrated as the only Albanian to win a Nobel Prize, though born in Skopje in 1910 (now in Macedonia but then in the Ottoman Empire)
• But:
• The other Nobel Prize winner of Albanian origin was Ferid Murad (USA) who won the 1998 prize for Medicine. His father was Albanian.

Update: This is a 'gift' from Google, on 28th November 2015, for celebrating Albania's 103rd Birthday.

• The Tirana International airport was named after Mother Teresa in 2001.
• Albania is one of the most rare countries that is almost totally surrounded by its ethnic population: Albanians.

• John Belushi (star of the film The Blues Brothers) and Jim Belushi, also had an Albanian father.
• Albania, Armenia and Vatican City are the only European countries without a McDonald’s branch.
• Albanian Language is a branch by itself in Indo-European languages.
• There are 36 letters in its alphabet, so there's almost no sound we can't articulate. (Yes, dh, th, xh, gj, rr.. all are included)

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• Albanians in Albania (but not Albanians in Kosovo, Macedonia and so on) nod their head up and down to mean ‘no’, and shake it from side to side for ‘yes’.
• During Hoxha's regime, approximately 700.000 bunkers were built all over the country, just in case "the enemies attacked the country, everyone had somewhere to hide in"..
• -Did 'enemies' ever attack it?
• -Which enemies? (They never appeared. So 700.000 bunkers.. were just a waste of money!)

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• For about 10 years (1968-1978), Albania’s only ally in the world was China. After China, Albania had no allies and was basically a more isolated European North Korea until 1991. Today Albania is a parliamentary republic and a member of the United Nations, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe and the World Trade Organization. It is one of the founding members of the Energy Community, Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and the Union for the Mediterranean. It is also an official candidate for membership in the European Union.

Some of the Communist regime statues:

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Geography:

KOSOVO (KOSOVA)

• Kosovo or Kosova, is the youngest country in Europe, both by it's 'birthyear' and its population! More than half of whom are aged 25 or under! http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31967471

• South Sudan and Kosovo are the youngest countries in the world!
• It declared unilaterally independence from Serbia in February, 2008 and today is recognized by:
• 111 countries of United Nations,
• 23 out of 28 countries of European Union,
• 7/8 of G8 countries.
• It's historically important, especially because of Battle of Kosovo that took place in 1389.
• More than 90% of its population is ethnically Albanian.
• It had a terrible war with Serbia and had the intervention of NATO during Kosovo War in 1999, and now confirmed, it had about 10.000 losses.

• Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, is also the largest city of the country. Along with this, it is the nation’s industrial, commercial and cultural centre. The city is densely populated and is home to 500,000 people.
• But the cultural capital is Prizren.

• The climate of Kosovo is continental with warm summers and cold and snowy winters because of its proximity to the Adriatic Sea and the west and mountain ranges to the east.
• The natural resources include lead, zinc, copper, silver, gold, brown coal, bauxite, lignite and nickel. Agriculture, mining and micro-enterprises are the major industries prevailing in the country.
• It is believed that Kosovo has reserves of approximately 14,000 billion tonnes of lignite.

• Kosovo acts as an important link between central and southern Europe
• Kosovo has adopted the €uro unilaterally and uses it as its currency. It is one of two countries outside the Eurozone that uses the Euro; the other country is Montenegro.
• It’s cheap and it’s all in euros
• A cup of coffee costs between fifty cents to one euro depending on the café. A traditional meal can be had for as little as €1.50.
• Kosovo is well connected.
• The most popular connections are with Macedonia’s capital Skopje, Albania, and Belgrade. Highways are free of congestion and flights from low cost carriers to the region are incredibly inexpensive if booked in advance.
• Where's the Best Macchiato in the World? (Hint, It's not in Italy) "It's in Kosovo" says Italian Yahoo Managing Editor.
• Both Albania and Kosovo have Muslim-majority populations, but there is an excellent inter-religious coexistence and harmony.