Once great 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 grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only."
Here are few interesting facts about India - The largest Democracy in the world.
Indian Postal Department
Indian Postal Department is the largest postal network inthe world with more than 1,55,020 post offices. On an average each post office cover the population of around 7,175 people. India also have a floating post office in Dal Lake, Srinagar, was inaugurated in August 2011.
Kumbh Mela
The 2011 Kumbh Mela was the largest gathering of people in the world with over 75 million pilgrims. Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela is a mass Hindu pilgrimage of faith in which Hindus gather to bathe in a sacred river.
The festival is considered to be one of the largest peaceful gatherings in the world, and as the "world's largest congregation of religious pilgrims".
Mawsynram: The wettest inhabited place in the world
Mawsynram is a village in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya state in north-eastern India, 65 kilometres from Shillong. It is reportedly the wettest place on Earth, with an average annual rainfall of 11,872 millimetres.
Bandra Worli Sealink has steel wires equal to the earth's circumference
It took a total of 2,57,00,000 man hours for completion and also weighs as much as 50,000 African elephants. A true engineering and architectural marvel.
The Bandra�Worli Sea Link, officially called Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link, is a cable-stayed bridge with pre-stressed concrete-steel viaducts on either side that links Bandra in the Western Suburbs of Mumbai with Worli in South Mumbai. The bridge is a part of the proposed Western Freeway that will link the Western Suburbs to Nariman Point in Mumbai's main business district.
The highest cricket ground in the world
At an altitude of 2,444 meters, the Chail Cricket Ground in Chail, Himachal Pradesh, is the highest in the world. It was built in 1893 and is a part of the Chail Military School.
Chail is 44 km from Shimla and 45 km from Solan. The Chail Palace is well known for its architecture, the palace was built as summer retreat by the Maharaja of Patiala during the British Raj, on the land allotted to him by the British for former's assistance in the Anglo-Nepalese War. The cricket ground and a polo ground which is there at an altitude of 2,250 m was owned by erstwhile royal family of Patiala. It is the world's highest cricket ground.
Chail is also considered as the hiker's paradise. The area is away from the bustling life of the state capital Shimla.
