October 24
India’s most celebrated cartoonist, Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Iyer Laxman, better known as R. K. Laxman, the creator of the iconic ‘Common Man’, was born on October 24, 1921 in Mysore (now in the state of Karnataka). As a child, Laxman would draw inspiration from looking at illustrations in magazines such as Punch and Bystander. He took to drawing on the floors... Read More →
October 23
Writer and journalist Aravind Adiga, whose debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize, was born on October 23, 1974 in Chennai (the city was called Madras then) to K. Madhava Adiga and Usha, originally residents of Mangalore in Karnataka. He grew up in Mangalore till he was about 16 and then moved with his family to... Read More →
October 22
After days of drama and suspense similar to a thrilling five-day cricket match–due to rain and thunderstorms lashing the Sriharikota spaceport–Chandrayaan-1, India’s first unmanned lunar mission, was successfully launched, on October 22, 2008, marking a historic moment in India’s space exploration programme. “Our journey to the Moon has just begun,” G. Madhavan Nair, the then chairman of the Indian Space... Read More →
October 21
On 21 October 1943, in a dramatic moment in India’s freedom struggle, Congressman-turned anti-British warrior, Subhas Chandra Bose—‘Netaji’ to his followers—announced the establishment of the Provisional Government of Free India. Bose, who was convinced that an armed struggle against the mighty British was the only way to throw them out, was born on 23 January 1897 in Cuttack, then a... Read More →
October 20
On 20 October 1962, after months of skirmishes between India and China; and tactical military manoeuvres by both sides along the border and disputed territories, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army launched two massive simultaneous attacks on India, around 1000 km apart, catching the Indian leadership and an under-prepared army largely off-guard. The twin attacks signalled the start of what is... Read More →
October 19
In the 1930s most astrophysicists believed that once stars burn up their fuel they collapse into small entities called ‘white dwarfs’. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a young Indian studying in England at that time, disagreed. He claimed that the ‘white dwarf’ theory was true only for stars that were similar in size to the sun; if the mass of a star were... Read More →
October 18
His crime file was as thick as his legendary moustache: more than 160 people murdered, half of them cops; many more kidnapped; ivory and sandalwood worth at least Rs. 130 crore smuggled; hundreds of elephants hunted down. Operating from deep within the forests of South India, smuggler and bandit Veerappan evaded for decades thousands of policemen and teams created specially to... Read More →
October 17
17th October 1970: Indian cricketer Anil Kumble was born The third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, Anil Kumble was born on 17 October 1970 in Bangalore, Karnataka. For a right-arm leg spinner, he did not turn the ball much, instead varying the pace and using bounce to confuse batsmen. Born to K.N. Krishna Swamy and Saroja, Kumble took to playing street... Read More →
October 16
Three months after the Viceroy of British India, Lord Curzon, announced his decision to split Bengal in 1905, the partition came into force, effectively dividing the province on religious lines. Though there was an attempt to turn the clock back on the 16th October 1905 partition by reunifying the state in 1911, Bengal—and India—would never be the same again. On... Read More →
October 15
Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the most popular President in India’s history, was born on 15 October 1931 in a small coastal town in what is now Tamil Nadu. An aerospace engineer and scientist before he was appointed to the country’s highest constitutional office, Kalam was closely linked to India’s missile programme. One of the reasons for his popularity,... Read More →
