India has a spa for elephants! These gentle giants can receive a special
treatment that includes massage, food, and even soothing baths! So, if you think your elephant is in need
of a spa day, go to the Punnathoor Cotta Elephant Yard Rejuvenation Centre in Kerala. India is the second largest English-speaking
country in the world. The #1 country is, of course, the US, which
has over 283 million English speakers. But India still has a whopping 125 million,
and that number is expected to quadruple in the next few decades. India has the largest number of vegetarians
in the world. Some people don't eat meat due to their beliefs,
others are just health-conscious, but the fact remains. According to different estimates, around 25
to 40% of Indians are vegetarian. In West Bengal, cows are issued a photo-ID
card, which contains details about the animal’s age, height, gender, horn type, color, tail
switch, and other features. Authorities are now planning to provide all
cows in the country with special polyurethane ear tags with 12-digit ID numbers. India is the largest milk producer in the
world. In 2018, India produced about 194 million
tons of milk! However, there are even more ambitious plans
to increase milk production to 280 million tons by 2022. Besides pumping out more milk than any other
country in the world, India is also number one in producing bananas, lemons, ginger,
and mangoes! The popular game Snakes and Ladders was invented
in India many centuries ago. It was originally intended to be a lesson
about karma for young children, with the ladders symbolizing good virtues and the snakes representing
evil. By the way, snakes seriously outnumbered ladders
in the original game! In 1963, India’s first rocket was transported
to the launching station…on a bicycle! As for the country’s first satellite, it
was transported on an ox cart in 1981. It’s safe to say the Indian space program
came from humble beginnings! The very first shampoo (or at least the practice
itself) appeared in ancient India. People there used special pastes made from
different herbs to clean their hair. In fact, the word “shampoo” itself comes
from the Hindi "champo," which means "head massage." India’s Shakuntala Devi got in the 1982
edition of the Guinness Book of World Records thanks to her ability to multiply, add, subtract,
and divide huge numbers in her head. She was even dubbed “the human computer,"
but, in fact, she was probably even faster and more efficient than any existing processor
at that time! When it comes to mobile phones, India seems
to have more of these gadgets than toilets! A little under 50% of homes don't have toilets,
but more than half of India's citizens have a smartphone or two. Despite having unpresented success around
the world, tech giant Apple just can’t seem to take off in India. That’s mostly due to the fact that Indians
either can’t afford or are unwilling to shovel over such crazy amounts of cash for
a phone. Apple even slashed its prices in India, but
their sales only count for 1% of smartphones in the country. The world learned about the art of purifying
and cultivating sugar from India, which was the first country to develop such techniques. Nowadays, India is the second largest sugar
producer in the world. It has countless candy stores, so if you got
a sweet tooth, this country is definitely the place for you! Diamonds were first discovered and mined in
India in the silt deposits of the Krishna River Delta District. Until the 18th century, India was the world’s
sole provider of diamonds until its mines became depleted, and South Africa along with
Brazil got into the diamond-mining game. The religious pilgrimage known as "Kumbh Mela"
is the largest on the planet. In 2013, it saw over 120 million visitors
in just 2 months and a record-breaking 30 million people on just one single day! But the craziest part is that this massive
gathering can be seen all the way from space! India is home to the world's largest postal
network. It has over 155,015 post offices, and a single
one typically serves more than 7,000 people within an 8-mile radius. There’s even a floating post office in Dal
Lake, Kashmir that was opened in August 2011. The office is situated on a houseboat and
provides all the regular postal services. India’s first president, Dr. Rajendra Prasad,
used to take only 50% of his salary because he believed he didn’t need any more than
that. By the end of his 12-year presidency, he was
only taking 25%, or about 10,000 rupees back then. For comparison, that’s a mere $145 today. For many people, 108 is just a number, but
for Indians and, more specifically, for Hindus, it's a sacred number. This is the reason why their prayer beads
always have 108 beads. Also, 1-0-8 is the toll-free emergency number
in India. To all chess lovers out there, ever wondered
where this board game was invented? Yep, it’s India! In fact, it was an earlier version of chess
called "chaturanga," and it was popular in India until the 6th century. The world's largest family lives in India. 73-year-old Ziona Chana has 39 wives, 94 children,
33 grandchildren, and 14 daughters-in-law. That’s a total of 180 and still counting! Rumor has it that the family prepares 220
pounds of rice and 39 chickens every day! So, how big is the dinner table then?... Housewives in India own more than 21,000 tons
of gold in different ornaments. That’s 11% of the world’s gold and more
than the combined reserves of Germany, the US, France, Russia, and Italy! Gold is considered an investment in India
because it's in constant demand in this country and can easily be traded for money. About 70% of the world's spices come from
India, hence the nickname The Land of Spices. (Aaah, it all makes sense now!) From 2017-2018, the country’s spice exports
stood at $3.11 billion! I’m sure you associate India with turmeric
and cumin, but what about black pepper, basil, and mint? Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas is a single voter
from Banej village in the Gir forest. But even just one man's vote counts! That's why the Election Commission of India
brings him a special polling booth. Otherwise, Darshandas would have to travel
74 miles just to cast a ballot! Even nowadays, about 85% of Indians prefer
an arranged marriage, and only 1 out of 10 ends in divorce. As a result, India has one of the lowest divorce
rates on the planet. After the US and the UK, India is third for
Guinness World Records claimed. Among the most amazing ones is the longest
solo dance marathon that lasted for 123 hours and 15 minutes! And how about the tiniest cow in the world? The bite-sized bovine lives in Kerala and
stands at just 2 feet tall, making it shorter than some dogs! Hospitals in India, or, more specifically,
maternity wards are flooded with deliveries every year. In fact, each year India welcomes 26 million
babies to this world. If all these newborns were a country, they’d
be #51 on a list of 195 nations and territories by population! While the world quenches its thirst with Pepsi
and Coca-Cola, India has successfully found an alternative use for it. Indian farmers have been using Coke as an
effective and inexpensive pesticide for years! According to them, it works just as well as
traditional pesticides and helps cut costs by 80%. When asked which seasons they know, most people
will immediately name spring, summer, fall, and winter. But what’s unusual about India is that it
has not four, but six seasons! They do have the four conventional ones, but
besides those, they distinguish two additional seasons known as "the summer monsoon" and
"the winter monsoon." Despite being a third of the size of the US,
India boasts a population of 1,345,850,000 people, which outnumbers the US by pretty
much exactly a billion. It turns out that 17% of the world's population
lives in India! The wettest place on Earth is in India. Mawsynram, a town in Meghalaya, holds a Guinness
record for getting more than 465 inches of rain annually. Due to the town's proximity to the Bay of
Bengal, people have to live through a six-month-long monsoon period every single year! Indians love cricket. That's why it should come as no surprise that
the highest cricket ground in the world is in India. This place, located at a dizzying 7,034 feet
above sea level, has also got a Guinness world record. The 3.5 mile-long cable-stayed bridge Bandra-Worli
Sea Link in Mumbai is constructed with the use of so many steel wires that if you stretched
them all out and lined them up, they’d wrap around the Earth! The $220 million construction itself weighs
as much as 50,000 elephants! Buttons come from ancient India! They were originally carved from seashells
and only used as a sort of decoration on garments, rather than for fastening clothes together. It was the Indus Valley Civilization that
came up with the concept at around 2000 B.C.E. According to Guinness World Records, the City
Montessori School in the northern town of Lucknow, India is the largest school in the
world by number of students. As of January 2019, 55,547 pupils study there!
