Lorianna’s Blog

Social Studies Video!!!!

  “Hello, my name is Sue and I will be your tour guide  as we travel around India. But first I will tell you some of the countries history! Back when India was known as British India from 1772 to 1911, Calcutta was the capital city. But on the other hand, New Delhi had been as the political and financial centre  of ancient India most notably Mughal Empire. During the early 1900s, a proposal was made to the British administration to move the capital of the Indian Empire from Calcutta to New Delhi. Unlike Calcutta, which was located on the eastern coast of India, New Delhi was located  in central India and the Government of British India felt that it would be easier to control India from Delhi rather than from Calcutta. Due to its historic and cultural importance, George V, the then Emperor of India, made the announcement the capital was to be moved from Calcutta to Delhi. Hamayun’s Tomb, situated in New Delhi, has an architectural design similar to the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is a tomb built by a Sha (king) for his dead wife who is buried in the basement. The beginning of building it started in 1631 and was finished in 1653 about 22 years later! then only 13 years later in 1666, the Sha dies and he was laid next to his wife facing Mecca because they were Jewish. New Delhi was laid out to the south of the Old City which was constructed by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. But, New Delhi overlays the site of seven ancient cities and hence includes many historic monuments like  Humayun’s Tomb.  The town (New Delhi) was dubbed “Lutyens’ Delhi“. Edward Luyten was a 20th century architech who helped plan the city. In 1998, the Supreme Court of India ordered all public transport vehicles to use compressed natural gas as fuel instead of diesel and other hydro-carbons. They  now operates the world’s largest fleet of environment-friendly-buses. Though pollution from road transport has decreased in recent years, it is still at a high level. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second most populated country, and the most populus liberal democracy in the world. India has a coastline of over seven thousand kilometres, bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east. India borders Pakistanto the west!”

 ”The means of transportation are trains, rickshaws, and a taxi. Oh! I almost forgot the most important thing India is the birth place of Buddhism and Hinduism and also has over 700 different dialect’s and languages. With over 67 million Hindus. If you did any research you may be wondering why their aren’t any Jews thats because after fighting for a while the decided to make two different parts of India into Pakistan and East Pakistan now called Bangladesh for the Jews, and a smaller India in the middle for the Hindus. That started the worlds biggest migration not saying that everybody moved but the Jews were moving to the Pakistanis the Hindus were leaving the Pakistan’s.” 

  “Now that you  know some the countries history let’s go to Varanasi the city of Shiva” (the death god). “This city was built when the British were still in control so it is quit old.And because we are on a train the beds are on the walls held up by chains for you to fold down for when you get tired.Don’t forget to turn on your air conditioning” (fans) “on so it doesn’t get to hot.if your wondering what’s going to be for breakfast go ask the cooks because it’s getting dark they are already making breakfast.Don’t forget only 4 people to a compartment unless you are traveling with children! See you all in the morning for a fresh start.”

  “Our next stop is the Ganges, a famous river which in the Hindu religion these sacred waters are considerd to be a God. ! Did you know that on the way to the river their are Ghats or steps leading down toward it. In Varissia, alone their are 100  Ghates! But even now as we go by the river you may be hot and want to go for a swim but that is not a good idea because when someone dies in the Hindu religion they are burned and then their ashes and whatever bones remain are thrown into the river and dead animals found are not burned but thrown bodily into the river. Even though the people that live here can go in the water, you can not because you would probably die. For centuries they have done everything from doing their laundry toswimming in it and ”.  “Now it is time to eat lunch so, go eat and then return to your compartments. We will reach the city where we will take part in celebrating the birth of Krishna the God, and the party really gets started after midnight because that is said to be the birth hour of the god Krishna, so you might want to get some sleep as well!”

Wake up everyone! It’s time to get off of  the train so we can take part in the celebration! Now let’s go to the Hindu temples, so we can see the ceremonies that are preformed on this day. Look they are reaching out to touch the flames of a candle. When they are doing this they believe that fire is the bridge between humans and gods so they think by touching it they are taking it from the gods. The celebration that you are lucky  enuff to witness is for the God Krishna, like I said earlier but did you know the god was said to have been born about 350 years ago! Oh, and one last thing before I let you have some fun of your own. India is also the place were people heavily believe in karma meaning what  you do today determines what you do tomorrow. Now go have some fun then be back on the train before 4:00 in the morning so we can get an early start tomorrow!”

 ”We’re here at Corbet National park we are going to be to have some fun of our own very soon, but first I have some words of caution for you. Beware of the tigers  becausethey kill about 20 people yearly. And I’m sure they will tell you this but when getting on an elephant you step on it’s trunk and pull on it’s ears so you can get on it’s back so go have some fun when you come back to the train we will head to the airport!”

  “It’s time foryou to get on the plain I hope you enjoyed your stay in India! I also hope you learned soon things you didn’t now! Maybe I will see you again the next time you come to visit India. Bye!”

By:

 Lorianna

  Partial credit to Wikipedia some phrases were from them.