Economy: Goa’s gross state domestic product for 2007 is estimated at $3 billion in current prices. Goa is one of India’s richest states with the highest GDP per capita and two and a half times that of the country as a whole, and one of its fastest growth rates: 8.23% (yearly average 1990–2000).
Geography and climate: Goa encompasses an area of 3,702 km² (1,430 sq mile). It lies between the latitudes 14°53′54" N and 15°40′00" N and longitudes 73°40′33" E and 74°20′13" E. Most of Goa is a part of the coastal country known as the Konkan, which is an escarpment rising up to the Western Ghats range of mountains, which separate it from the Deccan Plateau. The highest point is the Sonsogor, with an altitude of 1,167 meters (3,827 feet). Goa has a coastline of 101 km (63 miles).
History: Goa’s known history stretches back to the third century BCE, when it formed part of the Mauryan Empire, ruled by the Buddhist emperor, Ashoka of Magadha. It was later ruled by the Satavahanas of Kolhapur, around 2,000 years ago it was passed on to the Chalukya Dynasty, who controlled it between 580 to 750. Over the next few centuries Goa was successively ruled by the Silharas, the Kadambas and the Chalukyas of Kalyani, rulers of Deccan India.
Goa is India’s smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest in terms of population. Located on the west coast of India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its western coast.
Picture: The Sé Cathedral at Old Goa, an example of Portuguese architecture
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist and Nobel laureate in physics recognised for his work on the molecular scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect, which is named after him. In this Indian name, the name "Chandrasekhara" is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, "Venkata Raman".
Withania somnifera, also known as Ashwagandha, Indian ginseng, Winter cherry, Ajagandha, Kanaje Hindi and Samm Al Ferakh, is a plant in Solanaceae or nightshade family.
Description: It grows as a stout shrub that reaches a height of 170 cm (5 to 6 feet). Like the tomato which belongs to the same family, it bears yellow flowers and red fruit, though its fruit is berry-like in size and shape. Ashwagandha grows prolifically in India,Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is commercially cultivated in Madhya Pradesh (a province in India).
Layout: The fort has a semi-circular plan, its chord lying parallel to the river. Its walls are seventy feet high. Double ramparts have massive circular bastions are regular intervals as also battlements, embrasures, machicolations and string courses. Four gates were provided on its four sides, one Khizri gate opening on to the river.
Picture: Inside the Musamman Burj, where Shah Jahan spent the last seven years of his life under house arrest by his son Aurangzeb.
Two of the fort’s gates are notable: the "Delhi Gate" and the "Lahore Gate." The Lahore Gate is also popularly also known as the Amar Singh Gate, for Amar Singh Rathore.
Agra Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Agra, India. The fort is also known as Lal Qila, Fort Rouge and Red Fort of Agra. It is about 2.5 km northwest of its much more famous sister monument, the Taj Mahal. The fort can be more accurately described as a walled palatial city.
Picture: Amar Singh Gate,one of two entrances into Agra’s Red Fort
It is the most important fort in India. The great Mughals Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb lived here, and the country was governed from here. It contained the largest state treasury and mint. It was visited by foreign ambassadors, travellers and the highest dignitaries who participated in the making of history in India.
Picture: Hebrew inscription at the Paradesi Synagogue in Cochin
Cochin Jews today: Today most of Cochin’s Jews have emigrated (principally to Israel). Large groups have settled in the Moshav of Nevatim in the Negev (southern Israel) and Moshav of Yuval in the North, in the neighborhood of Katamon in Jerusalem, in Beer Sheva, Dimona and Yeruham.
In both places there are Cochin synagogues. In Kerala there are still three synagogues; the one at Mattancherry, Cochin is still functioning.
Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews (Malabar Yehudan) are the ancient Jews and their descendants of the former Kingdom of Cochin in South India, including the present day port city of Kochi. They traditionally spoke Judeo-Malayalam, a form of the Malayalam tongue, native to the state of Kerala, in India. Several rounds of immigration of the Jewish diaspora into Kerala led to a diversity amongst the Cochin Jews.
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