Word: indianness
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Perhaps the best example of this is also the first written reference in Western literature to a single-horned "wild ass." In the 4th century B.C., a Greek doctor named Ctesias traveled through Persia (now Iran), in the service of the Persian king, where he heard many tales from Indian travelers about creatures back home. Later writing them down, he described "wild asses as large as horses" that had white bodies, red heads and dark blue eyes, and "a horn on the forehead, which is about a foot and a half in length." He also said that the horns were...
...course, more than likely, Ctesias had never actually seen this creature himself, but was relying on other people's accounts. As unicorn expert (yes, they do exist), Odell Shepard explained in The Lore of the Unicorn, Ctesias most likely fused details of multiple creatures, including the Indian rhinoceros, to create this fantastical being. But during that era it was common for stories to travel great distances by word of mouth, and as Artistotle argued, when the tale made its way to him, was this single-horned, silvery being any more absurd to imagine than a giraffe or an elephant...
...Indians know the news is bad when the Prime Minister takes to the airwaves to address the nation. That's what founding father Jawaharlal Nehru did before India's war with China in 1962, and just under a decade later Indira Gandhi confirmed on television that Pakistan had launched military strikes against Indian airfields. So when current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stared down a camera to deliver a message earlier this month, there was no doubting the gravity of the situation. India was losing a battle of sorts: due to soaring oil prices, Singh told viewers, New Delhi was forced...
...Manipulating markets is a luxury that governments increasingly cannot afford. The Indian government spent almost $9 billion last year on fuel subsidies, adding to the country's budget deficit. State-run gasoline retailers have been losing billions of dollars as well because they are forced to sell to consumers at prices set by New Delhi. When the three largest state-owned oil companies warned recently that they would soon run out of money to import oil, the government finally raised price caps...
...much as possible in a short time, then return home. Managers who refuse to let them work illegal overtime risk losing workers to less stringent factories. Likewise, in India, it's not possible to "create E.U.-like working conditions," says Anil Bhardwaj, of the New-Delhi based Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises. "It might hurt our conscience to know that a child sold into slavery for 500 rupees [12 dollars] is making a shirt we might wear. But there are millions living on the fringes of society for whom 500 rupees is a lot of money...