World Konkani Day

World Konkani Day has been celebrated on April 9^th since 2015 in honour of the death anniversary of Shenoi Goembab (1877-1946), Konkani activist and writer. Konkani is an Indo-Aryan language, mainly spoken along the western coastal region of Konkan of India, including Goa. During the Portuguese rule in Goa, Konkani was diminished in status to the profit of Marathi and Portuguese languages. Shenoi Goembab was responsible for bringing back glory to the Konkani language by reminding his counterparts that their mother tongue is the language of the soul! He also wrote stories, tales, proverbs of the Konkani language and folklore, contributed to children's literature, and translated many classics such as Moliere, Shakespeare, and the Bhagavad Gita.

Pygmy Hippo Day

  

Pygmy Hippo Day is an international ecological celebration observed on April 8th. This day is dedicated to the pygmy hippo, a rare and little-studied species that is endangered. The goal of this day is to raise awareness about the need to protect these animals and their natural habitat.

What is the pygmy hippo?

The pygmy hippo (*Choeropsis liberiensis*) is a smaller relative of the common hippopotamus. It lives in the tropical forests of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, but also in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d'Ivoire. Unlike its larger relatives, the pygmy hippo leads a more secretive life and prefers solitude.

Significance of the day

This day aims to raise awareness about the pygmy hippo, its uniqueness, and the threats it faces. The main issues affecting the decline of its population are:

- Loss of its natural habitat due to deforestation.

- Poaching and illegal hunting.

- The limited number of individuals in the wild.

Victoria Ocampo's Birth Anniversary

Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo, born on 7 April 1890, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine Sur, she was also a writer and critic in her own right and one of the most prominent South American women of her time. Her sister was Silvina Ocampo, also a writer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 and 1974.

Begum Hazrat Mahal's death Anniversary

 

Begum Hazrat Mahal, also known as the Begum of Awadh, was the second wife of Nawab of Awadh Wajid Ali Shah, and the regent of Awadh in 1857–1858, who passed away on 7 April 1879, in Kathmandu, Kingdom of Nepal, aged 59. She is known for the leading role she had in the rebellion against the British East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

After her husband had been exiled to Calcutta and the Indian Rebellion broke out, she made her son, Prince Birjis Qadr, the Wali (ruler) of Awadh, with herself as regent during his minority. However, she was forced to abandon this role after a short reign. By way of Hallaur, she finally found asylum in Nepal, where she died in 1879. Her role in the rebellion has given her a hero status in the post-colonial history of India.

Kelucharan Mohapatra's Death Anniversary

 

Kelucharan Mohapatra, who passed away on 7 April 2004, in Bhubaneshwar, aged 78, was an Indian dancer who led a 20th-century revival of Odissi, a centuries-old style of dance associated with temples of Orissa and one of the principal forms of Indian classical dance.

Mohapatra was born to a family of artists who painted patachitras (religious folk paintings on thinly woven cloth). He trained and performed as a traditional dancer and drummer, studying in his youth with masters of odissi. In 1953 he began teaching odissi at a conservatory in Cuttack. Excelling in both technique and pantomimic expression, Mohapatra sought to expand the style’s traditional repertoire, making innovative use of forms from ancient texts and sculptures in his choreography. Mohapatra soon came to be regarded as a master of Indian classical dance, and his performances popularized odissi both in India and around the world.

Mohapatra received a number of awards from the Indian government for his cultural and artistic achievements, including the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 2000.

Fresh Tomato Day

 

The 6th of April is Fresh Tomato Day, a day to celebrate the beauty of fresh tomatoes. Tomatoes are a significant source of umami flavour and are cultivated in both temperate and tropical regions of the world. Typically, they are consumed raw or cooked. Numerous varieties of the tomato plant are typically grown in temperate climates throughout the world, with purpose-built greenhouses assisting in the production of tomatoes throughout the year. Tomato plants are typically three to ten feet tall, with vines and a weak, sprawling stem.

History of Fresh Tomato Day

The tomato is believed to have descended or evolved from the native to western South America Solanum pimpinellifolium, also known as the currant tomato or wild tomato. These wild tomatoes were typically about the size of peas and were smaller than the tomatoes we have today. The so-called domestication of tomatoes can be traced back to the Aztecs and other Mesoamericans, who consumed the fruit both raw and cooked. The Spanish brought tomatoes to Europe, where they quickly became a staple in Spanish cooking. In northern European countries such as France, Italy, and others, the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant, similar to flowers.

Botanists viewed the tomato with skepticism as a food item because they believed it to be a nightshade. This skepticism and suspicion were exacerbated by the tomato juice’s acidity. Tomatoes were referred to as “poison apples” because it was believed that eating them caused aristocrats to become ill and die. The wealthy Europeans of the time may have used lead-rich pewter plates, and because tomatoes are so acidic, the fruit leached lead from the plate when it came into contact with the fruit, causing lead poisoning and death.

At the time, ignorance prevented anyone from connecting the dots between the plate and the poison, so the simplest solution was to blame the tomato. Tomato leaves and immature fruit contain tomatin, which could be toxic in large quantities. However, ripe tomato fruit is devoid of tomatin.

 

 

Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati's Death Anniversary

 

Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, who passed away on 5 April 1922, at Kedgaon, Bombay Presidency, British India, aged 63, was an Indian social reformer and Christian missionary. She was the first woman to be awarded the titles of Pandita as a Sanskrit scholar and Sarasvati after being examined by the faculty of the University of Calcutta.  She was one of the ten women delegates of the Congress session of 1889. During her stay in England in early 1880s she converted to Christianity. After that she toured extensively in the United States to collect funds for destitute Indian women. With the funds raised she started Sharada Sadan for child widows. In the late 1890s, she founded Mukti Mission, a Christian charity at Kedgaon village, forty miles east of the city of Pune. The mission was later named Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission.