Fun fact#250
India has over 120 languages
India recognises 22 official languages and counts more than 120 with over 10,000 speakers each.
India
Twenty-two official languages, 20 million rail passengers a day, and a different country every 300 kilometres.
15 entries · 8 stories, 7 fun facts
India at a glance
The practical numbers, before the stories.
- Capital
- New Delhi
- Currency
- Indian rupee (INR)
- Official language
- Hindi and English for official use; 22 scheduled languages
- Climate
- Tropical in the south, temperate in the north, alpine in the Himalaya. The southwest monsoon runs roughly June–September.
- Best time to go
- October–March
- Time zone
- UTC+5:30, one zone for the whole country
- Driving side
- Left
- Plugs and voltage
- Type C / D / M, 230 V
Worth knowing: India recognises more than 120 languages with over 10,000 speakers each.
Planning a trip to India
The decisions that determine whether the trip works, whichever country you are going to.
India recognises 22 official languages and counts more than 120 with over 10,000 speakers each. Its railways move over 20 million people a day across 68,000 kilometres of track, which makes the train less a way of getting somewhere than the single best place to understand the country.
Below you will find the Taj Mahal changing colour through the day, bridges in Meghalaya grown from living fig roots over decades, ferries in Kerala that double as school buses, and the moment on a Delhi street when crossing the road stops feeling like courage and starts feeling like grammar. India is not difficult. It is dense, which is a different thing.
Entries from India
Fun fact#252
The Taj Mahal changes colour
White marble reflects the sky, so the Taj Mahal looks pink at dawn, blinding white at noon and gold under a full moon.
Fun fact#255
India's rail network moves millions daily
Indian Railways carries more than 20 million passengers a day across a network of over 68,000 kilometres.
Fun fact#256
Kerala has backwater buses
In Kerala's backwaters, public ferries serve as school buses and commuter transport across 900 kilometres of connected waterways.
Fun fact#259
Meghalaya grows its bridges
Khasi villagers train living fig roots across rivers for decades until they form bridges that get stronger with age.
Fun fact#260
Ladakh has a magnetic-looking hill
Magnetic Hill near Leh appears to roll cars uphill. It is an optical illusion caused by the surrounding slope.
Fun fact#262
Varanasi is continuously inhabited
Varanasi is among the oldest continuously lived-in cities in the world, with settlement stretching back roughly 3,000 years.
Story#407
Altitude arithmetic
We flew from sea level to three and a half thousand metres and thought we felt fine. Walking up one flight of stairs corrected that opinion within thirty seconds.
Story#410
The chai stop
The bus stopped where there was nothing except a man with a kettle. Twenty-eight people got off, drank tea from clay cups, smashed the cups on the ground, and got back on.
Story#414
Wedding on the train
Half the carriage was a wedding party travelling to the ceremony. By hour three, they had taught us a dance and by hour five we were invited, sincerely, and we still regret not going.
Story#417
Varanasi before sunrise
The boat pushed off in the dark and the ghats woke up in stages: bathers, then bells, then flowers on the water, then the sun straight up out of the far bank.
Story#421
Kerala backwater bus
The public ferry cost less than a coffee and served as the school bus. Children got off at their own gardens, one by one, waving at the boat.
Story#424
Living root bridge
It takes fifteen years to grow a bridge and about six hundred steps down a valley to reach one. The man who showed us said his grandfather started the one we crossed.
Story#427
Traffic as fluid dynamics
There are lanes painted on the road and everyone treats them as a suggestion. After a week, crossing the street stops feeling like courage and starts feeling like grammar.
Story#530
Prayer flags in the wind
The idea is that the wind carries the prayer, so a faded flag has done more work than a bright one. Nobody takes the old ones down.
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