CULTURAL QA 01-2023-14 BEING ACOMPILATION THERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 When I was young, I read in a BritishAtlas that there were three racial groups - Mongol; Negro; and Caucasian.Notwithstanding the old fashioned terminology, is this still the basic distinctionbetween races/ethnicities is understood and taught? A1 Claire Jordan, Degree in biology andfolklore; programmer, shop owner, secretary on newspaper Sun No. Caucasoid andMongoloid have a certain amount of loose validity as relating to an earlydivision between the groups of early Homo sapiens who left Africa and split to go east andnorth-west. But they’re not as clear-cut as Victorians liked tothink, and although there are some broad characteristics which are common, anddifferent, in each group, the differences between the two are not really anygreater than the differences between the groups within them. So you can say, the great majority of “Mongoloid” peoplehave straight hair and double eyelids, while “Causcasoid” people nearly allhave single eyelids and often have wavy hair, but youcan find people from two neighbouring villages who have different averageheights, different noses etc which are just as noticeable. and characteristic. The late Hapsburgs with theirexaggerated chins were much more different from other Europeans than Europeansare from East Asians. Meanwhile, Negroid isn’t a thing *at all*. Most of humangenetic diversity is still back home in Africa,and a Somali and a San are more different from each other, physically andgenetically, than a Korean is from a Norwegian. There are dozens of very different ethnic types insub-Saharan Africa: the only reason anyone ever thought that theywere one group was because most of the black people most Victorian ethnologistshad met were slaves or descendants of slaves, and most slaves came from West Africa. What the Victorianscalled Negroid is really just “Angolan type”. Q2 Why can fish, amphibians, reptiles,and birds lay eggs but mammals don't? A2 Peter Ramirez, Dog owner & havewatched hundreds of wildlife shows. Updated Jan 8 Because mammals evolved to skip thatstep. Mammals do “lay eggs.” It’s just that nearly all femalemammals retain their eggs inside the uterus and the developing offspring growsinside the placenta, with the female feeding the fetus through an umbilicalcord. Carrying thedeveloping young to term allows the female to retain energy and resourcesotherwise expended on multiple fertilized eggs, so the mother can provide morefor one or few offspring and it also keeps the unborn as safe as the mother canbe if she needs to flee danger. No random acts of predators invading and stealing fromthe nest while the mother is off foraging for food,or so many hatchlings making an easy meal for the wider ecosystem, which alsomeans less of a need for and wasted resources expended as part of the shotgunapproach of tens, hundreds or thousands of eggs delivered in return for theminuscule number of creatures that ultimately survive. Ultimately, it also allows for longer gestation periodsand fuller development of the young before enteringthe world, oneof the reasons mammals are capable of higher intelligence in adulthood thanfish, fowl and reptiles. Q3 What facts about Mumbai would peoplenot believe unless they come to Mumbai? A3 Anwesha Dutta, Calcuttan working inMumbai Updated 6y The rent begins where your imaginationstops- It’s practicallyimpossible to find a half-decent place in your budget. No matter how much the budget,you’ll always overshoot it. The bachelor locha-If you are a single woman/man, you can’t find a nice place without unfairrestrictions even if you are ready to shell out some extra money. Actuallyyou’d be lucky even to find a nice place. Bachelors are considered sub-human by the urban khapscalled societies. Living in boxes- Houses or thebungalow, as it’s calledhere, are either very old dilapidated ones, or are owned by the Kapoor familyand other bollywood stars. Everyonelives in flats. If you tell your colleague that you’ve anactual house back home with a terrace and everything, you’d be consideredseriously rich, and extravagant. The 1RK phenomenon-There existssomething even smallerthan a 1bhk. It’s called the 1rk- one room kitchen. What is a balcony? Having a balcony isa privilege thatvery few have. There are entire apartments without any balcony. Sometimes a bigwindow with a parapet will be called a balcony by brokers/owners. Pack and move- Everything including teacan be packed and takenhome. Vada pav- is nothing but a aloo bondaor vada inside a pav orloaf of bread. A few places may give you some chutney along, but that’s it,mostly! The pav factor- Mumbaikars love theirpav. To the extentthat they have samosa, pakoda, omelette and sometimes even bhel with pav. A lotof vada pav walas find it weird if you order a samosa, just a samosa that is,without pav. Two idlis in 1 plate- Only in Mumbai isit possible to servetwo small idlis and call it 1 plate and price it at Rs 60. You do get idlis atthe road side joints for lesser price and more quantity, but dare you order itat a veg eatery or restaurant. And this! 11. Liberty- In spite of being highlysegregated, Mumbai manages to be the safest city forwomen in India. I mean, imagine going from Colaba to Kandivaliat 1.30 in the night in a local train, that too after some serious clubbing! Nobody tries to grope you, noobscene remarks or ogling, people just go about their own business. 12. Need for speed- Mumbaikars don’tbelieve in slowing down orwaiting. Therefore when a train arrives at a station, even before it comes to ahalt, everyone starts jumping in. Once inside the train, the crowd will eitherpush forward or block the door, because the next priority after getting in, isgetting out, even if there are 6 stations in between. 13. Off hona- If your neighbour tellsyou, ‘mere dadaji pichhle saaloff ho gaye’, it doesn’t mean s/he disliked the grandfather. It simply means hepassed away last year. 14. Monsoon is unromantic and manytimes anti-climactic- If you live in Mumbai fora couple of years, all your romantic associations with monsoon will be washedaway in no time. In Mumbai, if it rains it doesn’t stop till the next morningand there is a good chance that the train lines will be flooded by the time itdoes, which means it’s a great excuse to skip work. In most scenarios, youcannot go for work even if you are a sincere employee. But the incessant rainis depressing and gloomy. It’s not the kind you’d enjoy with chai and pakoda. 15. East or West- the Eastern side andWestern side ofany place is as far as two separate islands. So if you are planning to work inthe east and live in the west or vice versa, you should consider a change ofplans. It’s easier to liveon the same side, than in the same area. 16. Just how big is the carpet? Thereis a super built uparea, built up area, and carpet area. #justsaying 17. Bombay vs Mumbai- There won’t beany angry mob scenario if youcall Bombay as Bombay. Mumbaikars are actually very hospitable and notjingoistic at all. 18. No change, no problem- Unlike allthe cities have been to,Mumbai auto walahs and taxi drivers would let go off that 1 Re change. Chuttanai hai, koi baat nai. Attimes, the auto drivers have been kind enough to exempt even up to Rs 3.And they’re always there, wee hours into the night, early morning, always.There are those who would reject you if you want to travel a short distance.But then, they always go bymetre, there is no need to bargain. They are more willing and even moreprofessional, unlike their brethren in other Indian cities, like someonementioned in the comments. So if you’re a single woman, new to the city, fearnot and trust in the auto wale bhaiyaas. Bombay, or Mumbaias it is called now, reminds me the opening lines of W.H. Auden’s poem RefugeeBlues. “Say this city hasten million souls, Some are living inmansions, some are living in holes: Yet there is noplace for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.” Unlike the Germany of Auden’s time, Mumbai has a place foreveryone. You probably won’t like the place, youprobably would live in the said holes or the boxes, and every night you’d smokethe poor man’s cigarette, and watch the smoke spiralling upwards towards themansions that have no place for you, the mansions that are symbolic of bothopulence and hubris of the city. But eventually, it accommodates you. Q4 How come there is Neanderthal andDenisovans DNA in modern humans if species cannot successfully interbreed? A4 Claire Jordan, Degree in biology andfolklore; programmer, shop owner, secretary on newspaper Tue We also consider two groups to be separate species if theycould interbreed but don’t (even when given the chance),or if they can interbreed but do so with reduced success, or of they hybridisefreely but a high proportion of the hybrids are sterile. What evidence we havesuggests that the third one was the case with Neanderthals or Denisovans andus. See, we nearly all have a lot of Neanderthal genes, andsome modern groups also have Denisovan genes. But nobody that we’ve tested has either aNeanderthal/Denisovan Y-chromosome, or their mitochondria. Thatsuggests that the only hybrids who were fertile (or possibly the only ones whowere even viable) were either daughters of N/D fathers and sapiens mothers, orsons of N/D mothers and sapiens fathers. Q5 What are some mind-blowing facts thatsound unreal but are actually true? A5 Prabhat Mishra, Average everydaynormal guy!1 0mo More people die by drowning than by dehydration,in deserts. This can be trueabout sea too, more people die because of dehydration than by drowning, inseas. There are more trees on the Earth, than stars in themilky way. Maybe to find thisfact suprising, you need to know enough surprising facts about the milky way. Before we putwheels on suitcases, we had reached moon. Ofcourse becauseluggage isn't that heavy on the moon. Ice water can be hot enough to burn your face off! Chemistry getsweird with pressure (pun intended). A million seconds is about 11 days. A billion seconds isabout 32 years. (I find this fact too weird.) I know someone whoshowered last 10! seconds ago. (Decrypt this :-P) Cucumber are berries. Technically. ⊙.☉ All the above QA are from Quora website on 18-01- 2023. Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 19-01-2023 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/408683979.511033.1674086687908%40mail.yahoo.com.
