The ancient diamond shaped country of India, the largest

region of the Indian Subcontinent, extends from the Himalayan

Mountains in the north and south into the tropical reaches of the
Indian Ocean. With a population of 1,220,800,359 (2013 est)
makes India the second most populous country in the world, and
certainly one of the most intriguing.
This diverse and fertile country, which once included the
lands of today's Bangladesh and Pakistan, was plundered over
eons of time.
Its history begins some 500,000 years ago as early hominids
graced the land, and from 3300 to 1300 BC the Indus River Valley
Civilization flourished.
The sophisticated and technologically advanced Mature
Harappan period followed, lasting around 700 years before
collapsing and giving rise to the Iron Age Vedic Civilization during
the second millennium BC.
India and much of Asia were conquered by Cyrus the Great
of Persia in 530 BC and Alexander the Great in 326 BC. Together
the Persian and Greek invasions left a lasting impression on Indian
civilization, with the Persian's influencing future forms of
government.

The
National Flag of India is a horizontal rectangular tricolour of
deep saffron, white and India green; with the Ashoka Chakra, a
24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It was adopted in its
present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly held
on 22 July 1947, when it became the official flag of the Dominion
of India. The flag was subsequently retained as that of the
Republic of India. In India, the term "tricolour" (Hindi: , Tirang)
almost always refers to the Indian national flag. The flag is based
on the Swaraj flag, a flag of the Indian National Congress
designed by Pingali Venkayya.

Indians Poem
The Colour of Water
Rain falling, day after day,
as if trying to clean off
our permanent stains,
but all it does is discolour
this well-worn shirt,
and wash the memory
of all the passing seasons
from the walls.

This is not summer

nor autumn nor winter:
sometimes I recognize myself,
then forget.
Maybe after so much rain
all colour will be washed out
and my shirt then be the colour of water.

Land Area of India

Land area (sq. km) in India was last measured at 2973190 in 2014,
according to the World Bank. Land area is a country's total area,
excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental
shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of
inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.
It is the seventh-largest country in the world, with a total area of
3,166,414 square kilometres (1,222,559 sq mi). India measures 3,214 km
(1,997 mi) from north to south and 2,933 km (1,822 mi) from east to west. It
has a land frontier of 15,200 km (9,445 mi) and a coastline of 7,517 km
(4,671 mi).
On the south, India projects into and is bounded by the Indian Ocean
in particular, by the Arabian Sea on the southwest, the Laccadive Sea to the
south, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. The Palk Strait and Gulf of
Mannar separate India from Sri Lanka to its immediate southeast, and the
Maldives are some 400 kilometres (250 mi) to the southwest. India's
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, some 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) southeast of
the mainland, share maritime borders with Myanmar, Thailand and
Indonesia. Kanyakumari at 8441N and 773228E is the southernmost tip
of the Indian mainland, while the southernmost point in India is Indira Point
on Great Nicobar Island.

India is
most
country in
with over
people

the second
populous
the world,
1.271 billion
(2015),

more than a sixth of the world's population. Already containing

17.5% of the world's population, India is projected to be the
world's most populous country by 2025, surpassing China, its
population reaching 1.6 billion by 2050. Its population growth rate
is 1.2%, ranking 94th in the world in 2013. The Indian population
had reached the billion mark by 1998.
India has more than 50% of its population below the age of
25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in
2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to
37 for China and 48 for Japan; and, by 2030, India's dependency
ratio should be just over 0.4.
India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every
major religion is represented, as are four major families of
languages (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austroasiatic and SinoTibetan languages) as well as two language isolates (the Nihali
language spoken in parts of Maharashtra and the Burushaski
language spoken in parts of Jammu and Kashmir). The modern
Indian republic is home to 97% of Jains, 90% of Sikhs, 87% of
Hindus, 50% of Zoroastrians, 40% of Baha'i, 20% of Shia, 10% of
Muslims, 5% of Ahmadiyya, 2% of Buddhists and 1% of Christians
worldwide.

Three major features fill the Indian landscape: the Himalayas and associated ranges,
a geologically young mountain belt, folded, faulted, and uplifted, that marks the nation's
northern boundary and effectively seals India climatically from other Asian countries; the
Peninsula, a huge stable massif of ancient crystalline rock, severely weathered and eroded;
and the Ganges-Brahmaputra Lowland, a structural trough between the two rivers, now an
alluvial plain carrying some of India's major rivers from the Peninsula and the Himalayas to
the sea. These three features, plus a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea and a wider
one along the Bay of Bengal, effectively establish five major physical-economic zones in
India.
Some of the world's highest peaks are found in the northern mountains:
Kanchenjunga (8,598 m/28,208 ft), the third-highest mountain in the world, is on the border
between Sikkim and Nepal; Nanda Devi (7,817 m/25,645 ft), Badrinath (7,138 m/23,420 ft),
and Dunagiri (7,065 m/23,179 ft) are wholly in India; and Kamet (7,756 m/25,447 ft) is on
the border between India and Tibet.
The Peninsula consists of an abrupt 2,400-km (1,500-mi) escarpment, the Western
Ghats, facing the Arabian Sea; interior low, rolling hills seldom rising above 610 m (2,000 ft);
an interior plateau, the Deccan, a vast lava bed; and peripheral hills on the north, east, and
south, which rise to 2,440 m (8,000 ft) in the Nilgiris and Cardamoms of Kerala and Tamil
Nadu. The Peninsula holds the bulk of India's mineral wealth, and many of its great rivers
the Narbada, Tapti, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveriflow through it to the sea. The
great trench between the Peninsula and the Himalayas is the largest alluvial plain on earth,
covering 1,088,000 sq km (420,000 sq mi) and extending without noticeable interruption
3,200 km (2,000 mi) from the Indus Delta (in Pakistan) to the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta
(shared by India and Bangladesh), at an average width of about 320 km (200 mi). Along this
plain flow the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Son, Jumna, Chambal, Gogra, and many other major
rivers, which provide India with its richest agricultural land.

INDIAN STORY
COYOTE DANCES WITH THE STARS
Because the Great Mystery Power had given Coyote much of his medicine, Coyote
himself grew very powerful and conceited. There was nothing, he believed, that he couldn't
do. He even thought he was more powerful than the Great Mystery, for Coyote was
sometimes wise but also a fool.One day long ago, it came into his mind to dance with a star.
"I really feel like doing this," he said. He saw a bright star coming up from behind a
mountain, and called out:"Hoh, you star, wait and come down! I want to dance with you."
The star descended until Coyote could get hold of him, and then soared up into the
sky, with Coyote hanging on for dear life.Round and round the sky went the star.Coyote
became very tired, and the arm that was holding onto the star grew numb, as if it were
coming out of its socket!"Star," he said, "I believe I've done enough dancing for now. I'll let
go and be getting back home." "No, wait; we're too high up," said the star. "Wait until I come
lower over the mountain where I picked you up.Coyote looked down at the earth. He thought
it seemed quite near. "I'm tired, star; I think I'll leave now; we're low enough," he said, and
let go.
Coyote had made a bad mistake. He dropped down, down, down. He fell for a full ten
winters. He plopped through the earth clouds at last, and when he finally hit ground, he was
flattened out like a tanned, stretched deerskin.So he died right there.
Now, the Great Mystery Power had amused himself by giving Coyote several lives. It
took Coyote quite a few winters, however, to puff himself up again into his old shape. He had
grown quite a bit older in all that time, but he had not grown less foolish. He boasted: "Who
besides me could dance with stars, and fall out of the sky for ten long winters, and be
flattened out like a deer hide,and live to tell the tale?
I am Coyote. I am powerful. I can do anything!"
Coyote was sitting in front of his lodge one night, when from behind the mountain
rose a strange kind of star, a very fast one, trailing a long, shining tail. Coyote said to

himself: "Look at that fast star; what fun to dance with him!"He called out: "Hoh, strange
star with the long tail! Wait for me; come down; let's dance!"
The strange, fast star shot down, and Coyote grabbed hold. The star whirled off into
the vastness of the universe. Again Coyote had made a bad mistake.Looking up from his
lodge into the sky, he had had no idea of that star's real speed. It was the fastest thing in
the universe.Bit by bit, small pieces of Coyote were torn off in this mad race through the
skies, until at last only Coyote's right hand was holding onto that fast star.
Coyote fell back down to earth in little pieces, a bit here and a bit there. But soon the
pieces started looking for each other, slowly coming together, forming up into Coyote
again.It took a long time; several winters. At last Coyote was whole again except for his right
hand, which was still whirling around in space with the star.
Coyote called out: "Great Mystery! I was wrong.!! I'm not as powerful as you. I'm not
as powerful as I thought, Have pity on me!"Then the Great Mystery Power spoke: "Friend
Coyote. I have given you four lives. Two you have already wasted foolishly. Better watch
out!""Have pity on me," wailed Coyote. "Give me back my right hand." "That's up to the star
with the long tail, my friend. You must have patience. Wait until the star appears to you,
rising from behind the mountain again. Then maybe he will shake your hand off.""How often
does this star come over the mountain?""Once in a hundred lifetimes," said the Great
Mystery.