In 1979 the first flight of India’s satellite launch vehicle, SLV-3, failed. Satish Dhawan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, faced the press himself. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the project director, later recalled: “He took the whole blame on himself despite criticisms.” Dhawan told the press that “next year we would succeed because his team was a very good one.”
Sifarish
Sifarish means a recommendation. A person with sifarish has someone who has spoken for them. The Rekhta dictionary gives recommendation and intercession as its first meanings. It notes that the word can also mean “undue favour or influence.”
Essential Repeat
“From 2020, CBSE has replaced the term FAIL with ESSENTIAL REPEAT.” This is from the frequently asked questions of the Central Board of Secondary Education, which sets school-leaving exams for much of India.
A student who fails the theory paper now receives RT, Repeat in Theory, instead of FT, Fail in Theory.
The Minister Resigns
In 1956 Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Railway Minister, offered to resign after a train accident at Mahbubnagar. Prime Minister Nehru persuaded him to stay. After a second accident, at Ariyalur in November, Shastri resigned again. “It will be good for me and the Government as a whole, if I quietly quit the office I hold,” he wrote.
Nehru accepted, while saying he did not hold Shastri responsible. Sources differ on the death tolls of both accidents.
India Is Indira
“India is Indira. Indira is India.” The line is attributed to Dev Kant Barooah, a Congress leader and minister under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He is chiefly remembered for it.
Wikipedia dates it to 1974 and cites the historian Ramachandra Guha. The wording and the year differ between accounts, and Wikipedia describes the statement itself as alleged.
Not in Front of the Boss
ValueNotes, an Indian research firm, gives foreign partners ten tips for doing business with Indians. One of them reads: “In a meeting, we don’t like to contradict the boss, especially if he’s wrong!”
The tip continues: “The flip side is that those in powerful positions expect deference, and consensus.”
Loyal to the Emperor
In one of the Akbar and Birbal tales, the emperor Akbar praises the brinjal, and his minister Birbal praises it too. Birbal even sings two songs about it. A few days later Akbar finds a brinjal dish tasteless. Birbal now says that the vegetable is unhealthy.
Asked why he changed his mind, Birbal says that he is loyal to the emperor, not to the brinjal. One retelling puts it this way: “I am beholden to you, not to the Brinjal.”
The Parrot
In one of the Akbar and Birbal tales, Emperor Akbar’s pet parrot has died. No courtier dares to tell him, because he has ordered that anyone who brings news of the parrot’s death will be hanged. Birbal goes to the emperor and says: “Jahanpanah, your parrot is neither eating anything, nor drinking anything.”
When Akbar asks whether the parrot is dead, Birbal replies: “I did not say it. You said it.”