Maska lagana: to apply butter. The Rekhta dictionary defines it as flattering, praising someone to their face without reason, fawning, and ji huzoori, saying “yes, sir.”
Makkhan lagna: to be buttered. Rekhta defines it as smooth talk used to get one’s own way.
Sulabhah purusha rajan satatam priyavadinah, apriyasya tu pathyasya vakta shrota cha durlabhah. “Oh, King! It is easy to find people who always talk in (your) favor. But people who speak or listen to ‘words not in (your) favor, yet in your welfare’ are rare to find!”
The verse appears in the Udyoga Parva of the Mahabharata, and also in the Ramayana.
In the Yuddha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Hanuman has found Sita and overpowered Lanka. Ravana calls his ministers and asks for their advice. Valmiki says that they answered him “without knowing the strengths of their enemy’s side.”
They praise the strength of his army and tell him there is no need for him to act. “Oh, emperor! Why exertion to you? You remain here. Oh, emperor! This Indrajit alone can destroy the monkeys.”
In the Valmiki Ramayana, King Dasharatha dies of grief after Rama goes into exile. Bharata, the son who is to be king, is away at his uncle’s house. Messengers are sent to bring him home. They are told: “After going there, do not tell him that Rama has gone to exile or that his father is dead.” This is verse 68.8 of the Ayodhya Kanda.
In December 2018 the National Statistical Commission approved a report on employment from the Periodic Labour Force Survey. The government did not release it. On January 28, 2019, two members of the commission resigned, its acting chair P.C. Mohanan and J.V. Meenakshi.
The government said that the two members had never expressed reservations.
On June 22, 2023, Deloitte resigned as the auditor of Byju’s, the education technology company. It said it had received no communication on the resolution of the modifications in the audit report for 2020-21, and it had not been able to start the audit for 2021-22. BDO was appointed in its place.
In the night of January 28 to 29, 2025, a crowd crush took place at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. According to Wikipedia, “Authorities initially denied that the crush or casualties had occurred before announcing on the evening of 29 January that at least 30 people had died.”
The official figure has been disputed. A Newslaundry report based on hospital and police records put the toll at no fewer than 79.
According to the Buddhist legend, a prediction said that Prince Siddhartha would become an ascetic if he saw the sufferings of life. His father, King Shuddhodana, kept him inside the palace. He “surrounded him with earthly pleasures and luxury, thereby concealing the realities of life.”
At 29, Siddhartha left the palace for the first time. He saw an old man, a sick man and a corpse, then an ascetic. Some time later he left the palace for good, on his horse Kanthaka.
Satyameva jayate. Truth alone triumphs. The phrase opens verse 3.1.6 of the Mundaka Upanishad. It is the national motto of India, inscribed in Devanagari below the Lion Capital of Ashoka in the State Emblem.
As a schoolboy, Mohandas Gandhi saw a play about King Harishchandra. In his autobiography he wrote: “This play – Harishchandra – captured my heart.” He added: “‘Why should not all be truthful like Harishchandra?’ was the question I asked myself day and night.”