A kulhad is a clay cup. It is thrown away after one use. In 2004 the railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav tried to bring kulhads back for tea at stations and on trains.
By 2008 the effort was considered a failure. In 2019 the minister Nitin Gadkari tried again: “I have written a letter to Piyush Goyal to make use of kulhads mandatory at 100 railway stations.”
The hand-held spray next to the toilet has many names, among them health faucet and jet spray. It is used to wash after using the toilet.
It is common in India, Wikipedia notes. It is an alternative to older sources of water for the same purpose, “such as the bidet, copper pot or bucket and mug.”
After Independence, stainless steel replaced brass and copper in many Indian kitchens. Brass and copper had to be polished, often with tamarind. Steel “did not rust, chip, or leach,” the Indian magazine Homegrown writes. It was “a miracle of convenience.”
Many Indian households do without a dishwasher. In 2025 the Kerala news site Onmanorama listed the reasons. One is that “Indian cuisine often uses a lot of oil, which dishwashers may not completely clean.”
Another is a belief: “A belief that dishes are only truly clean when washed by hand is also a reason why many avoid dishwashers.”
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, Mangalyaan, was launched on November 5, 2013. It entered orbit around Mars on September 24, 2014, on its first attempt.
The mission was known for its low budget. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it had cost less than the Hollywood film Gravity.