July 31, 2024, was the last day for filing income tax returns. That evening the Income Tax Department posted on X that more than 7 crore returns had been filed so far. It added: “over 50 lakh ITRs have been filed today till 7 pm.” Fifty lakh is five million.
Kumartuli
In Kumartuli in Kolkata, artisans make the clay idols for Durga Puja. In September 2019 the Millennium Post found them “working round-the-clock.” “We have to deliver all the idols before October 2,” said the artisan Indrajit Paul. The rush “begins on the day of Rath,” the chariot festival.
In June 2025 an artisan told the same paper: “Once Rath Yatra is over, we’ll have to start working double shifts to get everything done in time.”
Tatkal
Tatkal means forthwith, or now. Indian Railways runs a Tatkal scheme “to provide reservation to passengers who have to undertake a train journey at short notice.” Tatkal booking opens only one day before the journey.
The Eleventh Hour
For the Lok Sabha election of April 2019, about 1,700 nominations were filed in Tamil Nadu, for 39 parliamentary seats and 18 assembly by-elections. More than 800 of them came in on Tuesday, March 26, alone. DT Next headlined its report “11th hour rush.”
The Last Ball
In Lagaan (2001), the farmers of Champaner accept a challenge from British officers. They will play a cricket match three months later, and the farmer Bhuvan must build a team from the villagers. The match lasts three days.
On the last ball, Bhuvan hits the ball high. Captain Russell catches it, but he has stepped over the boundary. The hit counts as a six, and Champaner wins.
The Finisher
On July 11, 2013, India played Sri Lanka in the final of a three-nation series at Port of Spain, Trinidad. India needed 15 runs from the last over. M.S. Dhoni hit the winning runs with two balls to spare, and India won by one wicket. The next day Dilip Vengsarkar, a former chairman of selectors, said of Dhoni: “by far, he’s the best finisher I have ever seen.”
Delhi Has Performed
On September 21, 2010, shortly before the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, a footbridge under construction near the main stadium collapsed. Twenty-three workers were injured. Team Scotland called the athletes’ village “unsafe and unfit for human habitation.” Mike Fennell of the Commonwealth Games Federation said it was “seriously compromised.”
At the close of the Games, Fennell said the organizers had “delivered a truly outstanding event.” He added: “our plan B is Delhi, and Delhi has performed.”
The Rat-Hole Miners
On November 12, 2023, part of the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand collapsed. Forty-one workers were trapped behind the rubble. An American auger machine drilled toward them, then ran into obstacles and stopped.
A company involved in the rescue approached Wakeel Hassan, who leads a team of rat-hole miners. Twelve men who specialized in rat-hole mining were flown in from Delhi. They cleared the last stretch by hand. All 41 workers were rescued on November 28.
Jugaad
In rural Punjab, a jugaad is a vehicle built from what is at hand. One kind bolts a farm trailer to a diesel engine of the kind that drives water pumps. Another, in Moga, fixes a 10 horsepower irrigation pump engine to the front of a wooden cart. It carries about 40 people.
The word means a workaround. In 2017 the Oxford English Dictionary added it: “A flexible approach to problem-solving that uses limited resources in an innovative way.”