Words & Worth

If numbers sum up a nation and its priorities, the statements of its celebrities, some smart, others silly, speak for its real character.

34.5 cr was India's approximate population at the time of Independence on August 15, 1947. Source: www.un.org A child is born in India every 1.25 seconds. India's population grows by 153 lakh every year, adding almost as much as the total population of Chile annually. 24 lakh is the number of places of worship in India. Not surprising, given the country's huge multi-religious population. 10,19,916 was the number of schools in India in 2003-04. The literacy rate is just 65 per cent, well below the figure in other Asian nations. Source: HRD Ministry 8 out of 13 prime ministers have been from Uttar Pradesh- Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Charan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. B. R. Ambedkar 1950 "Political tyranny is nothing compared to social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies government." Jawaharlal Nehru 1960 "Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse." Salman Rushdie 1989 "Prophet Mohammed would have no objection to The Satanic Verses." Manmohan Singh 1991 "I am not very good at statistics. I am also a poor thinker." Indira Gandhi 1979 "If the country prospers even a little by doing away with me, I am willing to be hanged." Sardar Patel 1931 "No one would starve in independent India. Its grain would not be exported. Cloth would not be imported by it. Its leaders would not use a foreign language and finding justice in it would be neither costly nor difficult." Sonia Gandhi 2004 "I am an Indian. In fact, I feel like a foreigner when I go abroad." Mahatma Gandhi 1946 "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." George Fernandes 1977 "A politician should not be written off till he or she is cremated." Nana Patekar 1995 "Amitabh is a good actor who has done the wrong films for 10 years." Dhyan Chand 1932 "I was assured of a place in the team without trials, but I had a feeling it was not fair...when many of my friends were fighting badly for a place and had to prove their mettle in the inter-provincial tournament." Mulk Raj Anand 1996 "No apology is necessary for being truthful to the echoes of one's mother tongue." V.P. Singh 1988 "I would be a disaster as a prime minister." Mother Teresa 1976 "The biggest problem in the world today is not poverty or disease but the lack of love and charity and the feeling of being unwanted." Amrita Pritam 1984 "Indian men are still used to the traditional role given to women; they want intelligent girls for company but not to marry...(they) have yet to taste and relish the company of mature women." Khushwant Singh 1993 "Nobody has yet invented the condom for the pen. My pen is still sexy." Rekha 1976 "Sharmila, Jaya, Shabana are always saying things about me. They do too much nakhra. But I'm three times as much in demand as all of them put together." Manmohan Desai 1983 "No girl has offered to go to bed with me in return for a part (in a film). I wish it would happen." A.B.Vajpayee 1998 "Did Indira Gandhi ask for somebody's permission to carry out the test in 1974?" 7 is the number of Indians or people of Indian descent who have won the Nobel prize; Rabindranath Tagore was the first, V.S. Naipaul the latest. Number of finance ministers since Independence: 22 individuals, 26 appointments. The number of tourists (domestic and foreign) visiting Goa every year is 20 lakh. No doubt thanks to its 10-km coastline dotted with beaches. The amount of opium produced legally in India in 2005 was 1,350 metric tonne. The official number of people killed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 13, 1919, by soldiers of the British India army is 379; the unofficial figure is over 1,000. 1,00,000 was the number of arrests made during the Emergency which was imposed on the orders of prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 and lasted till 1977. Lucknow's City Montessori School entered The Guinness Book of World Records in 2002 for having the highest number of pupils 26,312 3 cr is the estimated number of Indian children who work, making the world's largest child labour force. 7 cr is the estimated number of gays, lesbians and transgender individuals in India. The number of guests invited to the wedding of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa's foster son in 1995 was 1,50,000. The state government spent Rs 2 crore on security arrangements. The area of the world's largest slum, Dharavi, in Mumbai: 432 acre 205 of Uttar Pradesh's 403 MLAs, or more than half the strength of the state Assembly, have been charged with criminal activity. 23 cr Indians lived below the poverty line in 2004-05, says a report by the National Sample Survey. The approximate number of farmers in India is 65 crore. The number of permanent post offices in India is 1,55,516, compared to 63,555 in China. 56 children die at birth in India for every 1,000 born. The figure is 27 in China. 50 lakh is the average number of mobile phone connections added every month in India. Sunil Dutt 1986 "It was only after I got elected that I got back in touch with reality. Otherwise we actors tend to get lost in the world of make-believe." Nani Palkhivala 1988 "If any enterprise is run along the line the Government of India is run, it would go into liquidation." Bhajan Lal 1988 "The Congress has made this country. The rest (the opposition parties) are all tenants." Shatrughan Sinha 1987 "If a pilot can become the prime minister, why can't a film star?" Shah Rukh Khan 2005 "I love the trappings of stardom. I'd hate it if 5,000 people didn't gather outside my home." O.P. Chautala 1990 "A man who does not have thousands of enemies, I don't consider him a man. A man whose name does not make some people squirm at night, his life has no meaning. His coming into this world is purposeless." 334 is the number of airports in India. The number of actors in the 1982 film Gandhi (including extras), according to The Guinness Book of World Records, was 3,00,000. 92 is India's rank in the corruption index of 159 nations surveyed in 2005 by Transparency International. On a scale of 10 to zero India got 2.9. 92,500 people died in road mishaps in the country in 2005. 8,811 is the number of soldiers officially killed in India-Pakistan wars. India has fought three battles with Pakistan-in 1965, 1971 and in 1999. 52 The average age of MPs in Parliament in May 2004 when the tenure of the 14th Lok Sabha began: 14 lakh people work for the Indian Railways, making it the largest employer in the world. Playback sisters Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle have sung 52,000 songs between them. Who sang how many? Asha 12,000 Lata 40,000 Estimates from their respective interviews Satyajit Ray 1983 "I don't understand these national awards, because half of those who sit in judgement over Indian films do not... possess the competence to evaluate a film correctly." Bal Thackeray 1992 "I believe the country needs a dictatorship." Kanshi Ram 1993 "We will build neither mandirs nor masjids. Our priority will be to build latrines." E.K. Nayanar 1997 "As long as there are women, there are bound to be sex rackets." Sunil Gavaskar 1993 "Why talk of the team when our Cricket Board is like an exclusive club with members being there for years on end? If they can stay on without performing, the players too feel they can stay in the team without too big a performance." http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20060703/quota.html