The story behind the Modi Surname

Today, everyone in this world are inquisitive about a certain surname, i.e MODI.

To begin, we will have to understand the art of naming in Gujarati. The Gujarati surnames seem to derive from four main sources: place names, trades or occupations, nicknames and traditional Hindu castes. 

Names such as Khambhata (remember, the famous Persis Khambatta), are derived from Khambhat, a municipality in Anand district of Gujarat. Surnames, such as Gandhi were ‘perfumer’, Jhaveri, were ‘jeweller’, Kapadia (Dimple Kapadia), were Cloth (Kapada in hindi) seller.

Further, there are many Gujarati surnames which started as the nicknames for a certain generation, for example, Mankad (Vinoo Mankad) means bug, or Hathi (Jaisukh lal Hathi). Lastly, surnames were based on Hindu castes (sub-castes, mini castes, etc), like Joshi, Gohil, Vaghela, etc.

Now, coming back to our main story, the story of Modi. Well the origin falls under the second category, i.e. it is named after an occupation. It connotes of all the caste and religion who traditionally were ‘grocer’.  Coincidentally South Asia’s two greatest leaders (Gandhi and Jinnah) were also from Gujarati mercantile castes. While, Gandhi (derived from gandh गंध, meaning smell) was a Hindu perfume seller bania, Jinnah, a Lohana-converted into a Shia Muslim (Ismaili Khoja). According to many, even Modi is a part of Lohana, along with various other surnames such as: Daiya, Dattani, Kotak, Kothari, etc.  

Thus, since Modi indicates a profession. A Modi surname can be a Hindu bania (Lalit Modi) or OBC, Jain, or even a Parsi (Rusi Mody) and Muslim (Syed Modi, the eight-time National Badminton champion).

Narendra Modi is a Ghanchi, which is considered to be a backward caste, since originally they were oil-pressers (teli). Ironically, the Muslims involved in the Godhra incident were also Ghanchi.

Further, the outgoing Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's surname is also derived from merchant community (Khatri) . Their ancestor were also said to be from oil-pressers (teli) community. His gotra is said to be Kohli, which has come from Kolhu (कोल्हू).

Ostrich Pillow: For all the Power nap's lovers.

Ostrich Pillow, a portable device said to “enable power naps".

Indian Prime Ministers & average GDP growth in their tenures

AQAD 518

Identify the advertiser and why it is in News?

 

The GuestQuiZMAster (GQM): Aniruddha Dutta 3

It's wednesday and we are ready with the third edition.

1. In the midst of the 1977 debacle for the Congress, this person made his debut on the Election scene and won his first election on a Congress ticket. He retained his seat 8 times post that making it to a few Parliament committees but never became a Minister.
In 2009, he was denied a Congress ticket and switched his allegiance. In 2014, his daughter makes a debut contesting in the same seat which her father represented. Identify the person and the constituency.
2. X is an orange coloured stomach healer that all Bengalis swear by. Found in most of our homes, it is considered more valuable than gold. Bengal Chemicals and Eastern Drug are some of the prominent manufacturers of this. Made by the small seed-like fruit of the Bishop's Weed plant, what is X? For bonus points, what is the common name we know it by?
3. The word is most commonly used for a small group of experienced personnel at the core of a larger organization that the small group trains or heavily influences. Its origin is in the French word meaning a "frame". The word is used in the sense that the small group provides a "framework" for the larger organization. Which word?
4. The city got its name from the Managing Agency house which promoted IISCO (Indian Iron & Steel Company) in 1918. The township came up with the construction of the iron-making plant. The Indian Standard Wagon factory was also set up in 1918 and shared the township with IISCO. Which city?
5. Which company sponsors the New Year's eve in Times Square, New York and also runs the ‘Kiss of the Year’ contest in several places as a run-up to the New Year celebrations?
6. In the 1970s, after taking up the job of the editor of this magazine, which very few would have vouched for and doing it successfully, he gave it up even though he was complemented by Atal Bihari Bajpayee on bringing out a "good magazine", but one which he had to "keep under the pillow". Identify the editor and the magazine.
7. It was founded by Alfred Escher in 1856 in order to fund the development of Switzerland's rail system. It issued loans that helped create Switzerland's electrical grid and the European rail system. It also helped develop the country's currency system and funded entrepreneurship. What are we describing?
8. What event, one of the first of its kind in the world started as the "Press Week" in1943, to divert attention away from the French industry during World War II and showcase the American industry which till then had been ignored?
9. Kashmiri Shawls became international brand when this ruler decided to gift one to his wife. Who?































1. Manoranjan Bhakta from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 8 time Congress MP. Switched to Trinamool Congress. Daughter Anita Mandal contesting as the Trinamool Congress candidate.
2. Aqua Ptycotis commonly known as JowanerAarok or AjwainAarak
3. Cadre
4. The answer is Burnpur after Burn & Co.
5. Nivea
6. Vinod Mehta and Debonair
7. Credit Suisse
8. The first fashion week. New York Fashion Week
9. Napoleon

AQAD 517

Put Funda.

The first webcam was invented to watch a coffee pot

Do you know what motivated In 1991, the folks at the University of Cambridge developed the first webcam ?

Well answer might surprised you, since it is a coffee pot.

To quote a BBC post:

"One of the things that's very, very important in computer science research is a regular and dependable flow of caffeine,"

But the problem for scientists was that the coffee pot was stationed in the main computer lab, known as the Trojan room, and many of the researchers worked in different labs and on different floors.

"They would often turn up to get some coffee from the pot, only to find it had all been drunk,"

The original webcam updated the image of a coffee pot about three times a minute

 

McDonald's redesigns fry packaging around the world.

Keeping in mind the FIFA world cup, McDonald's  will change the look of its iconic red French fry packaging, around the world. 

In addition, the new fry boxes will be the key to "unlocking" a new Augmented Reality (AR) app that will reward customers with an engaging, virtual trick-shot challenge.

AQAD 516

Identify the Indian company.

Google Acquires Quest Visual, Maker of 'Word Lens' App

Quest Visual, the guys behind Word Lens, announced that it was acquired by Google. 

"With Word Lens, we've seen the beginnings of what's possible when we harness the power of mobile devices to 'see the world in your language.'"

"By joining Google, we can incorporate Quest Visual's technology into Google Translate's broad language coverage and translation capabilities in the future," says Quest Visual on its website.

Word Lens is an augmented reality language translator app. Just point your phone's camera at the words you would like to be translated. 

The words, phrases, language and signs are translated from English to another language or vice versa.