The Indie Writers (Team Entity)

“Mashed potatoes, a host of spices, dough, ghee or butter”. If you say these words to any person from north India the first words to come to his or her mind would be - “Aloo Paratha”. The dish has its origins in India, and it is popular all over the country. It’s eaten regularly in most parts of India especially in the northern, western, and central part of India. It is well-liked in the south too but it’s eaten less frequently there. The main ingredients for this rather simple but much relished dish are mashed aloo or potatoes, salt, red chilly powder, turmeric powder, ghee or butter, and wheat flour. Let’s have a look at how to make this mouthwatering dish - To start, make dough out of wheat flour. Mix the spices with mashed potatoes to make the stuffing. Make small balls of dough and stuff the mash potatoes in it. Press down on it to make it round. Then cook it on a hot tawa or a pan with ghee or butter. You can serve it with Indian pickle, chutney, or

Located in the heart of India, Madhya Pradesh is the perfect place and it welcomes you with all the love the world has to offer. From the oldest collection of caves in India to the latest Jal Mahotsav, it has everything. There has been so much development in Madhya Pradesh in recent times that it almost takes your breath away but despite that the state has preserved all its historic and natural sites, places that will leave you mesmerized and possibly the best stress relief on offer. Let’s start with the latest i.e., the Jal Mahotsav. It is India's only and largest water carnival, hosted by Hanuwantiya near the Khandwa district in the backwaters of Indira Sagar Dam on the river Narmada. "Mowgli", "Jungle Book", have you heard these names? Of course! you have. The story is inspired by the forests in the Pench Tiger reserve and the Kanha National Park. The tiger reserves, also known as the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, is a place where, in add

Pachmarhi, more popularly known as the “Queen of Satpura” is one of the prettiest hill stations in Central India. Known for its scenic landscapes, picturesque views, and lush greenery, it lies inside the Satpura Biosphere Preserve, at an altitude of 3500 feet. It is located 144 km from the capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal, and it is home to an army base. It was discovered during the British era. Holding both historical and mythological significance, it attracts tourists from all over the world. The best time to visit & explore this amazingly beautiful place is from October to February. From pristine waterfalls to amazing view-points, this place has it all. So, let’s have a look at the places you can visit in Pachmarhi:- Bee fall - Bee fall is the center of attraction in Pachmarhi and the most visited place in the entire town. It is a place where you can sit back, enjoy the beauty of nature, and feel the cool breeze blowing against you. Also, if you love adventure yo

Despite the fact that Jahangir had given the British East India company permission to build factories in Surat, ties between the company and the Mughals would remain strained and these ties would be sorely tested following the death of Jahangir. Shah Jahan, would be the next to assume the Mughal throne, after a brief battle of ascendency with his brother Shahryar Mirza, a contest that Shah Jahan would win. During the reign of Shah Jahan, the British East India Company would be left mostly to its own devices, to expand and propagate trade, while the Mughals were busy consolidating their empire that was under threat at the time from local sultanates that were trying to break free and assert their independence, and the Mughals would be forced to fight wars on numerous fronts. Following the death of Shah Jahan, his third son Aurangzeb would become emperor, and Aurangzeb would prove to be much more astute than his father and would successfully consolidate the Mughal Empire, including

Approximately 91 years prior to the formation of the British East India Company, and 11 years after they reached Calicut, a Portuguese expedition landed on the Isle of Mahim, 1 of the 7 islands in the Bombay archipelago, in 1509. Realizing that the deep natural harbor was well suited to their needs, they sought an audience with the Sultan of Gujarat; Bombay was at the time under the control of the Gujarat Sultanate to seek permission to build a fort on the Isle of Mahim. In 1517 the commander of the Gujarat Sultanate on the island was defeated and the Portuguese acquired Mahim. The victory paved the way for a Portuguese expansion in Bombay and 9 years later the Portuguese established their first factory in Bassein. Following the building of the factory, some 2 years later, the reigning Sultan of Gujarat, Sultan Bahadur Shah, sent an emissary to the governor of Portuguese possessions in India, Nuna da Cunha, having suffered severe losses in the hands of the Mughals he was anxious to

Kalinga was an Indian Kingdom, bordered to the east by the Bay of Bengal that included the whole of present day Odisha, parts of Chhattisgarh, and the northern part of Andhra Pradesh. The kingdom was well in existence when Chandragupta Maurya founded the Mauryan Empire. The kingdom of Kalinga is mentioned in the Mahabharata. The ancient kingdom of Kalinga according to the Mahabhrata was also located in present day Odisha, so it’s been there for some time. Its capital is given as Rajapura and the daughter of Chitrangada who was the king of Kalinga at the time was married to Duryodhana. The Kalinga lineage extents all the way back to the five adopted sons of King Vaali or as he was more commonly known, Bali Asura, a devout worshiper of Vishnu. While Chandragupta Maurya expanded the Mauryan Empire, from its capital, Pataliputra, in Bihar, an empire that would eventually cover the whole of north and central India, Kalinga remained more or less what it was, and the fact that Chandr

In 1639 the British East India Company setup its first major trading outpost in India. There were in total three major trading outposts, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. The setting up of the Madras outpost was without bloodshed, and if anything, it was an astute acquisition. Madras was in fact the first major British East India Company trading outpost in the subcontinent. The history of Madras spans some 2,000 years and it was initially known as Puliyur Kottam. Much of its early history is written down in a series of manuscripts known as the Mackenzie Manuscripts or the Mackenzie Collection which codifies the oral history of the ancient city of Madras. At the time of the acquisition, Madras was known as Madraspatnam. The word Madraspatnam is a combination of two words, the word “Madras” which denotes the name of the town and the word “patnam” which means town, and the word “Madraspatnam” simply means the town of Madras or Madras town. Prior to the acquisition, the town was under the

The Deccan Plateau is a plateau that is located in south-central India and covers four states, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka and bits of Tamilnadu and Kerala and it is bordered in the west by the Western Ghats and in the east by the Eastern Ghats and it is bordered further west by the Arabian Sea and further east by the Bay of Bengal. It covers an area of approximately 422,000 km. In the Vedas the area that is now known as the Deccan Plateau is referred to as Dakshinapatha. The name is most likely derived from the Sanskrit words “Dakshina” which means southern and “Patha” which means “the way” or “the road” and read together it would mean the southern path or the southern way and that to some extent tells us that the plateau was used as a road to the south. While there are very little records of indigenous ancient kingdoms in the Plateau, it would be fair to surmise that it came under the dominion of the Mauryan Empire, but there may also have been some i

Thirty years after the formation of the British East India Company and the setting-up of the initial trading outposts, a young warrior-king was born, in Shivneri Fort, in the Pune district of the western Indian state of Maharashtra. His name was Sivaji Bhosale and his birth heralded a new chapter in Indian history.   Shivaji in the early years was active in the Deccan Plateau, which at that time was divided between three different Sultanates, and after his initial training, the young Shivaji was an astute learner, and even at an early age he had an uncanny ability to come to terms with the on-going three-way power struggle in the Deccan Plateau, he aligned himself with the Sultan of Bijapur under whose auspice he was formally trained and educated. He was first sent to Pune and from there he was transferred to Bangalore. In 1645, at the tender age of 15, Shivaji gained control of Torna Fort after bribing its commander, and started launching raids into neighboring territories. He w

In 1608, 8 years after the formation of the British East India Company, the first British ships arrived in the port city of Surat in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The initial reception was somewhat cold and in 1611, the company sought the help of King James I who’d assumed the throne following the death of his predecessor Elizabeth I, and King James would send William Hawkins the commander of the Hector to meet with Jahangir to obtain permission to trade but nothing would pan out. The East India Company however, having invested a substantial amount in the venture, was not about to give up, and in 1615, King James sent Sir Thomas Roe, an ambassador, to negotiate on behalf of the East India Company. The negotiations met with some measure of success and the company was allowed to set up factories in India, and Surat became the first British settlement in India. Ironically, the first goods that were transported from the factories in Surat were not spices as many would have expe