Learn five things that will help you make the most out of your travels in India
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Maya: Hi everybody, Maya here and welcome to All About Hindi, lesson 6. Can You Answer These Five Questions About India? |
| Manasi: Namaste dosto. Mera naam Manasi hai. In this lesson, we have something very special. |
| Maya: A quiz which may have some of you thinking oh no! but don’t worry, this will be a fun one. |
| Manasi: We are not going to test out your Hindi skills or anything like that. |
| Maya: No. These questions are all about India itself. Society, geography, culture. So you can see how much you know about India. |
| Manasi: Yes because learning Hindi is much more than just learning a language. |
| Maya: Yeah you learn about people, life, society and all that good stuff. |
| Manasi: If you pass, you can go to the next lesson. |
| Maya: And if you don’t pass, you can still go on to the next lesson. So no pressure. |
| Manasi: Everybody, are you ready? |
| Maya: All right, let’s get started. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Manasi: Maya, you will be taking the test right? |
| Maya: Me? Well okay, I will try to do my best. |
| Manasi: So here is the first question which is about geography. Where is India located? |
| A South Asia. |
| B Southeast Asia. |
| C Middle East. |
| Maya if you remember, we mentioned about this in our all about series, lesson 1. Didn’t we? |
| Maya: Yes we did. India is located in South Asia. |
| Manasi: That’s correct Maya. Do you know which one is the capital city? |
| Maya: Well that’s got to be New Delhi right? |
| Manasi: Correct. New Delhi is the capital city of India. |
| Maya: Okay now let’s move on to a question about politics. |
| Manasi: Maya, do you know which is the current Indian political system? |
| A A monarchy. |
| B A socialist republic or |
| C A parliamentary democracy. |
| Maya: Hmm I saw from the news that a new president of India has been elected and you have a prime minister. Therefore, the answer would be parliamentary democracy. |
| Manasi: Wow Maya! You know a lot about India. Well what is your final answer? |
| Maya: I would still stick with parliamentary democracy. |
| Manasi: That’s correct. The legislature of India is the bicameral parliament which consists of the upper house called the Rajya Sabha or council of states and the lower house called the Lok Sabha or house of people. |
| Maya: Oh I see. India has a bicameral parliament operating under Westminster style parliamentary system. |
| Manasi: Exactly. Okay now let’s move to the next question. This question is about travel. I am going to give you three options about popular tourist sites in India. So Maya, you’ve got to tell me which one is not located in Delhi. |
| A Lalkila or Red Fort. |
| B Lotus temple and |
| C Kodaikanal. |
| Maya: Does everyone know the answer? Let’s see Lalkila or the Red Fort as well as Lotus temple are located in Delhi. So the answer must be Kodaikanal. |
| Manasi: That’s correct. Kodaikanal is not in Delhi. |
| Maya: Is Kodaikanal located in Tamil Nadu which is the southern part of India? |
| Manasi: That’s right. You can go there by airplane which takes around an hour or by overnight bus or train. Have you ever been to Kodaikanal? |
| Maya: No I haven’t but I really wish I could go some day. |
| Manasi: It’s referred to as the princess of hill stations. If you get a chance, please visit the southern parts of India. |
| Maya: Okay now we move on to a question about the economy. |
| Manasi: Maya, as you might be knowing, Indian economy is amongst the fastest growing in the world in terms of output. Do you know which sector is contributing most to GDP? I will give you three options. |
| A The service sector. |
| B The industrial sector. |
| C The agricultural sector. |
| Maya: Hmm this is very difficult. |
| Manasi: Yeah I know. The agricultural sector accounts for 14.6% of GDP while the service and industrial sectors make up 57.2% and 28% respectively. |
| Maya: Oh I see! So you mean, the answer is a) service sector? |
| Manasi: That’s correct. Okay so now let’s move to the next question which is a true or false question. This time, we are going to debunk a myth about India. |
| Maya: Sounds fun. |
| Manasi: So here it is. India’s main staple is Chicken tikka masala. Is that true or false? |
| Maya: That isn’t really true, is it? |
| Manasi: You are right. Most Indians eat rice or products derived from wheat. |
| Maya: So Manasi, how often do you eat rice? |
| Manasi: Well, since I am from the southern parts of India, I eat rice almost every day lunch or dinner, but most people from the north or the central western parts of India don’t eat rice so often. They mostly eat Chapati or paratas which is a flat bread made from wheat. So Maya, do you know which is the staple food of India? |
| Maya: Yes rice or flat bread made from wheat. |
| Manasi: Yeah and not just plain white rice, there are lot of different varieties and ways to prepare it. And there are equal varieties of mouth watering paratas. |
| Maya: For example. |
| Manasi: Most people in southern parts of India eat rice with pulse curry and it’s called as Daal Chawal. They eat it mostly with their hands. There are many other varieties of rice popular all over India like Biryani, Tomato rice, pulao et cetera. In the Northern and central parts, people eat more of flat bread prepared from wheat which is called as Chapati or parata. |
| Maya: How about noodles? |
| Manasi: Yeah. Some people eat noodles for lunch. It’s so funny. Some people say that noodles are not rice. So they don’t feel full after having noodles. |
| Maya: Wow! I haven’t heard that before. |
| Manasi: All right. That’s all for our quiz. |
| Maya: And we hope you had fun and that you learned something. You should try asking your friends and family these questions and see how they do. |
| Manasi: That sounds like a real fun idea. You can teach other people what you have just learned about India. |
| Maya: And this is only the beginning of all of the interesting things about India that you will find out as you learn the language and experience the culture first hand. |
Outro |
| Manasi: This is all for this lesson. Listeners, have you ever dreamt of starring in one of our lessons? |
| Maya: If your answer is yes, use the voice recording tool on the lessons page. |
| Manasi: Record your voice with a click of a button |
| Maya: And then play it back just as easily. |
| Manasi: Then compare it to the native speakers in the lesson. |
| Maya: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Manasi: After a few tries, you will be speaking better Hindi than Maya here. |
| Maya: Hey! |
| Manasi: Go to hindipod101.com and rapidly improve your Hindi pronunciation. फिर मिलेंगे (phir milenge). Goodbye. |
| Maya: Bye. |
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