All aboard India’s first passenger train with the Google Doodle!

If you’re a fan of spotting Google Doodles, this is a great week for you.

A day after Google honoured Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler with a doodle, the search giant has come up with one more to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the first passenger train in India.

The doodle is a simple affair, with a steam locomotive pulling a train. The engine forms the first “O” in “Google”. The whole doodle wears a very old-worldly look and resembles a painting more than a drawing. The train is surrounded by open fields and palm trees, trying to bring back the charm of the 19th century.

The first passenger train in India ran between Bori Bunder in Bombay and Thane on April 16, 1853, signaling a new era in travel and communication in the country. The train was pulled by three locomotives – Sultan, Sindh and Sahib and had about 400 passengers on board its 14 carriages. The journey of the first passenger train in India lasted for a good 57 minutes between Bori Bunder and Thane and had just one halt.

Celebrating the 160th anniversary of the first passenger train

 

Interestingly, this was only the first time a passenger train was run in India. The first rail line had come up near Chintadripet Bridge in the then Madras Presidency in 1836 as an experimental line.

After the first passenger train was run between Bombay and Thane, the first passenger railway line in north India was opened between Allahabad and Kanpur in 1859.

The train doodle is a slightly less interactive one this time round and slightly inaccurate too, given the fact that the train was actually pulled by three locomotives.

To celebrate Euler’s birthday yesterday, the doodle was a partly animated one. The doodle included geometrical figures and mathematical formulae, scribbled on a partially yellow piece of paper. Some of the mathematical elements on the doodle, included the mathematical constant, his polyhedral formula, now written as v-e+f=2.
 
An important name in the field of mathematics, Euler’s genius can be affirmed from the fact that he is the only mathematician to have two numbers named after him – the Euler’s number in calculus (e, i.e. approximately equal to 2.71828), and the Euler’s Mascheroni Constant (gamma), also called as “Euler’s constant” (approximately equal to 0.57721).

Earlier in December, Google had honoured another mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan on his 125th birthday. The doodle in the memory of this genius was endearing, to say the least and best described what Ramanujan lived for – his love for mathematics. The doodle showed a young lad, believed to be young Ramanujan, on his fours, writing the mathematical constant Pi, which is approximately equal to 3.14159. The word ‘Google’ was thoughtfully etched out of the different formulaes and other mathematical depictions.

Anti-terror squad DCP Sanjay Banerjee shoots himself over lunch as wife, kids watch

A deputy commissioner of police attached to the state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad shot himself fatally in a restaurant in Thane on Saturday afternoon while he was seated around a table with his wife and two young sons, aged 14 and 7. There were reportedly no other diners in the restaurant at the time.

DCP Sanjay Banerjee, a resident of Gajanand Park complex in Hiranandani Estate, Ghodbhunder Road, Thane West, reportedly had an argument with his wife earlier in the day, though investigators said his reason were still unclear. Banerjee reportedly used his personal licensed 9mm pistol to shoot himself in the right temple at 4.10pm.

A cleaner employed at the restaurant, Goa Portuguesa near R Mall on Ghodbunder Road, who rushed out from the kitchen on hearing the firearm go off, was questioned by the police. The Banerjees were the last family eating lunch at the restaurant, said the eatery’s representatives.
Policemen at the Kapurbawdi police station said the 40-year-old DCP’s elder son told them the family had planned to eat out since his father was home. “His wife Aishwarya said he was under some work stress. We also came to know that the couple had an argument with each other earlier, but are still investigating.”

ATS sources said Banerjee was one ofat least two DCPs who had not received their salary for the past several months as the Home Department is yet to sanction their posts in the ATS.

Sources said the DCP was also under stress over a Thane builder allegedly trying to implicate him in a crime.

The family’s uncleared plates and the remnants of their meal remained on the table until police investigations ended. Apart from a large pool of blood and a blood-splattered wall behind the dead DCP’s chair, there was a blood-soaked paper napkin on the floor, a blood-splattered spoon on the table and grains of rice on the floor.

Balasaheb Patil, DCP- ZONE V, said, “We have taken the statement of family members but we are trying to find out the real reason for the suicide. Hopefully we will find out the reason by tomorrow.”
Banerjee’s body was first taken to Thane Civil Hospital, and later to JJ Hospital in Mumbai for a bullet injury post mortem.

By Faisal Tandel

Related articles

• Mumbai cop shoots himself in the head in restaurant in Thane (ndtv.com)
• Mumbai: ATS official shoots himself dead in restaurant (ibnlive.in.com)

Facebook arrests: Sena calls for bandh as two cops are suspended, magistrate shifted

The Shiv Sena has called for a bandh in Palghar town tomorrow after two police officers, including the police chief of Thane (rural), were today suspended for the arrest of two young women over a Facebook post criticising the shutdown for Bal Thackeray‘s funeral, while the judicial magistrate who remanded them in custody was shunted out.

Superintendent of police Ravindra Sengaonkar and senior police inspector Shrikant Pingle have been suspended and a departmental inquiry ordered against them, Maharashtra home minister RR Patil told reporters.

He promised that the departmental inquiry would be completed in the shortest possible time.

Patil said additional SP Sangram Nishandar has been “warned in writing and reprimanded” for dereliction of duty.

“Wrong sections were applied against the girls. There was no need to take hasty action [against the girls],” Patil said, adding that senior officers will probe what charges can be dropped.

Earlier, the Bombay high court transferred judicial magistrate RG Bagade who first remanded Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan in custody and later granted them bail for a surety of Rs15,000 each.

The two young women were arrested on November 19 after the former posted a Facebook status lamenting the November 18 shutdown and the latter “liked” it.

Though Dhada had not named Thackeray, a local Sena activist complained against the women and police arrested the duo on November 19, sparking an outrage. A hospital owned by Dhada’s uncle was also vandalised despite her apology for having hurt the sentiments of Thackeray’s followers.

The arrest had set off a debate with some legal experts maintaining that instead of remanding and then enlarging the girls on bail, Bagade should have discharged them from the case as they had been booked wrongly.

Bagade’s transfer order issued yesterday by the registrar of the Bombay high court said, “JMFC at Palghar RG Bagade is hereby transferred in the same position to Jalgaon with immediate effect.”

Patil said SP Sengaonkar was placed under suspension for disobeying his superiors, who had advised against arresting the girls. Inspector Pingle invited action for charging them under wrong sections and preparing faulty records, he said.

source : PTI