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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Modi’s ‘Melody’ diplomacy stuns the world

Overjoyed investors buy shares of a wrong company after the PM’s gift Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gifting his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni 'Melody' toffees, reviving the light-hearted "Melodi" wordplay associated with the two leaders on social media. Meloni thanked Modi and shared a video on the social media in which she could be heard saying, “Prime Minister Modi brought as a gift, a very, very good toffee - Melody.” Modi, who was also seen in the video, burst...

Modi’s ‘Melody’ diplomacy stuns the world

Overjoyed investors buy shares of a wrong company after the PM’s gift Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gifting his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni 'Melody' toffees, reviving the light-hearted "Melodi" wordplay associated with the two leaders on social media. Meloni thanked Modi and shared a video on the social media in which she could be heard saying, “Prime Minister Modi brought as a gift, a very, very good toffee - Melody.” Modi, who was also seen in the video, burst into laughter as Meloni jokingly referred to the "Melody" toffee while showcasing the gift. The hashtag "Melodi", a blend of Modi and Meloni's names, was coined by the Italian prime minister during the COP28 in Dubai in 2023 and later went viral on social media following the warm interactions between the two leaders at global events. Modi, who arrived in Rome on Tuesday, is on the final leg of his five-nation tour to the UAE, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Italy from May 15-20. Modi’s gift not only floored the social media, but also earned gushing gratitude from the manufacturer of the sweet candy, Parle Products, in Vile Parle, Mumbai. “Thank You. Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for taking Parle Melody to the global stage. A proud moment for all of us at Parle Products to see an Indian favourite being shared across borders,” said a social media post from @ParleFamily, a 97-year-old company. Parle Products describes Melody: “Parle Melody brings to you an irresistible layer of caramel on the outside & a delightful chocolate filling inside. Open & pop it in your mouth & relish the unique experience. It won't be too long before you start asking yourself the age-old question "Melody Itni Chocolaty Kyun Hai?”.” Cong Attacks Modi Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several other Congress leaders also attacked Modi saying he continues his PR even when the economy is suffering. However, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal hit back at Gandhi, accusing him of "hating India" and refusing to tolerate the "global respect" the country has garnered under Modi's leadership. Gandhi, who is on a visit to his constituency Raebareli and Amethi, said on X, "This isn't leadership, it's a gimmick." At a time farmers, labourers, traders and others in the country are all in tears, the prime minister is laughing and making reels while BJP folks are clapping along, the former Congress president said in his post in Hindi. "An economic storm is raging over our heads, and our prime minister is busy handing out candies in Italy!" he said. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge attacked Modi over issues of "rising" prices, unemployment, paper leaks, "dampening" investment and "sinking" Rupee, saying the prime minister continues his PR even as the economy is suffering. Shares turn sweet but the company was mistaken Shares of Parle Industries Ltd saw frenzied buying on Wednesday, surging five per cent to hit the upper circuit limit after Meloni posted the video. Investors wasted no time and flocked to the counter to buy the stock. Shares of the firm jumped to Rs 5.25 - the highest trading permissible limit for the day - on the BSE. On volume terms, 8.57 lakh shares of the firm were traded on the BSE during the day. But, there is a catch! Investors mistook Parle Industries for the maker of Melody toffees. Parle Products, the FMCG major, is the manufacturer of Melody toffees and is not listed on the stock exchanges. Parle Industries Ltd is a diversified commercial services provider, engaged in the business of infrastructure & real estate, and paper, waste paper and allied products. The history of swadeshi toffee is entwined with the country’s Independence and the company, House of Parle was founded in 1928 by Mohanlal Dayal Chauhan, a tailor from Pardi near Valsad, then part of the Bombay Province. As the country was flooded with imported sweets and confectionery, he decided to give it a ‘desi’ touch and flavour, and with a band of 12 workers, he launched the Parle products from a musty old warehouse near Vile Parle east station, when large parts areas of Vile Parle west were still marshes dotted with a few old bungalows and chawls. Later, he visited Germany to master the art of confectionery and returned with machinery worth Rs 60,000 to churn out simple sweets, toffees and locally flavoured Indian confections at affordable prices – willy-nilly challenging the imported British offerings. It was in 1983 that the chocolate Melody toffee. -WITH PTI

35K-year-old Ambadevi rock-art shelter may be Asia’s oldest

Amravati/Mumbai: Ostriches, the world’s tallest species of giraffe, cheetahs and other wild creatures once thrived freely in central India as revealed by paintings in the Ambadevi rock shelters along the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border near Amravati.

 

Latest studies and research suggest that many of the Ambadevi rock shelters, could be over 35,000-years old – much older than the Bhimbetka rock art shelters, near Bhopal (MP), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, around 300 kms away, said multifaceted scientist and amateur archaeologist Dr. V. T. Ingole of Amravati.

 

Incidentally, Dr. Ingole and his team - Padmakar Lad, Manohar Khode, Shirish Kumar Patil, Dnyaneshwar Damahe, and Pradeep Hirurkar – discovered the rock shelters accidentally in January 2007, drawing global attention.

 

Later, the Archaeological Survey Of India (ASI) carried out extensive searches and diggings, revealing around 500 such sandstone shelters which bear a close resemblance to similar rock art sites in other parts of India, South Africa, France and Australia.

 

Dr. Ingole said that carbon-dating and other studies spanning a decade now suggest that the Ambadevi site is estimated to be around 35,000-years old, making it the oldest in India and Asia, overtaking Bhimbetka in ‘seniority’.

 

The Ostrich eggs discovered around Ambadevi and their carbon dating by Sonal Jain and others, indicate their origins to be around 35,000 BC, belonging to a similar painted image of the flightless bird ostrich species, found here.

 

“Further, Aardvarks (ant-eater) and one of the biggest giraffe species, Sivatherium – all now extinct in India - feature alongside the imposing ostrich painting. We surmise some of these species may have travelled from Africa via the Red Sea and Suez regions, traversing the Arabian deserts, then towards the east via territories of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and into India till Kerala,” Dr. Ingole, 78, told The Perfect Voice.

 

Among the rock arts in Mungsadev Shelter is a striking four-feet tall painting of a long-necked, feather-plumed bird whose morphology matches the African ostrich, now extinct in India, but genetically confirmed to have lived here during the Late Pleistocene era, besides many other animals that prowled on earth in the prehistoric eras, he explained.

 

Images found

The images of these extinct creatures are found on the same wall of the rock shelters, plus a clutter of many other familiar wild animals and birds living around the primitive humans, who witnessed them at close quarters and engraved/painted them for posterity.

 

“Bhimbetka was considered the cradle of Indian rock arts, but the new discoveries in Ambadevi (Gavilgarh range) point towards an earlier genesis. My research paper on it proposed that the Ambadevi shelters - based on multi-disciplinary evidence of direct visual documentation of extinct fauna, genetic dating anchors and compelling neuro-visual logic - contain the oldest pictorial depictions in the subcontinent,” Dr. Ingole explained.

 

Of the 500-plus rock art sites scattered over 40 square km, around 230 are decorated with paintings, carvings, and though the colors have faded, still enthrall the visitors who flock here from all over the world.

 

Amravati: Extinct creatures grace rock art shelters

The paintings depicted in Ambadevi rock shelters – predating Bhimbetka - comprise humans, tortoises, fish, birds, human hand-impressions, geometric figures, hunting scenes, war stages, or abstract geometrical figures.

 

Painted/carved out on vertical walls, ceilings and rock cavities, the images are a collection of herbivores and carnivores like aardvarks, ostrich, sivatherium, tigers, leopards, hyenas, jackals, wild dogs, bears, spotted deers, nilgai, barasingha, sambars besides the one-horned rhinoceros, and is aptly named as the ‘animal zoo’.

 

While aardvarks, ostrich, sivatherium became extinct in India many millenia back, the majestic one-horned rhino, which once roamed vast regions, is now relegated to Assam-West Bengal in India, and parts of Nepal.

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