What is Qwikipedia?
Ever been on Wikipedia to look up an article? More often than not, we start with one topic, click a few links and within no time are reading about something else.
Qwikipedia is a game that tries to quench this curiosity in us. The objective is to get to a particular Wiki page, starting from a specific article, using minimal clicks. There is no single correct answer, so we might surprise ourselves by finding new routes each time!
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Pluto —> Yuvraj Singh
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Is Pluto a planet or not? It was when I was at school, it isn’t now when you are at school but the debate seems to be raging on and on.
What seems to be certain, however, is the fact that it is the largest object in Kuiper belt, made primarily out of ice and rock. While most languages use the name “Pluto” or various translations, there are some Indian languages, including Hindi, which use the name of Yama (Guardian of Hell in Hindu and Buddhist mythology) for the name of the planet.
Earlier last week, NASA revealed the first ever colour image of Pluto. 2015 might turn out to be a landmark year for Pluto in more ways than one. Pluto is due to be visited by a spacecraft for the first time in July this year.
A standardised, Sanskritised version of the Hindustani language is Hindi. Most people living in India are proficient in this language. One of the official languages of India, over a quarter billion people have reported Hindi to be their native language.
Apart from India, Hindi is also spoken in other parts of Asia including Pakistan and Bangladesh. In fact, in Fiji, Hindi is an official language of communication.
Chandigarh, like most other places in India, have people fluent in Hindi. Being the capital of two states – Punjab and Haryana – and an union territory, however, Chandigarh has different official languages.
Yuvraj Singh is a popular cricketer who hails from Chandigarh. Currently playing with the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League, Yuvraj recently stated that he shares a brilliant rapport with coach Gary Kirsten. Hardly comes as a surprise, noting the fact that Kirsten coached the Indian national side when we won the ICC ODI World Cup in 2011. And Yuvraj Singh was the player of the tournament then owing to his brilliant all-round display.
So the path we have travelled today is:
Pluto —> Hindi —> Chandigarh —> Yuvraj Singh
Three clicks! Hop over. It’s time for the next question:
Tuesday’s Traveller
Send in your paths for the above to school@thehindu.co.in with the subject “Qwikipedia”.