Jodhpur: The Blue City of India

Jodhpur is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is also referred as the Blue City due to the blue-painted houses around the Mehrangarh Fort.

Why the population of the fortress city – the Blue City as it is universally known – took to painting their houses in various shades of blue is not completely certain. Yet most believe it is to do with the prevailing caste system in India.

It is thought that Brahmins – members of the priestly class – first took to coloring their houses blue (yet perhaps it should really be called indigo) to signify their domicile and to set them apart from the rest of the population. Soon, however, the rest of the population followed suit. History does not tell us which brave non-Brahmin was the first to do it, yet it happened and since that day the people of Jodhpur have steadfastly maintained this tradition.

Nuclear Winter in Chernobyl

Welcome to Prypiat, the home of the largest nuclear disaster in history, in the wintertime. Prypiat was founded in 1970 to house the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. It is obviously closed now and is very spooky looking. It is amazing that there are still trees and plants that still grow there.

For those who are not familiar with the tragedy that is Chernobyl, picture a place in which humans suddenly vanished from the face of the earth, be it by a natural disaster or a manmade catastrophe. At 1:23 AM, April 26th, 1986, Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine, exploded during a safety test, bringing untold devastation to the surrounding area, effects of which were even felt as far away as the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Releasing four-hundred times the fallout of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the results of that fatal meltdown are still being felt today, with higher incidents of cancer, a massive five percent of Ukraine’s national budget still dedicated to dealing with the consequences and a great chunk of territory that will never be habitable again.