2024 - TYIL

The more I learn, the more I realize that I know nothing.

As another Gregorian calendar year draws to a close, ‘tis time to draw up the list of some totally irrelevant, some funny and some interesting things (or not) which I learnt during its course (or rather remembered to list). So without much ado, here goes #TYIL (or This Year I Learnt), featuring amongst others the usual suspects - Numbers, Economics,  A Japanese term and a big German word.

1. The IKEA Effect – People tend to value an object more if they make/assemble it themselves. [Decision Lab]
2. Vellichor – The pleasure of smelling the odour of old books, especially is old bookstores [Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows] (A sibling of petrichor). [Aside - there is a dictionary of obscure sorrows!)
3. Raketa Watches – A Russian watch company who replace the number 12 by 0 on their dial. [GQ]
4. 381 km by 381 km – The Maximum possible size of a pdf page, imposed by Adobe Acrobat software. Now if only someone could find a printer for it! [YCombinator] 
5. The famous white symbols on green screen from the movie Matrix are actually a Japanese text for a sushi recipe [Wired]. It was once a very popular screensaver.
6. The names Chital & Cheetah come from the same Sanskrit root Chitrala. [Link] 
7. Dutch Disease - When countries experience a sudden large increase in income, the consequences can be harmful. Increased income from a resource boom leads to inflation [Link]
8. The name jeans comes from the city of Genoa. French “bleu de Genes” or blue of Genoa. [Link] 
9. In the initial years, certain Lok Sabha constituencies had 2 MPs elected, one General and one Reserved.[Moneycontrol] 
10. Umarell – old men who spend their time watching construction sites, usually with hands behind their backs. An Italian origin word, there has to be an Indian equivalent for people watching JCBs at work! [Wikipedia] 
11. Ganko Keitai – the ‘wild-geese-flying pattern’ of economic growth, whereby production shifts from the lead goose (advanced nation) to the next flock of geese (developing nations) [Wikipedia] 
12. India’s first Director Identification Number (DIN) was issued to Ratan Tata [Link] 
13. 2^136279841 – 1: The largest prime number discovered till date, with over 41 Million digits. It took 6 years to get to the new record. [Mersenne]
14. Dunkelflaute - a period of time in which little or no energy can be generated with wind and solar power, because there is neither wind nor sunlight. The killer of renewable energy! [Wikipedia] 
15. The 1st item in UK supermarket to have a barcode - A box of teabags (Guess can’t go more British than this) [BBC] 
16. Cushy – an English word used to describe an easy job environment comes from the Hindi Khushi. Probably how some Brits saw their India posting!
17. And to round it off, today 23rd December is marked as Christmas Adam - The eve of Christmas Eve (24th December), because as per Christian tradition Adam came before Eve. I guess in some time we will know what happens to 22nd December! [Grammarist] 

P.S. Lists from 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023.

P.P.S Seems the lists are getting smaller every year. Need to get better at recording them.

2023 - TYIL

The more I learn, the more I realise that I know nothing.

As another year draws to a close, its time for making of the lists. So without much of a preamble presenting the list of random, totally trivial, and mostly pointless, but fun (at least for me) stuff that I learnt through another year of trawling though the inter-webs and other such endeavors, and most importantly remembered to jot down,

1. India’s first Christmas Cake was baked by Mambally Bakery in Kerala in 1883. (BBC)
2. Hatsuyme – Japanese term for the first dream you have in the new year, which is said to predict how the rest of the year goes! (Kokoro) 
3. Returning Soldier effect – More boys are born during and after wars (Wikipedia). Given the multiple prolonged wars currently going on, could be another validation of this theory.
4. Samosas are banned in Somalia, apparently because their triangular shape in Christian and it is a western food! (News18) Somalis are missing out on a delicacy.
5. In 1976, Airbus managed to get an order of 3 A300s from Indian Airlines. The deal clincher – their Chief Executive Bernard Lathiere was born in Calcutta and showed a picture of himself when he was 3 years old with Gandhiji to the then Indian Airlines top boss, Air Chief Marshal PC Lal. (Source: Business Wars Podcast)
6. Tennis Sets: 6-0 is bagel, 6-1 is breadstick, conceding 0 points – Golden Set, 1 point – silver & 2 points – Bronze Set (Macmillan Dictionary), (Wikipedia) 
7. In colonial times, the roads were illuminated by gas lights which were lit using kerosene. Hence kerosene became colloquially ghaslet.
8. Skeumorph - a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in the original to to make something new feel familiar in an effort to speed understanding and acclimation. E.g. Floppy Disk as Save button, the telephone receiver as phone icons etc. (Wikipedia) 
9. Terminator Line – the line that divides the day & night sides of a planet. Also called twilight zone. (Wikipedia).
10. Jasper & Jinx – that was the original name given to Tom & Jerry, which was actually the name of a drink! (Link) 
11. Batukeshwar Dutt, who alongwith Bhagat Singh, threw bombs in the Assembly, later co-wrote the movie Shaheed, based on Bhagat Singh’s life and received the National Award for Best Screenplay. (Wikipedia) 
12. Einstein Shape – A shape that can be arranged in a tile formations that never repeats! (Guardian) 
13. Jaquar brand is named after the founder’s grandmother Jai Kaur (Wikipedia) 
14. Cappuccino - means little hood and is named after the colour of the hood worn by the monks in Italy (The Coffee Universe) 
15. Emirp - A prime number whose digits when reversed is also a prime number, e.g., 17 & 71, 13 & 31. (Wikipedia) 
16. The term “mugger” comes from magarmachh! One of the collateral effects of colonization! (Merriam-Webster) 
17. Mickey Mouse has a sister – Mrs. Amelia Fieldmouse!
18. Münchausen Numbers - They can be written as the sum of each of its digits raised to the power equivalent to the digit itself, resulting in the same number. e.g., 3^3+4^4+3^3+5^5=3435
19. Capitonyms – Words which change their meaning if the first letter is capitalized. E.g. March & march; Lent & lent etc. (Wikipedia) 
20. The Hollywood Sign was originally “HOLLYWOODLAND” and as an advertisement for new property in the area.
21. Letters to India’s Antarctic Station are routed through Panaji post office. Just who came up with this interesting idea of Goa & Antarctica sharing a pin code!

This as 2023. Hoping to build on in 2024 with some better noting down techniques.

P.S. Lists from 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022.

2022: The Year Gone By

After the horrors of 2020 & 2021, Covid-19 was finally off the main headlines in 2022. It’s still not over though with the year bookended by the Omicron wave at the beginning and apprehensions of a new wave emerging from China (where else) at the end. The war maybe be under control but battles are still raging on. While we wait and watch, hopefully much better prepared, here is a recap of some major (and not major) events to look back upon (or maybe not)

1. News Event of the Year: Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 24th Feb ’22, Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s been 10 months, but the battle rages on with territories gained, wrested back and lost again. Apart from the actual battle on the field, there was another one being fought online between two propaganda machines. After a while, no one was quite sure of what was happening on the ground. Only one thing was clear - the human cost was huge and so has been the military spend. There have been economic sanctions and sports bans imposed. Yet the war keeps going on and on. And as a collateral damage, it has spawned arm-chair geopolitical experts, with most having a minor expertise in petroleum economics as well.

2. Designation of the Year: Chief Twit

Elon Musk acquired Twitter (rather was forced to buy after having announced his intent to buy), announced himself as Chief Twit and turned Twitter into a dark comedy channel. Proclaiming free speech, then banning accounts which he did not like, changing policy, firing people and then trying to rehire them, restoring banned accounts, finding himself being voted out as CEO on a poll he conducted! More than the company – he has become a non-stop source of amusement!

3. Work Jargon of the Year

Be “Extremely Hardcore” – the ultimatum given by the “Chief Twit” to the remaining Twitter staff. The deadline passed and far less people remained (What A Surprise!).

On the other end of the spectrum was trend of “Quiet Quitting” – where workers did only what was supposed to be done and not more (Again, What a surprise!).

4. Management Course of the Year: The Football World Cup

From being the “beautiful game” football evolved into a full course in management, with every match, every play, every goal scored, every shot saved, the actions of players, coaches, the watching dignitaries being dissected and ending up as a “what life lessons you can draw from them”? post on LinkedIn.

5. The fall & fall of Big Tech

There were the antics of Musk, the single day drop of $ 230 Billion in valuation of Meta, large layoffs at Amazon & Meta, Elizabeth Theranos (once touted at the next Steve Jobs) sentenced to 11 years jail and finally Sam Bankman-Fried – from appearing on Fortune magazine as the next Warren Buffett to be arrested a few weeks later for what could potentially be the biggest financial fraud! Tech industry was in turmoil to say the least!

And then there was the bizarre case of Chitra Ramkrishna who was running NSE based on advise of a “Himalayan Yogi” who communicated with her via email! 

6. The Eyjafjallajökull of the Year

Remember the volcano with the most exotically unpronounceable name which disrupted European airline traffic in 2010. It found its successor in 2022. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic eruption which cut off Tonga from the rest off the world and caused damages worth ~$ 90 Million in a country whose total GDP is less than $ 500 Million

7. The New Fad of the Year - Wordle

There was Wordle, a fun game. You play it and then spam the whole world with your grid of grey, yellow & green! It also spawned variants, more numerous than even the covid variants! It may be off the headlines as the year progressed but remains fun!

8. Lost & Found of the Year: Endurance

1915 - Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance sinks off Antarctica.

2022 - 107 Years later, it is found again, resting in the depths of the ocean

9. Book of the Year: Ret Samadhi

Geetanjali Shree’s novel became the first Hindi novel to win the International Booker Prize. Now for a twist in the tale. On Amazon, the original Ret Samadhi is available cheaper than its translation Tomb of Sand!

10. Vegetable of the Year: The Lettuce

Why not, after all it outlasted a Prime Minister. So short was Liz Truss's term, that her biography had to be updated before it could be published! But she did oversee a regime change during her brief stint.

11. Quote of the Year: “I am Mr. McAdams”

So this was a bit of 2022. Wishing all readers a Very Happy 2023!

2022 - TYIL

The more I learn, the more I realize that I know nothing.

This Year I Learnt (#TYIL)

Another year draws to a close. And as has become a tradition, made a list of random factoids learnt during the year. Mostly encountered while trawling the interwebs, others via TV, movies & books and some through various Quizzing platforms/leagues.

1. Creatcoeus Period in the Geological Time Scale comes from Creta, Latin for Chalk (the softest stone) (The Guardian). 
2. Erdos-Bacon Number: sum of one's Erdős numbe, which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, and one's Bacon number, which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. (Wikipedia) Why the need for such a number combining disparate fields is a mystery though! 
3. Graham Number: measures a stock’s fundamental value as {22.5*(Earnings Per Share)*(Book Value Per Share)}^(1/2). Any stock trading below the Graham number is considered undervalued. (Investopedia) A good rule of thumb for investors but need to consider in many more factors.
4. Harshad Number: A number which is divisible by the sum of its digits e.g. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,18,20,21 and so on. (Wikipedia)
5. Lindy Effect: the idea that the older something is, the longer it is likely to be around (Wealest). A decent measure for judging works of arts, books, popularity of movies etc.
6. Cantillion Effect: the change in relative prices resulting from a change in money supply (SWFI)
7. Weismann Score: Performance Metric for lossless compression applications. Fun part - its a fiction metric developed by a Stanford University professor for the show Silicon Valley (from which I learnt about it) (Wikipedia) 
8. Allen Curve: represents the exponential drop in frequency of communication between engineers as the physical distance between them increases. (Wikipedia) Wonder how this holds with increased WFH!
9. Virtual Water Content: volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced. (Water Calculator)
10. Argentina and Uruguay’s first sporting encounter was a game of cricket (not football), in 1868 predating the Ashes by 9 years! (Cricinfo)
11. Geomythology: study of etiological oral traditions created by pre-scientific cultures to explain—in poetic metaphor and mythological imagery—geological phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, fossils, and other natural features of the landscape (BBC) at times the entire subject of geology seems a myth and not a science!
12. Stendhal Syndrome: visitors to Florence suffer psychological breakdowns after being overwhelmed by the city's abundance of great art! (BBC) I guess another of first world problems.
13. Stephen Wilhite invented the gif in 1987. The first gif was a flying airplane. (The Guardian) 
14. Palm Oil is known as Red Gold. (The Conversation).
15. Jennifer Joseph: model for the Columbia Pictures logo. A real person whose image is familiar across the world but name is not (Link) 
16. Enigmatology: the study of puzzles; Will Shortz is the only known person to hold a college degree in this subject (Wikipedia) 
17. There are more Indians than Qatari citizens living in Qatar! Qatar’s demographics are quite interesting (Wikipedia) 
18. Hofstadter’s Law: It takes always longer than you expect. Named from Dr. Richard Hofstater who also lends his name to Leonard’s character in The Big Bang Theory. (Techtarget) 
19. Overshoot Day: the date when humanity has used all the biological resources that Earth regenerates during the entire year. In 2022, it fell on July 28th. (Overshoot Day)
20. MCC (Marylebourne Cricket Club) were the custodians of the rules of Tennis in the 19th century! (Britannica) Wondering if there is "spirit of tennis" also?
21. The world’s loneliest tree – an isolated spruce on an island in New Zealand (The Guardian)
22. The Ghan: longest passenger train in regular service, runs from Darwin to Adelaide, in Australia (Link) 
23. Operation London Bridge: The funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II, with the phrase “London Bridge is Down” announcing her passing. The plan was first prepared in 1960s with constant updates as the years went by (Wikipedia)
24. Nora Polley: 1st Indian woman to participate in the Summer Olympics (Tennis, 1924) (Link)
25. One Piece by Ilan Manouach: the longest single volume book (21,450 pages) and also physically impossible to read and hence is sold as a sculpture rather than a book! (The Guardian) 
26. Streisand Effect: the attempt to suppress something only brings more attention or notoriety to it (Webster)
27. Stone House, the meaning of Zimbabwe in the local Shona language. (BBC) 
28. The Smiley Company owns the trademark for the smiley image, which was created by Harvey Ball. And it is currently a $ 500 Million business. (The Guardian)
29. Meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene” by shortening the Greek word mimeme. (BBC)
30. The Great Emu War: In 1932, over a 6-week period, Australia waged a war against the emus and lost. The emu population survived the battle against Australian artillery and continued with its crop destructive ways! (Wikipedia) 
31. And the Chinese fought a battle against Sparrows (1958-62), seemingly won and realized that not having sparrows was more harmful to the crops (due to increased insect population) and ended up importing 250,000 sparrows from Soviet Union! (Wikipedia)
32. The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and The Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” were recorded on the same piano (Link) 
33. Enheduanna: the world’s first known named author, who lived around 5,000 years ago (BBC)
34. Bihar was the first state formed in India, in 1912! Maps changed later with first Odisha and later Jharkhand being carved out of it though (Wikipedia) 
35. The “Iron Law of Megaprojects” - Over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over again. (Link) 
36. Khaki colour originated in the British Indian Army. The word Khaki originated from Urdu and means soil-coloured. (Link) 
37. Dora the Explorer is a 7 year old girl and 5 feet 2 inches tall! I know it’s a fictional character but still that's one tall kid! (Comicbook) 

This was 2022. Hoping to build on in 2023.

P.S. Lists from 2019, 2020 & 2021

2021 - TYIL

This Year I Learnt (#TYIL) 

Another year draws to a close. And as is becoming a habit, made a list of some interesting (at least to me) learnings from this year. Although given the year that 2021 was, avoiding references to covid related learnings (and there were lots of them) in my list. 

1. Percussive Maintenance – a malfunctioning machine can be fixed by smacking it a few times. Remember all the radios and TV remotes. (Wiktionary) This definitely works! 
2. Challenger Deep in Mariana Trench is named after a ship the HMS Challenger which explored the world. (BBC) This was literally uncharted territory 
3. Zeigarnik Effect - Completion of a task can lead to it being forgotten. While you are more likely to remember things which are incomplete or where you have been interrupted.  (Psychologist World). Certainly true in Candy Crush where you don't recall any of the levels you breezed through in the first attempt.
4. Harrowing – literally means breaking up big clumps of soil into smaller ones. (Wikipedia) No better word to describe the year that is going by.
5. Pasqua Rosee – founded the first coffee shop in London – the pioneer of Starbucks and other Baristas! (BBC).
6. Smell-o-Vision – a system where odour would also be provided along with the action on screen! Unfortunately (or fortunately), never really took off. (Wikipedia)
7. First known transaction in bitcoins was in 2010 – 10,000 bitcoins for 2 Papa Johns pizza! (in Jan 2021 this would have been worth $300 Million) (Guardian) There is no competition now for the costliest food item ever!
8. First online order (bread, margarine & eggs) was made through a “TV” (BBC)
9. Pareidolia – a tendency to find patterns and images in random places (YouTube) (Merriam Webster)
10. Svetlana & Misha Zilberman – mother-son duo who have been Israel’s mixed doubles badminton champions (Scroll)
11. Hibakusha – people who survived the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings (Wikipedia)
12. K A Auty Cup – the oldest international sporting Trophy – for cricket series between Canada & USA. Although given the many change in formats and big gaps, it has not been a regular feature (Wikipedia)
13. Seiryu-Miharashi – railway station in Japan with no other access except by train. Only for people to have a good view. (Link)
14. Richard Norris Williams – survived the Titanic sinking and later that year won US Open. (Link)
15. The US Air Force accidentally dropped an atomic bomb within its territory. Fortunately no human casualties! (How Stuff Works)
16. Mandela effect – a case of collective hallucination where a large group of people remember things differently from how it actually happened! (Healthline)
17. Pakistan’s high commissioner to India, Mohammad Ismail, wished to remain an Indian citizen (to protect his properties in UP) while being accredited to New Delhi as an envoy! 
18. Cryptomnesia - term for when a forgotten memory is repackaged as your own idea. You fail to remember who told you something, or where you read it, so you think it’s your own. (BBC). This is a different level of plagiarism!
19. Peltzman Effect – People are more likely to engage in risky behaviour when security measures have been mandated. Safety perception increases risk appetite (Link). became a popular term during the covid second wave. Couldn't avoid the reference
20. Taco Bell “borrowed” the idea of tacos from a Mexican restaurant “Mitla Café”. Amazingly both are still functioning – one as a fast food chain, other still in its standalone avatar (BBC)
21. Pedestrianism – who moves the most over 6 days! The sport has evolved into endurance racing, iron man triathalons and 24 hours of Le Mans (BBC)
22. Israel’s national anthem has been ripped off in Hindi film music. Well, at least it was a patriotic song! Thanks to the Olympics! (Hindustan Times)
23. Wright’s Law – states that for every cumulative doubling of units produced, costs will fall by a constant percentage. (ARK Invest)
24. Zeolites were used for water filtration by the Mayan civilization (BBC)
25. Slacktivism defined as the self-deluded idea that by liking, sharing, or retweeting something you are helping out. Although there are recent studies which say that that is not necessarily the case. (Urban Dictionary) (BBC)
26. The Great Hedge of India – built by British as a barrier along the customs line for taxing salt. Quite a costly affair to patrol and also a system of oppression of the natives (BBC)
27. Nipper – the dog on HMV’s label, listening to the voice of his late master Mark Barraud. (Firstpost)
28. Dactylonomy - counting on hands – the very basics of counting! (BBC) 
29. Phoebus Cartel – major lightbulb manufacturers including GE, Phillips, Osram decided to fix lightbulbs life at 1,000 hours instead of 2,500 hours. Longer life bulbs were not commercially viable! Started the planned obsolescence (Spectrum)
30. Pascal’s Triangle – every number is the sum of the two numbers directly above (Mathigon)

Well, 2021 was certainly a harrowing year. But we can always keep learning! Let’s see what new variants (in learnings) that 2022 brings. 

P.S. Lists from 2019 & 2020. 

2020 - TYIL

TYIL – This Year I Learnt 

2020 AD – certainly one of the weirdest years in history since the World Wars with restrictions in place almost across the globe. But that also meant more time locked up trawling the interwebs. Which in turn provided an opportunity to capture and store the occasional bit of trivia which came up in covid-filled minefield that the web had become. So here goes, my sampling of the interesting (at least for me) learnings from 2020 

1. Swami Vivekananda had a 7-wicket haul in Eden Gardens (New Indian Express)
2. Gini Index - is a measure of inequality of wealth distribution in a country (Wikipedia)
3. 8,549,176,320 – the only number with all ten digits arranged in alphabetical order (Braingle)
4. Kuuki o yomu – Japanese for the art of “reading the air” – knowing the unspoken societal rules with comprehensive understanding of the environment including non-verbal communication. Should be more interesting in these masked times. (BBC) 
5. Larry Tessler – the inventor of cut, copy, paste commands. The key reason why the volume of material on the internet keeps growing! (BBC) 
6. Pitt-Hanks Continuum – describing the likelihood of an actor winning the Academy Award based on how much their performance is like Brad Pitt or Tom Hanks in the roles they play. The more like Pitt an actor’s style and roles are, the less likely he is to win. Although now that Brad Pitt has won an Acting Oscar, maybe something to be relooked at! (Vanity Fair) 
7. Pheme (or Ossa) – Greek Goddess of Gossip – they have one for everything! (Theoi)
8. Nintendo started as manufacturer of playing cards in 1889 in Kyoto. They still are in business of creating fun for people. (BBC)
9. Shireen Kiash represented India in Cricket, Hockey and Basketball – a triple international. (Parsi Khabar). Learnt this from the Book "The Fire Burns Blue"
10. Leavism – Trend of working on holidays. Need a new adaptation for 2020, where the very concept of a leave has gone for a toss. (The Guardian) 
11. Herfindahl Index - measure of market concentration (calculated by squaring the market share of each of the companies in the industry and then summing the resulting numbers) (Wikipedia)
12. Exter’s Pyramid – for visualizing organization of asset classes in terms of risk and size. (Miles Franklin) 
13. Fernweh – German word for an “ache for travel” – especially relevant for all those afflicted by #wanderlust in the times of coronavirus. (BBC) 
14. Hunter’s Moon – A phenomenon creating another object bright as the Sun in the sky (Universe Today)
15. Letteral Words – A word which can be pronounced using a few letters (e.g. Queue has same pronunciation as Q) (Link)
16. In the 1970s there was a bus service between London & Sydney and London & Calcutta! (Indiatimes) 
17. Margherita pizza is named in honour of Queen Margherita’s visit to Naples in 1889. Also, pizza is a corruption of the word pita (the bread) (BBC)
18. India Syndrome - described as the delusional behaviour which “hits people from developed Western countries who are looking for a cultural space that is pure and exotic, where real values have been preserved” (Firstpost)
19. Veblean Good – Luxury goods whose demand increases as its price increases. (Investopedia)
20. Hybris – Greek for outrageous arrogance that makes for abuse of power, which leads to the imposition of your will at all costs. (Wikipedia)
21. Pointillism – creating an image from dots (Britannica)
22. Hing – India is the largest consumer & yet is not grown in India at all (till now) (BBC)
23. Aan (1952)- first Indian movie to get a global release. Thanks to Ruskin Bond’s “Journey Down the Years”  (MovieMahal) 
24. King of Hearts is the only King in a standard suit of cards without a mustache (Technology)
25. Daddles is the name of the cricketing duck created by Channel 9. All these years of seeing it didn't realise it had a name (Wikipedia

So this was the random trivia list for 2020. Lets see what 2021 has in store. 

P.S. Here is the list for 2019 

2019 TYIL

TYIL - This Year I Learnt.

Sometime, very early in the year, decided to compile a list of "interesting" (for me at least) things which I have learnt during the course of the year. And publish it close to the end of the year. So, at least one New Year's resolution got complete. And I have my own hashtag for it as well - #TYIL. So here goes. 

1. Michelin Star was designed to ensure people have places to go out for dinner, in their cars and wear out their tires. Thus needing more tires and increasing the revenues of Michelin. It was a part of the Michelin Guide. (Business Insider)
2. Yellow Cane Toads are so poisonous that a python, or even a crocodile, will die if they eat the frogs. Hence that python was smart and allowed these pesky creatures a ride on its back. (Link)
3. The phrase “Rule of Thumb” has seemingly negative origins. According to folk etymology, English Law permitted a man to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than the width of his thumb. If true, quite a bizarre origin of an everyday phrase! (Link)
4. Zugzwang – German for Compulsion to Move – A situation in Chess where any move you make will weaken your positional advantage! (Chessdotcom)
5. Ikigai – Japanese formula – a reason to jump out of bed each morning (Link)
6. Nagashi Somen – Japanese system of eating flowing noodles! Catch the noodles with chopsticks before it flows away from you! (BBC)
7. Captology – the invisible ways in which technology can persuade and influence those who use it. Coined by BJ Fogg, a behavioural scientist. Derived from “Computers As Persuasive Technology” (Stanford)
8. DC stands for Detective Comics. Somehow for all this time never tried to figure it out! 
9. The ‘3-6-3’ rule of Banking - borrow at 3 per cent, lend at 6 per cent, and head off to the golf course at 3 P.M. {Life was simple then}(Investopedia)
10. The Three Comma Club – or in simple terms a Billionaire – well, that could be an aspiration (Link) 
11. Eugene Shoemaker – The only person whose ashes are buried on the Moon. (NASA)
12. Marginalia - the writing in the margins of a printed book to underlining or otherwise marking out passages with asterisks or other symbols — essentially any type of visible interaction a reader has with their book. {Something we all indulge in but didn't know there was a word for it}(Firstpost)
13. Shampoo originates from Champi – Washing hair from head massage – an interesting leap of language! (Link) 
14. Henry Cavill’s mustache was subject of a $3 Million contractual dispute between the makers of Mission Impossible: Fallout & Justice League. (Link)
15. Gandhiji’s 3 Monkeys have their origins in Japan – Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru (Natgeo)
16. Steiff – a German company which is the creator of children’s teddy bears. All their toys have a button tag in the ear for authenticity! (BBC)
17. The “Traps” in the Deccan Traps comes from the Swedish word “Trappa” meaning steps (Link)
18. Karoshi – Japanese for “death-by-overwork” {Japanese do have a lot of terms to offer} (Business Insider)
19. Men’s Underwear Index – is an economic index which can supposedly detect the beginnings of a recovery during an economic slump. (Wikipedia) 
20. Badluram Ka Badan Zameen Ke Neeche Hai – marching song of Assam Regiment, dedicated to the memory of Badluram, a soldier who had died during World War II, but his platoon still got his share of rations! (Firstpost) 
21. Kessler Syndrome - The concept that collisions between objects create space debris and will cause a cascade of further collisions, making space activities and satellite use impossible. (Wikipedia) 
22. Pineapples can eat your mouth while you are eating it! (Link) 
23. Gibbous Moon - when the Moon is more than half full, but not quite fully illuminated, when you look at it from the perspective of Earth. (Link)
24. Lipstick Effect – purchases of smaller and more modest consumer discretionary items tend to pick-up during uncertain economic times. (Investopedia).Mr. Ravishankar Prasad, may please take note! (ET)
25. Anna Karenina Principle - a deficiency in any one of a number of factors dooms an endeavor to failure. Consequently, a successful endeavor (subject to this principle) is one where every possible deficiency has been avoided. (Wikipedia)
26.  The "high" in "high tea" refers to the height of the table on which it is served. 
27. Mosambi’s name originates from Mozambique, from where the fruit was brought by the Portuguese to India (ET).

So this was 2019. There was no specific number planned - just a list which grew with time. 

Certainly more will be added next year. After all, the more I learn, the more I realize that like Jon Snow, I know nothing!