Shobha Warrier has extensively covered the Sabarimala issue for Rediff.com. She is the author of His Days with Bapu: Gandhi's Personal Secretary Recalls among several books. You can e-mail the author at shobhaw@rediff.co.in
'One wrong input meant instead of rescuing one person, four people in the helicopter would gone down.' 'That was the risk I was supposed to take.' 'It was like balancing on a pin.' 'In an ordinary situation, I would not have done that operation at all because it was extremely risky. But this was an emergency.'
'Nothing differentiated us, neither religion nor money.' 'We were all in a crisis together and we survived together.' 'We plan to assemble on the bridge every year on the same day, to thank for giving us a second life.'
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'The most alarming thing is all our wells have got filled with flood waters.' 'Drinking water is going to be a big problem for all of us.'
'Only when you see it, you will understand how bad the situation is.' 'The soil in the entire mountain range is soaked with water now and that uproots the trees.' 'It is frightening to see the way the soil drags down the trees with great force.'
'We used to enjoy looking at the serene Periyar river every day, flowing quietly and calmly.' 'How everything changed in a day!' 'The quiet Periyar became angry, aggressive, ferocious terrifying everyone in its way.' 'I have not seen this kind of rain fury in my entire life.'
'A lot of unauthorised encroachments have taken place in our forest area.' 'The landslides are partly because of such encroachments.' 'The other factor is deforestation.' 'Protection of forest resources is not on the agenda of any government.' 'The damage caused by the rain in Kerala is a man-made factor.'
'It is not going to be a fight between the AIADMK and the DMK; that fight is over.' 'The fight is going to be between the BJP's attempt to finish the Dravidian era and the DMK and the others trying to prevent the BJP from doing so.'
'Whatever good he did, all his achievements were overshadowed by the perception of corruption and other things.'
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'You must understand that NEET is in its infantile stage.' 'When a child falls down while trying to stand up, you don't say it will never walk or run.' 'The child that falls down several times while trying to stand up may one day run a race at the Olympics.' 'Similarly, if there is firmness in approach and the willingness to listen to suggestions, NEET will be a great success.'
'When Kamal Haasan came into the room, I was literally shivering. I am just an ordinary head load worker and there, I was standing next to a legend like him. I didn't know what to do. Not even in my dreams did I think of meeting Kamal sir or talking to Shankar Mahadevan sir. I was living a dream.'
'Water is not an economic resource, but we treat water as an economic resource meant for the benefit of human beings.' 'Water is more of a life source than an economic resource.'
"Whether we are back or away, if they put Kashmiri Pandits in isolation, they will never see peace in Kashmir."
'I want to make the government realise that they are not empowering Dalits by giving them free goats or hens; what they need is good education.'
'He is a former civil servant and has complete control over the administrators.' 'He should have sorted it out before it reached such a stage.' 'How did he allow the stalemate to go on for so many days?'
'For years, the RBI has been warning banks on probable frauds in bank guarantees and advised them to exercise due care.' 'PSB staffers feel their jobs are secured, hence there is no need to be vigilant and exercise financial prudence.'
'We know the situation has worsened in the valley, but we are taking the first step.' 'We have lost 30 years of our life. We do not want to wait any longer.' 'The political class always said, you come down to Kashmir.' 'So, we are going to be there and we are going to demand a place to stay.' 'After all, it is our own land.'
'Healthcare is so expensive that while it saves lives, it destroys more lives socially and financially.' 'While the poor gets wiped out, a middle-class man goes to a corporate hospital and after the treatment, he ends up below the poverty line.' 'Generally, hospitals would like to have patients who need procedures and operations.' 'They are not so fond of palliative care.' 'How much can be made from one hour of counselling? And how much can be made from one hour of an operation?'
'Walmart will source globally and more from China and will dump these cheap goods in India, making our country a dumping yard.'
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