Editorial Director Vaihayasi Pande Daniel creates digital content/writes on travel, food, lifestyle and more for 30 years. You can e-mail the author at haysidaniel@rediffmail.com
From the hilariously funny Harold and Kumar series, Kal Penn moves on to the more serious Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain, his first Hindi film. On the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, the actor discusses his movie with Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/ Rediff.com
Goli is a special child, born on 26/11 at the Cama hospital in Mumbai while the terrorists were raining bullets outside. Six years later, Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com finds a family determined to give their children the best life they can afford.
Dr Kalyani Gomathinayagam, a young Indian doctor who volunteered to spend four weeks in west Africa helping those suffering and dying of Ebola, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com why she took on an assignment many would shy away from.
The last seven Indian sailors held hostage by Somali pirates were released October 30. Chirag Bahri, Indian coordinator for the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme that aids piracy survivors and their families, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com on how the near-impossible was achieved.
The Dalai Lama is a huge charmer, knowing how to say things that will please an audience in his gentle avuncular manner.
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'I don't think you would have seen this level of enthusiasm or phenomenon in the NRI community ever before.' 'Even before he was chief minister, Modi had lots of friends, lots of supporters throughout the world. That support has become more and more popular within Gujarat as his achievements have become more well known in India and overseas.' NRI and Modi supporter Manoj Ladwa tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel how a Modi win will galvanise global Indians.
'They gave Nitish their votes to bring progress. But he forgot this and got involved with his own political interests. That is not done. So he was rejected.' 'Lalu is a symbol of anarchy. He is the symbol of regressive politics.' BJP General Secretary Dharmendra Pradhan discusses Lalu, Nitish, and his strategy to bring Bihar in the BJP's fold, with Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com
What is going on?! How can an amazing country like India face such highs and lows? Where do these brutes come from? Who are these people who are hijacking the goodness of this country? Who create them? Did we? Can someone please tell me what went wrong with India.
The film has its cinematic moments but is too simplistic story-wise.
RGV'S version of 26/11 was truly more gory than even the real events that occurred.
'What he has done has really been to give his time to go outside India, to reach out to governments, important countries, to meet world leaders. And I am sure when he is meeting them, he is not only presenting a Tata group message, he is presenting an India message. Therefore, he has become a kind of quasi-ambassador for us which is, of course, why the government values and respects him so much as well.' Top corporate lawyer Zia Mody assesses Ratan Tata's legacy.
Balasaheb Thackeray would have been so happy if Kasab was hanged during his lifetime, 26/11 survivor and Shiv Sainik Vijay Surve tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
When Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Milind Deora wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee asking Kasab be executed soon.
Starbucks opened its very first coffee shop in India, at 10 pm, at an stylish and historic address at Horniman Circle, south Mumbai, adding yet another outlet, and country, to its 18,000 store chain in 60 countries that serves 70 million customers a week.
Asia Society-organised a Q-and-A session between Nancy Jo Powell, America's first woman ambassador to India, and society president Vishakha Desai. Vaihayasi Pande-Daniel, who attended the interaction in Mumbai, presents an excerpt from the hour-long interaction
Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Milind Deora on why he wrote to the President asking that Kasab be executed soon.
Kanan Shah, who lost her husband in the July 13 blast in Mumbai last year, tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel that no one out there really understands what it is to be the closest kin of a blast victim.
Now the pain is back and it is unbearable. It sort of chews mercilessly at you as you chug through your day. It pulsates as you drive past knots of dead-bored cops. Or bump over pot-holed roads. Or past a drawing of a happy face that says India Smiling. It pricks sharply as you read articles on what politicians have to say. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel on every Mumbaikar's agony
'The whole time we were talking, we were holding hands and he looked right in my eyes. It was very moving.'
The seven trucks, which all belong to GeeTee carrier service of Saki Naka, Andheri East, are said to contain some of the tonnes of technical equipment required for the US Presidential trip. And from the Mercedes bus, also a GeeTee vehicle, the 20-25 American team members disembarked and poured into the hotel that is now surrounded by a fresh set of seven-feet-high iron barricades
