At Kolga Aabla, the closest beach to her grandmother's home, at the edge of a birch forest, we immersed her balance ashes. It was a sombre, precious day for both of us. But a day that also brought long-needed closure. My mother's spirit, chained for so many years in a Parkinson's-locked body, was free. But my father came back from the beach a visibly older man.
Discovering the stunning land of breathtaking temples.
By all available indications, the White House drafted a face-saving note and handed it, ready-made, to Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was supposed to then post it in the guise of a plea urging Trump to extend the deadline by two weeks 'to allow diplomacy to run its course'. Trump would then graciously accept Pakistan's 'request' and declare a ceasefire. Sharif dutifully posted the message on X. Except that he, or whoever was handling the account, forgot to delete the tell-tale first line visible in the edit history: 'Draft - Pakistan's PM Message on X'. Prem Panicker's must read blog on the Iran War.
Fight on toward goals that keep receding, or exit with most objectives unmet. Trump is agitated, his poll numbers falling below the Plimsoll line, his base fractured between those who back the war and those who remember that he campaigned on ending them.
Nowhere are the stories of the coming election better told than on the roads of Bihar.
Trump knows by now that the western narrative of Biden's war is a load of bullshit peppered with falsehoods and outright lies, and that the war erupted only out of the diabolic western plot to poke the bear, which got provoked finally and hit out, explains Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Her story, her life, her aspirations and struggles...' 'Indian weddings are not just about fuschia, pink and dancing. They have many nuances.'
These are some of Rediff.com's favourites from all 80 award-winning photos.
'We all live very intense lives. S*** goes down all the time.' 'This 'eureka moment' doesn't really happen.' 'The discipline of writing and polishing a song is way harder,' Prateek Kuhad, the singing sensation, tells Veer Arjun Singh.
For the Stalin government to win back the confidence of voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, post-flooding restoration works, their speed and efficacy would be closely watched, and not just by the political Opposition, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
I binged on various shows this year -- some for work, some for pleasure, few I couldn't spare time for, others I didn't have access to while some started out fabulously only to fizzle towards the end.
Looking for Treasures From Mizoram to embrace through 2024 and beyond.
Sukanya Verma gives us a lowdown on all those wonderful movies she saw and movies you need to see as and when they arrive to a screen or streaming space near you.
Food in India has fled the confines of the kitchen and become a national adventure... Food shows, now even on news channels, have transformed restaurateurs from humble khansamas to courted celebrities.
The Bharat Ratna conferred on Madan Mohan Malaviya has exposed the frictions within his family, reports Manavi Kapur
'With just 2.4 per cent of global landmass, India houses six to eight per cent of planetary biodiversity and hence is a prime target of wildlife criminals.'
The Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500X is sporty and macho. However, several bothersome issues need to be addressed, says P Tharyan.
Despite its stiffness, in Aarkkariyam, a supernatural glow does shine out of the ordinary.
The results for the People's Choice Award for the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year are in.
In this moment there has to be honest acknowledgement of how so many in our community willingly voted for another four years of Trump, based on the morally flimsiest of reasons, points out Suleman Din.
Skoda's Kodiaq is the newest kid on the block and promises to give the aforesaid SUVs a run for their money. Will it? Indian automobile website MotorBeam.com finds out.
The Dulquer factor is the only saving grace of this witless, charmless sham posturing as satire, feels Sukanya Verma.
'Animal populations are increasing. Human populations are increasing. So there is no way the man-animal conflict going to go away.'
Sharks, mating frogs, seals playing with photographers... these are the amazing photos which offer an enchanting breadth of what's beyond the shoreline. Underwater Photographer of the Year has just announced the winners of its 2019 photo contest and photographer Richard Barnden, from the UK, was named Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019. Prizes and commendations were handed out in categories including Wide Angle, Macro, Wrecks, Behaviour, Portrait, Black and White, Compact, Up and Coming, and in British waters, Wide Angle, Living Together, Compact, and Macro Shots.
Anurag Kashyap explains why he is finally releasing his long delayed film, Ugly.
It would be a huge achievement if the new administration manages a successful transition to some sense of domestic and international normalcy in these frantic times marked by the pandemic and rise of illiberal regimes across the world, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
From her thoughts on a black woman becoming First Lady to marital struggles with her husband Barack, Michelle Obama hasn't held back in her memoir, which is being praised as honest and telling, Becoming.
'How do you expect me to tone down my anger when the most prominent culture in India today is the culture of corruption, in every sphere of life?'
'As in the Panchatantra tale of the cat and the monkeys, it is possible for the clever swing State to play off the two competing powers.'
Rediff.com reproduces the 1997 feature about Laxman, his passion for crows, and of course, his genius.
'She was just a little girl. She didn't understand religion. Who is Hindu, who is Muslim.' 'She was just 8! Why punish her?' The family of the eight-year-old girl who was gang-raped and murdered in Jammu's Kathua district say everything has changed since that horrific crime.
Amol Shahane remembers the first time he was introduced to St Valentine.
How many of the 354 films Aseem Chhabra watched in 2017 have you seen?
The ripping off the lid, that Mekhail did, on the chain of episodes that lead up to his sister's murder, while condemning Indrani for her actions, for the first time, paradoxically, allowed a more human -- if flawed and complicated -- picture to emerge of Indrani, allegedly The Woman Who Killed Her Own Daughter and shocked a nation.
If the high security notes introduced in 2015 were kept in the system, the pain due to demonetisation can be ameliorated to a certain extent. But unfortunately, such thought process have no place in the hasty demonetisation decision.
'I am a very personal writer. I write direct to the reader. I don't hold back,' says India's most loved writer, Ruskin Bond.
Read the full transcript of President Obama's State of the Union address on Wednesday at the US Capitol in Washington.
