'There was a man who wanted me to get him to a liquor shop.' 'I told that was not possible but if, after downing several drinks, he needed help to return home, I could look into that.'
Sudhir Bisht seeks some answers not from the biggest superstar India has seen but from the lovable Prem of the silver screen.
The villagers have pinned their hopes for development on Ravi, whose success has much to do with the sacrifices and moral guidance of one man -- his father Rakesh Kumar Dahiya.
In this weekly self-help series, mental health and life coach Anu Krishna tells you how to take control of your life.
The DMK feels its genuine gestures have had no bearing on the governor's politico-administrative conduct, which is 'more political and politicised than administrative and Constitutional', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Make no mistake, legally Chanda Kochhar was not and still is not obliged to quit.' 'But quitting earlier would have placed her personally and as a leader on a very high pedestal, indeed where she belonged until this lapse,' says S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
'LIC's proposed investment will come out of what is technically called the 'policyholders funds'.' 'As the name implies, these monies belong to policyholders; that is, you, me and 25 crore others who have taken a total of 30 crore policies from LIC.' 'It is not the government's or LIC's money to play poker with,' says S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
'Modi, with his sharply honed political savvy and undoubted grasp of international affairs, is a past master at taking the measure of world leaders.' 'He would be the last person to think of the unpredictable and not too well-regarded Trump as the mediator,' says B S Raghavan.
'Elected representatives have won elections in the past on the basis of money power received from the central government.' 'This fact has been highlighted by former army chief V K Singh who boasted of crores of rupees being distributed to Kashmiri politicians in order to buy their loyalty and win votes.' 'All the Kashmiri politicians have been co-opted by the Indian State,' says separatist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
The appointment of Yogi Adityanath as UP CM, the revival of the Ram Temple movement, the elevation of a ban on cow slaughter as a national priority, and the targeting of any social behaviour deemed contrary to a set of narrowly prescribed Indian values point to a social regression that contradicts the inclusive and forward-looking impulse that underlies Modi's vision of a modern India.
From Aurangzeb to Sangh Parivar, the year 2016 offers plenty of hope in historical and modern literature.
'The real danger in India right now is that identity politics is being stoked in extremely dangerous ways.' 'The narrative you get about churches in the mainstream Indian media and the narrative you get in the social media is very different.' 'Many Americans today want to appropriate Indian culture. They want yoga, but they say yoga has nothing to do with Hinduism. They want Ayurveda, but they say it's got nothing to do with Hinduism.' 'Hinduism has been failed by political constituencies in India -- seculars and the right-wing.'
Read the full transcript of President Obama's State of the Union address on Wednesday at the US Capitol in Washington.