News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
A look at few gurus who have attracted controversy in recent times.
'Sanjay Dutt is a survivor, and I have seen his spirit adjusting to that. He writes letters. From the tone of the letters, you can sense whether he is depressed on that day or if he's better,' Rajkumar Hirani tells Patcy N/ Rediff.com
In the Modi government, he was the mentor -- he groomed half a dozen of those who became ministers. Some remembered, others did not -- Jaitley seemed to care little. Aditi Phadnis reports.
Very few today realise that without Brigadier John Dalvi's courage, we would never have known what really happened during those tragic days of October/November 1962, reveals Claude Arpi.
'The vocal pacifists who monopolise the media in India need to answer a simple question: Would they have the Taliban or ISIS take over Kashmir or the rest of the country or let the army do its duty so that we are safe in our beds and free to demonise the soldiers in our cozy drawing rooms and television studios,' asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'There is no senior bureaucracy functioning now; these people only obey.' 'This is only a command and control kind of governance.'
'One of his most famous scenes is set in a prison in Delhi where the British try to subvert Karla, the legendary Soviet spy who is being transferred back to Moscow and is being temporarily detained by the Indian agencies.' Ambassador B S Prakash salutes John le Carre.
The following are the members of the Memon family who faced trial.
He was getting fruits, but no implement to cut them with. He told the judge, sadly: "I have tried and it is very difficult, your honour." His statement quickly brought up the imagery of Peter trying to cut a pineapple with his teeth or a papaya with a pen or a toothbrush.
'I am an old man. 64 years... Never used influence.' 'I am not a politician or a criminal. What influence?' 'Retired. I could not protect myself even (from fabricated charges)?' 'Have no money now either.' 'I don't want to die in custody in disrepute.'
ACN Nambiar's life was extraordinary and intricately linked to momentous turns in history. Having lived in Europe for five decades, he was witness to and entangled with what we today -- with the benefit of hindsight -- call recent history.
'1984 is important as it is the beginning of the State making war against its citizens in India.' 'Since then, we had the government of the day organising riots or genocide by attacking certain people.'
'The Congress party hated him because he had not gone to jail, he was not lathi charged, he had not gone on hunger strike.' 'They felt he had lived in London all his life and then he came to India and became an MP and a minister.'
More noticeable than the hue of his shirt was his mast style in the witness box. He seemed to be reinventing the truth every few minutes. He yarned on and on, navigating his testimony further and further away from the facts, but he never lost his aplomb.
Prohibition is resulting in prisons getting overcrowded.
'Brajesh Thakur spoke to half a dozen Union ministers, some Bihar ministers and Manju Verma's husband between the process of lodging the FIR against him on May 31 and his arrest on June 2.'
'The unprecedented bitterness and rancour that marked this election campaign need not spill over into government and governance,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The Queen, 89, will take over the title from her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria who, according to Buckingham Palace, reigned for exactly 23,226 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes. To celebrate her 63-year-long reign, here are some interesting facts about her.
Major General Sujan Singh Uban, a legendary veteran of the Second World War, was a natural choice to raise, train and command the Special Frontier Force and mould them into a well oiled fighting machine, recalls his son Inspector General Gurdip Singh Uban (retd), who led SFF troops during the Kargil War.
It will be his fifth birthday in jail as an undertrial. He was arrested two days before his birthday in 2015. Tuesday also marked Peter's fourth year in jail.
'It used to sound very strange.' 'That the same child who used to sing Jana Gana Mana the loudest in class, who celebrated August 15 and 26th January with such fervour and who has always nurtured the desire to make India a better nation being called desh drohi.' 'It was very painful.'
Yes, Aurangzeb was a tyrant who ill-treated his subjects. But was he the only Mughal emperor guilty of this, asks Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
As the MAMI film festival kicks off, Aseem Chhabra picks the must watch Indian movies.
'That winsome smile is a key asset. And says a lot about her too.'
French Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema was placed under formal judicial investigation on Thursday in connection with an alleged attempt to blackmail fellow French soccer international Mathieu Valbuena using a sex video.
A look at few gurus who have attracted controversy in recent times.
Bharati Dutt witnessed life-changing events that shaped India on the threshold of freedom. Her memories are an account of how ordinary Indians saw India change.
'Any Muslim who shows even the slightest hint of revolutionary thought is marked as 'infected'.' 'At that point, he is taken to the nearest Detention Centre where a procedure called Reconditioning awaits him.' 'Areas with a high Muslim population have been designated as Scheduled Religion Zones.' 'To be an active participant in this social cleansing ritual, there is only one prerequisite: You have to be an undying patriot whose friend and family is his country.'
For the moment, Siwan is once again Shahabuddin's home.
Meet Bengaluru's fondest freedom fighter, HS Doreswamy, who has been a sprightly witness to the country's ups and downs since 1947.
She said she will go to Ayodhya on Wednesday and visit the makeshift temple to seek Ram Lalla's blessings.
The two were convicted on July 6 in the Avenfield properties case linked to the Sharif family's ownership of four luxury flats in London.
On its 25th anniversary, Sukanya Verma lists 10 things she still loves about Mohra.
'A film that tells its tale with calculated intent -- coolly, cleverly, taking its time -- mirroring the dry panache of its self-assured protagonist.'
Indrani dressed in a short purple kurta and leggings, with a bandhini green-purple chunni, sindhoor glowing in her mang, was receiving a drubbing from her lawyers for the facts she had revealed before the court on Tuesday while arguing the rejoinder to her bail application. She was insisting: "But he asked me for a motive!"
Amazing stories about some of our best loved movies from Bhavani Iyer who wrote them.
'Quite the raconteur, much to the dismay of Courtroom 51's CBI Special Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale, Christopher 'Doglis' Marquis, a Bandra dog-breeder who was Prosecution Witness No 57 and a panch or witness, seemed to move into the witness box with glee, embellishing every answer that he gave to the lawyers' questions with a variety of additional details.' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.
'The summer of 1857 saw violence, perpetrated by the Indians and the Britons, on an unprecedented scale.' 'Never before and never after in the history of British rule in India was there violence at the level that 1857 witnessed.'
What's it like for two people of the same sex to be in love Mumbai? Anita Aikara/Rediff.com finds out.
