John Lang represented Rani Laxmibai in her legal battle against the East India Company to prevent the British from annexing her kingdom of Jhansi. Rediff.com's Archana Masih on a maverick Aussie who spent 22 years in India and became a friend in its dark days of bondage.
On the pitches of ramshackle football academies across West Africa, teenage boys chase one another in pursuit of the ball, the chance to impress, and the prospect of a lucrative contract with one of Europe's top teams.
Who were they? What led them to mass murder?
These images from across the globe tell that it is a crazy world out there!
How did Greece, the country of Archimedes and Socrates and Plato and Pythagoras, come to such dire straits, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
Some stunning moments of the week that was
Nothing, according to Deepak Lal. He argues that the contemporary attempts to control immigration in the US and UK are not nativist.
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest stories from around the world.
Rather than talking about Khajuraho and Shikhandi, the argument should be about a Constitution that promised rights to all, says Mihir S Sharma
Sterling was last at $1.4450, having carved out a massive range of $1.4000 to $1.5022.
'The first time we actually got to meet a Bollywood star, it was Salman Khan.' 'We met him at his farm house.' 'For Pia, an actor is just an actor. There is no such thing as a star in her world, and that may or may not go down well with some people.'
Director Matt Brown tells Aseem Chhabra/Rediff.com what it was about The Man Who Knew Infinity that made him persevere for a decade to turn the book into a film.
'The top-most functionaries and destiny-makers of the nation have thrown away the pretensions of statesmanship.' 'They seem to have made a categorical announcement that the next general election will be fought on the solo plank of Hindutva, rather than on good governance, economic development, and employment to youth', says Mohammad Sajjad.
Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor capped a dominant day's play for New Zealand with centuries as the hosts reached 367 for three at the close of the first day of the first Test against West Indies at University Oval in Dunedin on Tuesday.
Jeremy Irons considered maths 'very boring' till he read G H Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology. The actor, who plays the British mathematician in The Man Who Knew Infinity, talks numbers, acting and his legacy with Aseem Chhabra/Rediff.com.
'Demonetisation, is in principal, a mistake, because it involves a theft -- a taking of private property by the State.' 'It is one of those bad Indian ideas that has been tried twice in the past, with two failures for the record books.' 'This cloud over the economy will probably remain as long as Modi is in power.'
It was an art, says Mandvi, that all Indian-American actors had to cultivate.
The start of Indian lobbying in the US can be traced back to Pakistan's anti-India lobbying. Policy wonk Ashok Sharma documents this journey and its catalytic role in transforming the US-India relationship.
An army of 'book fairies' are anonymously dropping off some delightful books in public places across the world.
Sylvia Dyer's life began nearly 90 years ago in a forgotten, untamed land. She spent her childhood on a plantation on the Bihar-Nepal border in pre-Independent India, lived through the '65 war as the wife of a decorated army officer and saw an era grow and fade in front of her eyes.
Come May, the Deltin Royale, which boasts of the country's largest poker room, will play host to India's first Poker Sports League.
'John Lasseter gave me such good advice. He said the reason why he wanted me to tell the story was because it was about my dad and me. He said if it is a father and son story, it will relate universally.' Star Pixar animator Sanjay Patel tells Aseem Chhabra/Rediff.com the back story behind his new film, Sanjay's Super Team, which features Hanuman, Vishnu and Durga as superheroes.
Ajit Balakrishnan recalls some lessons from the last time people talked of 'convergence' -- the mid-1990s.
London Fire Brigade fire fighters worked through the night to try and account for whole families that are still missing in the huge fire at the Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate in Latimer Road.
The Sangh Parivar forgets that not only is there no scriptural prohibition, venerable authorities in India held beef as both a desirable and an essential food, says Sunanda K Datta-Ray
Only reforms that accelerate economic growth can generate the revenues to finance expenditure on social infrastructure for the poor, not the other way round, insists Jagdish Bhagwati.
Nobel Peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai, Obama's daughters and Joshua Wong, the face of the Hong Kong protests against China have been named by Time magazine among its list of the 25 most influential teenagers of 2014.
ESPN is experimenting to see if the sport can gain traction in the United States, where professional and college football are king while cricket, with its loyal but small fan base, is viewed as being on the fringe.
'The best remedy would be to scrap Section 124-A of the IPC, a colonial vestige, altogether.' 'However, if legislators don't want to do so, they can do two things.' 'They can formally amend Section 124-A to bring it in line with what the Supreme Court has said about sedition.' 'The words which stand on the statute book today were inserted in 1898.' 'The Supreme Court's words are not a part of Section 124-A.'
'One reason why Suchitra Sen quit acting in the 1970s was the mediocrity that overtook Bengali cinema. Many of the directors she knew well and felt comfortable working with passed away. The scripts offered to her were awful,' Moon Moon Sen talks about her famous mother, the legendary Suchitra Sen, who passed away on January 17.
Their families are poor and do not know what IIT is but their sons dream of IIT and working for ISRO and NASA one day. One man is helping them towards their dream. As Bihar goes to the polls, Archana Masih salutes its greatest success story.
'If JNU students are anti-national, why do we send in the police? Why not send in intellectuals like M V Kamath to have a debate and discussion?'
HUL has achieved few milestones in the fiscal gone by and hence is performing good on revenues front.
Tactical genius, uplifting leader, altruistic individual, a man with unwavering certitude. Dhruv Munjal recounts what made Mahendra Singh Dhoni a great captain.
Writer's block, rejection from publishers and negative criticism are just some of the problems first-time authors face.
Rajan also said it's a problem of collective action and not a problem of industrial nations or emerging markets
Here's a collection of images of the past week.
The ATP issued the latest men's tennis rankings on Monday and the top 10 list remains unchanged with Serbian tennis ace Novak Djokovic still leading the rankings.
Protests demanding Jallikattu swelled on the streets of Tamil Nadu after agitators rejected statements by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and the state braced for a shutdown on Friday.
Epic Retold has the mighty Bhima tweeting his story as he lives it -- in first person, from the day he first meets his arch enemy Duryodhana, all the way through the Kurukshetra war and beyond.
