'There were no singers like Lata, Kishore, Rafi or Mukesh. And until now, there is nobody. Nobody with that kind of voice, nobody with that kind of brain to learn. Not only to learn, but to improvise. We improvised music, we improvised the songs. Nowadays, they just listen and copy.'
Let these thought-provoking quotes by famous teachers from across the world inspire you.
Beneath a street lamp in one of Rio de Janeiro's slums, 19-year-old boxer Wanderson de Oliveira does pull-ups from a metal bar outside the Fight for Peace academy while two skinny young boys watch intently. Much of the Complexo da Mar, a teeming neighborhood of 140,000 people near Rio's international airport, remains in the grip of drug gangs despite efforts to break their hold on the city's poor districts ahead of the August Olympic Games. Gang members brandishing automatic weapons inspect vehicles that enter Mar at a checkpoint, watchful for raids by rival crews or the police. Youths with machine guns patrol the streets or loll in plastic chairs at corner bars.
Growing foreign travel is one sign of the radical change in rising India's vacation dynamic.
Naipaul's views against the commonplace perception towards colonised countries and their people were not the only thing controversial about the famed author.
M Karunanidhi was a masterful practitioner of modern-day politics, wielding considerable influence beyond his own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time and sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Tista Sengupta catches up with five emerging designers from North East India -- Daniel Syiem, Atsu Sekhose, Meghna Rai Medhi, Dhiraj Deka and Sanjukta Dutta -- who, in their own way, are fighting to keep their traditional art of weaving alive.
Yes, Aurangzeb was a tyrant who ill-treated his subjects. But was he the only Mughal emperor guilty of this, asks Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Friends of Vinod Mehta came together to remember the man and his legacy.
Steve Jobs sold this out of his parents' garage in 1976 for $600.
The meeting saw archrivals TMC and CPI-M coming together on a common platform against the government.
Do you know this giant?
Ace designer to the stars passes away into the ages
'The Indian Army served with honour and distinction in France and Flanders, East Africa, Gallipoli, Aden, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Transcaspia, Persia and even China.' 'The sacrifice of India's soldiers was consigned to the dustbin of history in the post-colonial world.'
Fans share their Sridevi memories...
'I'll remember you as the face of joy for ever.' Sukanya Verma remembers the iconic Sridevi.
Photographer S Paul, who died this month, was furiously protective about his independence and intensely sure about his work. So much so that he once walked away from a shoot with a prime minister.
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
'In one mansion we visited, I was told the doors in the back courtyard had to be kept closed because to have the front and back doors open at the same time would result in Chettiar wealth flowing away,' notes Rahul Jacob after a memorable visit to Karaikudi.
His remarks that some people suffer from diseases such as cancer because of sins committed in the past and that it is "divine justice" have sparked sharp reactions.
Quentin Tarantino, declares Sreehari Nair, will be remembered as someone who made just two great movies, and who then brought misery upon himself.
Two skyscrapers were decimated the day 2,996 died, one and a half decades ago. George Joseph profiles the monument that has replaced them.
Here's a list of the full first-time ministers in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
The Revenant is a devastating, visually jawdropping film that, for all its sins of tedium, makes up with scale what it lacks in artfulness, feels Raja Sen.
'Why should she involve Islam in it?' 'We are living in a secular democracy and she has the right to do what she wants. but why bring Islam into it?'
Armed with a warm smile, the Swede shares his thoughts about Federer, Becker and modern-day tennis. Norma Godinho/Rediff.com speaks to the legend, who made the art of serve and volley a potent weapon, reckons Federer should skip French Open to focus on winning Wimbledon and that technology in the sport is here to stay.
Sudhir Bisht recalls the battle of 1984, in which UP's strongman H N Bahuguna was felled by Bollywood superstar turned political novice Amitabh Bachchan.
At the age of 28 he's perhaps the only one in the country who's making cartoons on natural history.
It is a sight that both warms and breaks the heart. The women of Shaheen Bagh seem oblivious of the cold, these women and their children, the latter ranging in age from 19 days to early teens, who have been occupying the road for over two weeks now. Some of them have not gone home for days, but their faces are clear, unlined by fatigue, their eyes bright and fierce as those of the falcon, shaheen, the area is named for.
Sunetra Choudhury hopes the Supreme Court will eventually give a fitting punishment to the Uphaar accused.
Describing neonatal and maternal mortality rates as a matter of grave concern, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government wanted to effectively use its 'Make in India' and 'Digital India' campaigns to reach healthcare to the country's poorest of the poor.
For ageing parents it is crucial to make a water-tight will.
Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, scion of the erstwhile Mysore royal family and the last descendant of the Wodeyar dynasty, died of severe cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Bangalore on Tuesday.
'The digital age has forced diplomats to be less formal and more accessible, reaching out to ordinary people both within and outside their countries, combining statecraft with streetcraft,' says former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran.
Modi's visit to Brussels comes eight days after the deadly attacks on the city in which at least 35 people, including an Indian, died and over 300 were wounded.
'Here was a man who played a major part in helping the Bengalis of East Pakistan create a new nation, secured the merger of Sikkim into the Indian dominion and built R&AW into a formidable outfit, comparable to the best in the world.' Rameshwar Nath Kao shunned the limelight, hated to be photographed and preferred to work behind the scenes. A revealing excerpt from Nitin A Gokhale's much awaited book, R N Kao: Gentleman Spymaster.
In the pitch dark of the African night, a herd of cape buffaloes gather at the watering hole for a drink, taking care to stay by the edge to avoid the crocodiles lurking in the depths. In Gangiova, a village in Romania, a doctor places her stethoscope to the chest of a newborn baby, listening intently for the beating of his tiny heart. These are just some of the moments that have been picked by the judges for the Sony World Photography Awards. For the 2017 competition, photographers entered 227,596 images across the awards' Professional, Open and Youth categories. The Open competition winner will receive $5,000 (Rs 3.3 lakh), Sony digital imaging equipment and flights and accommodation to the awards ceremony at Somerset House in London. Sony World Photography Awards has been kind enough to share some of their shortlisted pieces with us.
Zubaan emerges, sadly, like one of those ads where you can half-hum the song but you forget what it was for, feels Raja Sen.
Mumbai claims to have a large number of developed public and private medical facilities. It attracts patients from all over, including abroad, for specialist care. Hoardings proclaiming all sorts of 'state-of-the-art' medical facilities dot its skylines. The lack of a developed emergency medical response system is completely incongruous with all this, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.
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