A look at few gurus who have attracted controversy in recent times.
'It is palpably prejudiced and totally at variance with public and historical opinion.' 'As a result, he cannot be taken seriously in other matters as well because of his penchant for playing safe,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'Burhan Wani's killing served as a spark for the anti-establishment fire that has been raging in the minds of Kashmiris ever since the Centre stopped engaging them for their political future,' says Air Vice Marshal (retd) Kapil Kak in an interview with Rediff.com
Sreehari Nair is *not* impressed by this lot of films at all.
Nikita Puri and Dhruv Munjal explain why new-age businessmen are turning to exclusive, uber-rich clubs.
Evacuation of people from the family quarters is in progress.
'The Congress president gets into samurai mode only when there is a direct attack on her and her family.' 'Is being the president of the oldest and one of the most respected parties in India only about personal reputation and survival?' asks Sudhir Bisht.
'As of now, it seems like they want to tread the Vajpayee line, but the central government has to create trust.' 'It has to be vibrant and unambiguous.'
Then chief minister Jyoti Basu once told an industrialist that capitalists were class enemies and he should expect no sympathy.
'If they succeed in silencing this great university, it will be a tragic day for the nation.'
'Why can't we make it mandatory for all IAS and IPS officers to serve in the armed forces for a year before joining service? What stops us from making it compulsory for every Member of Parliament to spend three months, immediately after taking oath, in military barracks/maybe a few nights in the bunkers on the borders, to learn and understand the life of a fauji?' wonders Tarun Vijay, MP.
There's a lot happening in Bollywood, Hollywood and world cinema this year.
Looking at the most touching Hindi movies inspired by true-life events.
Off the field the Board of Control for Cricket in India looks set for a complete overhaul with Supreme Court's stinging observations tightening the noose around the mandarins of the richest sports body.
Veteran theatre personality Dolly Thakore, who made her film debut as a casting director with Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, kept in touch with him till much after work on the multiple award-winning biopic was over. Distraught upon hearing the unfortunate news, the Indian thespian revisits her long and 'wonderful' association with Sir Richard Attenborough.
'His essential doctrine was only the local police can fight terror.' '"You can't fire at mobs throwing stones," he said, adding one has to think innovatively, even defensively, sometimes.' Shekhar Gupta remembers the uncoventional SuperCop.
This cult of speed reaches its crowning glory during that peculiar Indian spectacle called medical camps. Medical camps are an activity in which doctors from cities travel to underserved areas, often on weekends, where the poor are then herded in hundreds for deliverance, photo-ops and freebies. In their more evolved form, there are surgical camps where bewildered and overawed patients are put onto operating tables and, much like an assembly line, a series of operations are performed in rapid succession. The surgical instruments are often magically sterilised in minutes between procedures, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.
'Whether he will apologise or not is not a problem.' 'I want him to make an effort to create a new world, by learning from history.'
Over the weekend and Labour Day, a change seemed to have come over the former secretary and her memory had all but deserted her. Not unexpectedly, Kajal Sharma had lost much of her exactness. Her vocabulary had shrivelled to four or five words.
Vinita Bisht and Vinita Kamte lost their husbands -- one an NSG commando, the other an IPS officer -- in the 26/11 terror attack. Six years later, Archana Masih/Rediff.com meets them to discover that closure is one of the hardest things to find.
Sam Manekshaw led the Indian Army to its greatest military victory this month 46 years ago. Lieutenant Colonel A K Shinde (retd), the field marshal's doctor for 35 years, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih about the charming man behind the soldier's uniform.
'This is what we train for: That one chance to deliver a blow so lethal that the enemy will constantly think about it when planning any misadventure.'
The escalating situation in the Kashmir valley is the vanguard actions of global jihad, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd). And in this battle, he believes, perception management operations will be just important as operations to neutralise the terrorists.
'People are beaten at the slightest provocation, paraded completely naked and then tortured. Did you know the number of prison deaths is the highest in Maharashtra? The one year I was in jail, 98 prisoners died.' 'The judges did warn the jail authorities, but they didn't care. They even violated the high court's order regarding my treatment. One judge asked my lawyer: "Can I go and implement my orders there?"' Professor G N Saibaba, who is 90 per cent handicapped, speaks of his ordeal in a Nagpur jail after being arrested for protesting against the Centre's anti-Naxal and anti-Adivasi campaign.
And no, the list doesn't start and stop with Boman Irani!
India's neglect of villages shows up in many other ways.
Rediff.com brings you a collection of some of the best sports images from around the world...
The Seismological department said that the quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and lasted for about two minutes.
This week, after years of denying it, octogenarian politician N D Tiwari publicly accepted that Rohit Shekhar is indeed his son. For Shekhar, the change of heart must also come with a legal guarantee.
'His simple lifestyle, his optimism, his hard work and his genuine humility made him an authentic role model to millions of children, many of them growing up in challenging circumstances.'
Sheela Bhatt meets Bharti Patel, a truly exceptional mother of our times whose son Dr Vikram Patel was recently ranked among Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2015, to find out her recipe for a remarkable upbringing.
'The people of the state can be won over by love, and not by swords.'
Rajkumari Kaul's death over the weekend brings back memories of phone conversations at a time when landline numbers were still in vogue, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee was still to become prime minister, remembers Girish Nikam.
'With Tanu Weds Manu, I discovered myself.'
When Union Minister Maneka Gandhi sought to project her son Varun as a possible future chief minister of Uttar Pradesh last Sunday, it was widely seen as an attempt to claim Sanjay Gandhi's legacy. Anita Katyal reports
Hard men with guns cannot manage the state forever.
Here is a recap of all the big events that shaped the world last week.
Aseem Chhabra tell us how he watched 302 films in 365 days on airplanes, on Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Google, Hulu, DVDs and even on YouTube.
Shatranj Ke Khilari was Satyajit Ray's first Hindi film. The Master set the Premchand story against the backdrop of the First War of Independence in 1857. Bijoya Ray, his wife, reveals fascinating glimpses behind the making of the epic in this exclusive excerpt from her memoir.