From music to politics. The family of late shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan has been dragged into the political battleground after Bismillah's grandson was approached to become a proposer for Bharatiya Janata Party nominee Narendra Modi when he files his nomination for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat on April 24.
"The prime minister is afflicted with an unhealthy mindset," Sharma said.
Fireworks illuminated the evening sky, earthen lamps dotted houses and lights decked up buildings as people exchanged sweets and gifts on Diwali which also witnessed bonhomie between Indian and Pakistani guards at border posts.
'If I had a chance to live it all again, I wouldn't change a thing.' Lata Mangeshkar looks back at her life.
'Savarkar was the closest the RSS had to a freedom movement icon, however flawed.' 'Indira Gandhi wasn't going to gift him to them.' 'And a non-career politician like Dr Singh understands it.' 'It is just that his party never listened to him,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'One big problem for the RSS is, while they spread their ideology of hard, Hindu-ised Indian nationalism, the absence of their own pantheon of modern nationalist giants. They missed out on the freedom movement quite comprehensively, in some ways comparable to the Muslim League and latter-day Communists. They have to find heroes elsewhere.' 'They borrow who they can from the Congress, like Madan Mohan Malviya and Sardar Patel, and then steal the entire lot of revolutionaries, from Bhagat Singh to Netaji, never mind that many of them were extreme leftists.'
'... That they should emerge as role-models to be emulated by the fellow countrymen; and that the middle classes should not stick only to hate-filled and scornful criticism and condemnation against the state of affairs,' remembers Mohammad Sajjad.
The Punjab government blames the slow growth on tax concessions in neighboring Himachal Pradesh and Haryana's proximity to Delhi.
Diwali, the festival of lights, was celebrated with traditional fervour across the country with people exchanging sweets and gifts with friends and relatives, decking up their houses with earthen diyas and tiny lights and illuminating the evening sky with fireworks.
Each enquiry could pull down the credit score by 5-10 points.
'Sonia's term as Congress president -- which was 20 years -- was the longest in the party's history.' 'It will also go down as the period in which the Congress transformed in the way Indians viewed it,' says Aakar Patel.
The 47-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family will face the daunting task of restoring lost glory to the party whose fortunes have been dwindling in the recent past.
Nearly 40 years after the then railway minister Lalit Narayan Mishra was killed in a bomb blast at a function at Samastipur Railway Station in Bihar, a Delhi court on Monday convicted four persons for the charges of murder and criminal conspiracy.
Another person in Delhi has succumbed to dengue, taking the toll to 21, with his family alleging that two of the three hospitals they took him to refused to do the test for the vector-borne disease.
Of the 15 people who led the 132-year-old party post independence, four have belonged to the Gandhi-Nehru family.
Shah said the Congress was not rooted in any ideology or principles and was sort of a "special purpose vehicle" to secure freedom.
The government's top leadership was happy with Prabhu's Budget.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji turns 90 on December 25. I wish him all the best. The nation has honoured him and Pt Madan Mohan Malaviyaji with the Bharat Ratna.
Despite a few flaws in the film, Yash Chopra distinguishes himself.
All this and more in Subhash K Jha's Bollywood Buzz.
While Smriti Irani might bristle with faux indignation at the 'malicious' newspaper report, it is very clear that just as Teacher's Day was hijacked by her boss and a day of celebration became an assignment, the first attack on Christmas as a holiday has been made in the war on India's cosmopolitan way of life, says the Mango Indian.
'Besides electoral opportunism, a sustained vilification of AMU on one or the other pretext helps them sustain their 'everyday communalism', the new strategy of the BJP of the Narendra Damodardas Modi-Amit Anilchandra Shah era,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
A beaming Amarinder Singh thanked the people of the state for their overwhelming support, saying he was committed to good governance and tackling the drug menace.
'The judge said that anybody who does not believe in the RSS ideology is not acceptable to you. You have terminated his contract because he thought differently.' 'The Modi government has no accomplishment to show. Therefore, they are using the tool of nationalism to divert the country's attention from very serious things like farmers suicides and the water crisis.' 'You cannot simply dismiss anyone because they are not willing to raise a slogan and not think like you.'
'Kishore Kumar lived like a king and knew that he could get away with anything. It's as simple as that.'
The Bharat Ratna conferred on Madan Mohan Malaviya has exposed the frictions within his family, reports Manavi Kapur
Economists expect Modi to announce big-bang reforms.
The move is aimed at reflecting the diversity of India and highlighting the contribution of prominent personalities.
'Our country has enough talent, writers and composers to create music.' 'The previous generation did their job and went.' 'I think we need to leave behind some things.'
'As the burkha-clad beauty Husna in Mere Mehboob, she inspired Shakeel Badayuni to compose Mere Mehboob Tujhe Meri Mohabbat Ki Kasam/Phir Mujhe Un Nargisi Aankhon Ka Sahara De De. Hasrat Jaipuri showered epithets like Nargis-e-Mastaana and Phoolon Ki Rani, Baharon Ki Malika on her in Arzoo.'
This is the fifth time that Nitish will be the chief minister of Bihar and this will be his third consecutive term.
'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.'
In our special series re-visiting great Hindi film classics, we look back at Sanjeev Kumar's Dastak (1970).
Patcy N/ Rediff.com had spoken to Mubarak Begum back in 2011. We republish the interview.
'Laxmikant-Pyarelal called upon Abba to ask him to sing this ghazal. "Please sing this ghazal for us. The producer is keen that only you should sing this ghazal, so that it will have the desired effect. But he doesn't have money enough to pay you".' Abba's heart was bound to melt on hearing this. He consented immediately. His daughter-in-law Yasmin K Rafi remembers the legendary Mohammed Rafi who would have been 91 today.
'Communalism and communal riots happened in India only during and due to colonialism. Pre-colonial India didn't have this problem of communal conflicts and religious strife.'
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