It would be a huge achievement if the new administration manages a successful transition to some sense of domestic and international normalcy in these frantic times marked by the pandemic and rise of illiberal regimes across the world, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
Siva Sankar looks at S P Balasubrahmanyam's fantastic repertoire.
On his first visit to India, former three-time NBA champion Brian Shaw talks of potential that Indian youngsters possess to make the cut in the NBA and shares his views on the sensational Stephen Curry and his partnership with Shaqueille O'Neal.Norma Godinho/Rediff.com listens in.
'If prices of everyday consumption don't come down, employment doesn't pick up, 2020 will not be a happy year for anyone but the super rich,' notes Sherna Gandhy.
If an FIR had been registered by the Pen police -- instead of a mere entry in the station diary -- an investigation could have taken place and the body might have been identified as Sheena's, leading to the case being cracked much earlier.
Ever since Indrani's bail plea was denied by the judge her security has been stepped up. The message was clear. If she felt that unsafe she could get all the security she needed. But in jail she stayed.
How has Raj Thackeray, who is as much a businessman as politician, been able to pull it off, when most Opposition politicians live in fear of IT and ED and CBI, asks Krishna Prasad after attending a Raj rally in Nashik.
'Mulk gets a lot of things right, including its vision of the country as a place where underneath the punctilious, forced-secular surface there are volatilities waiting to go off,' says Sreehari Nair.
At the prison, both Ranjan and Manglik's cell phones were pressed into service by the CBI. Why the CBI didn't bring its own equipment seems a mystery... Ranjan's cell handset was given to Indrani and Manglik dialed it. Indrani then spoke and her speech, that emanated from the phone, via speaker mode, was recorded.
'Instead of doing reforms and restructuring, the present government is busy with the perception that everything is fine and the economy is hunky-dory.' 'Such hollow perceptions are very dangerous for the Indian economy in the long run.' 'The real risk to India is the lack of decent employment opportunities for youth in general and educated youth in particular.'
The fandom of Walter Becker was rather obscure, but his death has left a huge void in the music industry.
Aditya Chopra's film reminds us that a well-shot Bollywood romantic film can be so entertaining even when it does not offer anything new, says Aseem Chhabra.
'Initially, we had 48 teams, now it has been enhanced to 133 teams: that is for every 10 to 12 villages, there is a team that is working round the clock.' '133 x 3, that is, given the 8-hour shifts.' 'They are monitored every hour, they are equipped with GPS -- everything is tracked live, real time, from the control room.'
'In Rajiv Gandhi's time, out of every Re 1 spent by the government only 15 paisa reached the public.' 'At this moment, I cannot say that the entire Re 1 reaches the common man's pocket, but yes, two-thirds of that money definitely reaches the common man.' 'And the rest of the money will also reach soon.'
Queen Of Katwe feels almost like Mira Nair is making a Bollywood film in Africa, notes Raja Sen.
What does a man who feels like a woman face when married? And how does his wife cope?
Unfazed by the absence of leaders of the Left, the Janata Dal-United, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee along with some regional parties on Tuesday sought to put up a united face raising the pitch against demonetisation by demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indrani is easily the most striking woman arriving in the court complex from jail on trial days. For those who don't know who she is, there is absurd puzzlement written large on faces when they bump into her. When she reaches or leaves the premises, one notices heads swivelling in jaw-dropping curiosity, as did a pair of transsexual undertrials who crossed her path at the last hearing of 2018, who were, not surprisingly, a less unusual sight than Indrani.
'The top level will be development and then sab ka saath, sab ka vikas.' 'But at the street level, the tongue will be vicious.'
A pregnant woman is murdered in cold blood in the heart of suburban Mumbai. By her father who didn't want her to marry the man she did.
Archana Shah offers her memories of a childhood spent in apartheid South Africa.
Retracing the journey that brought coffee from Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh to an upscale caf in the aristocratic district of Le Marais in Paris.
''Being Human represents a concept.' 'We could have pushed the budget to any level we wanted, but we did not.' 'We wanted to design a place that was easily identifiable and relaxing.' 'When somebody comes in for help, you don't want to have onyx and marble flooring.'
Be it Oscars, Kareena Kapoor or Karan Johar, Sukanya Verma's super-filmi week is a study in grace for both the right and wrong reasons.
The warmest reception came from his soon-to-be ex wife Indrani, who on spying him getting out of the lift, muttered an "Oh dear!" and walked over to him, trailed by her police guards, wreathed in high-wattage smiles.
The ripping off the lid, that Mekhail did, on the chain of episodes that lead up to his sister's murder, while condemning Indrani for her actions, for the first time, paradoxically, allowed a more human -- if flawed and complicated -- picture to emerge of Indrani, allegedly The Woman Who Killed Her Own Daughter and shocked a nation.
Abusers on social media will be rewarded if you just got intimidated or even minimally distracted. If you don't let the noise make you do either, you are winning, without even fighting the battle, says Shekhar Gupta.
'People wondered aloud why she had given up on the aging, getting-day-by-day-more-infirm avatar. And was freshly blooming.'
Opposition parties disrupted the proceedings of the Parliament for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday over the demonetisation issue.
On the second day of his visit to Varanasi, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday undertook a road show in the rural parts and interacted with villagers, including farmers, in a bid to make inroads in the temple town where he is facing a formidable rival in the Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi.
We have let a woman of Italian origin rule us through a clever divide of administrative power centres, but far too many of us have not accepted her Indianness. We have every right to reject her politics and her corrupt government, but shouldn't her living most of her life here make her Indian enough?
Aseem Chhabra's recommendations for the Mumbai film festival.
And it's written with tears, blood and unspoken lines.
If confirmed by the US Senate, Haley, 44, would be the first Indian-American to serve in a Cabinet-level position in any presidential administration.
12 lies you must tell your better half without feeling guilty.
Time unkindly has a sole endeavour: To drag the person, whose death you are mourning, further and further away from your presence, to some far edge of your falsely anesthetised mind. So your memories are drained of colour, growing faint and grainy. You are left with a more and more distant recollections of that person, their laugh, their embrace, their voice and the moments surrounding their final departure. Vaihayasi P Daniel mourns her beloved father who passed away one December morning last year.
'Growing up in Karnataka, in middle-class and forward-caste background, Ambedkar did not enter our consciousness at all, I realised.' 'The 'exclusion' of sections of our society was not only physical; it was comprehensive in the sense that all aspects of their lives including the life of an exceptional intellectual and stalwart had been under-understood by people of my class, I thought,' says B S Prakash.
It might have been the season of Basant Panchami, but for Pasbola it was definitely Halloween as he set about scaring the wits out of Rangwala, his tone growing harsher.
"In India, we derive our strength from tolerance, and respect our pluralism. We celebrate our diversity," he said.
