How do you translate a first love into a profession? How do you become a writer once you set your heart on it? Susmita Bhattacharya, who once worked as a graphic designer in Mumbai, now teaches the basics of English to newcomers to Britain and is also a creative writing tutor. Her first novel The Normal State of Mind was published earlier this year after a grim battle with cancer.
'When we saw Saawariya for the first time, I was aghast.' 'If only Bhansali had told me, I would have dissuaded him.
One couldn't help feeling a certain melancholy viewing these now vagrant documents and photographs that would never be rightfully cherished. The pictures spoke to you. They offered slices of extinguished lives. They breathed sadness too, for what could have been and will never be. The sweet promises that Life made and insolently, arrogantly never kept.
In our special series re-visiting great Hindi film classics, we look back at Sanjeev Kumar's Dastak (1970).
'Laxman will be remembered for years to come as the person whom everybody turned to the first thing in the morning and drew a smile, however depressing the situation. It will be impossible to replace him...'
'At the back of the courtroom the three accused sat trying to catch the drift and fathom the new, inexplicable turn the case could be taking.' 'And the consequences it might have on their lives.'
Mekhail hopped off the bench in a hurry and turning his back to Indrani, stood at the window. Indrani ignored him too. Mekhail is getting married later this year. His mother will, of course, not be in attendance. Nor, of course, would he want her to be there, if she could.
Fashion graduate Natasha Ramachandran tells us how she became a model and why the industry is not meant for everyone.
Seeing Indrani in court with her perpetually sunny demeanour and beaming face is sometimes as unreal an experience as making sense of court delays.
Putting together a play about the Father of the Nation is no easy task. But when that play is a musical, the challenges increase.
The Big Chill is an upmarket cafe in New Delhi's tony Khan Market and that's where Deora wanted to meet. He introduces me to his favourite cake: tiramisu with a generous infusion of Bailey's, the Irish creme liquor. I take a spoonful, recall the reading on the bathroom scales earlier that morning, and resolutely push it aside, writes Aditi Phadnis.
Lawyer Amit Ghag got up to tell the judge that Shrikant Shivade -- Salman Khan and Peter Mukherjea's lawyer -- would take a morning flight from Jodhpur to Mumbai and would be in court by 3 pm on Friday to cross-examine Sub-Inspector Dalvi. For a moment, Judge Jagdale looks startled. "But isn't he caught up with that case in Jodhpur?" the judge asked.
Her great grandfather began sugar co-operatives in Maharashtra. Her grandfather was an eight time MP. Her uncle is currently leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly. Her cousin joined the BJP on Tuesday, March 12. Nila Vikhe Patil, who could one day become prime minister of Sweden, unravels her India connections in an e-mail interaction with Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Stepping up his offensive, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hit out at BJP's ideological mentor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh saying its belief was "murdering" individuality and that thought process is now running the country in which only one man knows everything from farmers to clothes.
'The Indian and Israeli rabbis were singing a small departure song for brave little Moshe, who had spent many, likely, heartbreaking but bittersweet hours at this home of his babyhood, looking at the drawings his mother had made for him, that were still up in his room.'
Many pictures showed The Skeleton Named Sheena. For the purpose of the photographs, the skeleton had been re-assembled and looked straight at the camera.
'You know, there's not much else happening other than the juicy murder story starring the TV mogul's trophy turned huntress wife,' says Mango Indian.
'I wish there was a little chaos there and I wish there was a little discipline here.' Actress Tannishtha Chatterjee on Bollywood and Hollywood.
From farmers to cement, steel, logistics, transportation and automobiles, the back-end is struggling to get going due to the liquidity crisis.
These automotive companies were afraid of competition and made wrong accusations on grounds of safety.
The last rites will be conducted in Mandala in Madhya Pradesh, according to his wishes.
A meeting to pay homage to K G Subramanyam, one of India's most interesting painters and thinkers.
Sreehari Nair is *not* impressed by this lot of films at all.
When I met him last year for his 75th birthday, he seemed frail. There was a sense of urgency. I will miss Stephen. His passing fills me with sadness.
'...Unless we muck up our policies.' 'We have to become a modernised economy.' 'Our institutions should be stronger. And that is most important.' 'The rule of law should prevail and contracts should be enforced.' 'Above all, we have to recognise the importance of globalisation.' 'It is in our favour at this stage. We should grow and become globally competitive.'
'How is it okay for a woman to show her private parts to the world just because she wants to go to the toilet?' 'She can't show her face -- you want her to pull her ghoongat till her navel -- but you are okay with her flashing to everybody!'
The attempts to unearth the document started getting more and more frantic. The clerks began to flip pages of files full of documents, some hand written, some bearing thick seals or multiple stamps, some in Hindi, some in Marathi. Several junior lawyers joined in, perusing different files and dockets. But in spite of the best of efforts the document was not to be found.
The best analysis of politics does not come out of air conditioned newsrooms, but from the voices on India's streets. Rakesh Kumar Singhal -- once an army jawan, then an ONGC employee, then a tea shopwallah -- reveals why he left the Congress for Modi.
Mumbai's Santosh Gaikwad is on a mission to preserve India's wildlife for future generations, says Nikita Puri.
Superstar Rajinikanth needs a box-office hit after two successive flops in Kochchadaiyaan and Lingaa, both 2014. Yet, Kabali is being projected as if the fans need the film, and the Tamil film industry needs it even more, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In our special series re-visiting great Hindi film classics, we look back at Sunny Deol and Dimple Kapadia starrer Arjun, 1985.
A Mughal-era manuscript filled with Indian miniatures discovered locked up in a cupboard inside a rural England castle is now up for sale at Sotheby's upcoming auction in London.
'With his envious academic record, extraordinary research calibre and unparalleled work experience, we can trust him to become the first Indian -- fully Indian, not one of those Americans of Indian origin -- to win the Nobel Prize in Economics,' says Sudhir Bisht.
Dum Laga Ke Haisha is so simple that it never gives you a single moment of unpredictability, writes Raja Sen.
Journalist-turned-activist Teesta Setalvad in her new book 'Foot Soldier of the Constitution: A Memoir' has spoken of the rise of communalism and the aftermath of the '02 Godhra riots. In this interview with Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf, she discusses her book, the cases against her and the state of secularism in the country.
It would seem that Indrani's application was not something prepared or maybe even sanctioned by her lawyers and was a courtroom enterprise she had embarked on by herself, perhaps not realising it distracted from the main business of the trial and didn't help her cause.
Sanaya Dalal on feminism, France and the burqa
In India post the success of masala and green bonds on the LSE, Nikhil Rathi tells Rajesh Bhayani that there are many international investors interested in buying into the India story
In insight into PNS Ghazi, the Pakistan Navy's prized submarine that now lies embedded in the Vizag seabed about 1.5 nautical miles from the breakwaters.
