'The Galwan crisis involves the security of the nation, can't we spend eight hours on that?' 'Why are you scared? Why are you running away from that?
P Murugesan has been sending telegrams for 33 years in rural Tamil Nadu. He remembers hectic marriage seasons, many moons ago, when everyone sent telegrams. And days when even 15 Morse machines could not handle the load...
'You have to get past the phobia that Math is difficult.' 'The brain is exercising when you do arithmetic.'
'The AIADMK gets votes from all sections of the minorities.' 'By aligning with the BJP the AIADMK stands to lose that vote'
'The people who stay with us were not born orphans; they have been abandoned.'
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com recalls how Kanyakumari MP H Vasanthakumar, the first parliamentarin to die of Covid-related complications, would address his constituents by their names, making it a point to ask after their work and family.
'Our clients need business. For business you need workers and so we decided to help'
'The prime minister bought spectacles from Germany to see the eclipse, but he cannot see that an eclipse has fallen on the country.'
B V Srinivas and his team of volunteers are able to procure and pass medical supplies, including oxygen cylinders delivery at doorsteps and securing hospital admissions for COVID patients.
'I don't know who is deciding Indian foreign policy today. I don't know who is deciding how India deals with Pakistan,' former Union minister Ram Jethmalani takes on the Modi government.
'I must have done a lot of good deeds because of which I was getting the chance to talk to such a mahapurush.'
'I don't think after Amma, the cult of personality will endure.' 'I think there will be a shift back to the politics of ideology and principles rather than a cult of personality.'
Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar, mingles with the unceasing flow of people outside Rajaji Hall in Cjhennai, that come for one last look at J Jayalalithaa.
Large number of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supporters have been waiting anxiously outside the Apollo Hospital in Chennai since Sunday night for information on ailing chief minister and party supremo Jayalaithaa who suffered a cardiac arrest after days of showing improvement.
The Lankans had to pay Indian human smugglers Rs 50,000 per head for the arduous and risky journey to Australia.
'In spite of her superstar status, she was always polite and soft spoken.'
'People will vote for Rajinikanth without expecting any money.'
'We have created fear in the minds of villagers so that they don't indulge in wrongdoing. We have already seized Rs 1 crore of bribe money,' Madurai Superintendent of Police Vijayendra Bidari tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar.
'The DMK may get a little more than 50% of the minority vote.' 'The AIADMK always gets over 10% of the minority vote.'
'Jail was very crowded, we were 56 people crammed together. All 56 of us had to use only one toilet'
I&B ministry refuses to respond to striking FTII students, who insist that Gajendra Chauhan has to go.
Migrant workers. Poor students. School dropouts. Impoverished women. Daniel Ponraj and his Shubh Sandesh Foundation are helping them all.
Former supercop Rakesh Maria on the challenges of fighting crime.
To escape charges in a rape case, a man in Tamil Nadu commits a murder.
'All I want the government to do is to make sure that the children whose parents are seriously ill don't lose their jobs for looking after their parents.'
Rajinikanth will win the elections whenever they are held, predicts A Ganesh Nadar.
While the crowds outside the AIADMK HQ seem to have taken victory for granted, a small crowd out the DMK HQ refuses to concede. A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com reports from Chennai.
Indian Council of Historical Research Member-Secretary Gopinath Ravindran was heckled last week after he sought to differ from views expressed by David Frawley, an American who stressed on extensive Vedic studies in India at a lecture series in New Delhi.
'When you can use Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar's names why can't you use Dr Kalam's name?' 'The idea is to take Dr Kalam's vision to the people. Elections will come and go, but the vision will stand.'
Riyaaz Amlani, who owns 40 restaurants, tells A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com what readers need to do to get ahead.
'It is only natural that in such a national crisis, we should lend a helping hand to the less privileged members of our communities.'
A Ganesh Nadar, who once met V Prabhakaran at the LTTE's press conference in Jaffna, feels Madras Cafe is not at all about the Tigers.
V Chinnadurai and S Swetha wanted their wedding to be memorable. So this is what they did.
'Companies are threatening to terminate them or putting them on unpaid leave.'
There are three Vijays! Each Vijay has his own heroine and each couple gets a song. Otherwise, it's the same old songs and the same old Vijay, sighs A Ganesh Nadar.
Functioning from 8 am to 8 pm, it deals only with mental stress
'The biggest agitation in Tamil Nadu -- after the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965 -- were the Jallikattu protests. The anti-Hindi agitations had the backing of a political party but this one does not. No famous actor is involved in it either. It was an incredible agitation.'
'It shows that they cannot manage the situation with the forces in their hand.'
'Even as the National Guard kept up the show of strength, safety was kept in mind.' 'Their guns were not loaded. They didn't want to scare people unless they posed a threat.'
Farming and debt go together in Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur district. There are those who have learnt to live with it and others like Alagar who could not cope with the loss.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances