They dampened the local spirits by knocking out India but a resurrected West Indies cricket team will bring its own brand of joie-de-vivre to the ICC World Twenty20 summit clash when they take on a transformed England in what promises to be a battle of power-hitting at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.
'Every Ali obituary I read made the point that he 'transcended his sport' -- a reference to the many battles he fought with America even as he fought in America.' 'What the obituaries leave out is that Ali equally transcended the boundaries of geography and of information -- as witness the Chennai teen who assimilated that most mobile of fighters through still images shorn of context.'
'The obsession of the Pakistan army with India leads to several destabilising things. Support for the Taliban in Afghanistan. Support for groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, that have attacked India. Every time you get an attack like that there is a possibility of a war. And then the build up of the their nuclear arsenals. Chances of a nuclear weapon landing in the hands of a terrorist group, or a nuclear war breaking out, are tiny. But they are higher here than anywhere else in the world.'
Amitabh Bachchan talks about Te3n, Aaradhya and actors he would love to work with!
Here's your weekly digest of the most weird, true and funny news from the across the globe.
The key to every Daniel Day-Lewis performance was a big theme and a thousand details. And in the final phase of his acting career, says Sreehari Nair, America became his big theme, and the details... well, he just popped them out like waffles.
'This slender yet joyous film introduces so many fresh insanities and has such an endless stream of wisecracking that it takes on shades of a running ballad,' notes Sreehari Nair.
Here are some of the best images of winners and finalists.
Finally to end the dispute, Sharma threatened to show her shoes. Pasbola declared regally that he would like to forgo that particular honour. Sharma ignored him. Instead, she bent down, took off her shoe and triumphantly held her prize aloft, and said delightedly, "Yeh dekhiye! (Have a look!)"
'The Panchsheel Agreement is unique in the annals of international relations as it stands out as a bizarre illustration of a prime minister trading his country's crucial national interests solely to buffer his personal international image,' feels R N Ravi.
Stunning photos have revealed incredible secrets of the underwater world, with the winners of the 2018 Underwater Photographer of the Year award announced. German photographer Tobias Friedrich has been named Underwater Photographer of the Year 2018. More than 5,000 images were submitted this year by photographers from around the world. UPY was once again kind enough to share some of this year's honourees with us below, with captions written by the photographers.
How many of these have aged well?
'She was the only prime minister who won a decisive military victory.' 'She won a real war; she didn't play video games on prime time TV over surgical strikes!' 'She understood power better than any other politician, saw it as her birthright and used it with inborn expertise.' 'Every politician today who tries to be a "supremo" through populism and absolute control over his or her party is referring to the Indira Gandhi playbook!'
Here's celebrating Dilip Kumar by re-visiting his best movies.
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest stories from around the world.
Away from the cricket field, it was a year in which Sania Mirza was unarguably the biggest success story with her staggering 10 titles on the Tour -- two of them Grand Slams.
With nearly a million identified slums, UP urgently requires housing for the poor
Naomi Mihara and Ritu Panchal report from Nepal to provide a more humane picture about the conditions on the ground and how the local populace is trying to cope with it.
'When I was staying in Teen Batti (in south Mumbai), I had one washroom and we were 10 people. Today I have three washrooms and I am the only one using all of them. Can you see the quantum leap that I have taken in life?' Jackie Shroff gets candid.
Courage beyond Compare, as the name suggests, profiles Indian paralympic sports stars who despite physical disability, have fought the odds to become world class, champion athletes.
What is Change really like in Bihar? Once seen as India's basket-case, what is its turnaround story like?
It's perverse to rationalise 'controlled' killings or torture -- without going down a slippery moral slope. Once the state stoops to torture, it's liable to sink into tyranny, says Praful Bidwai.
'Nehru had multiple chances to make compromises, that would have preserved a united India, and he chose not to,' Nisid Hajari tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com
What is Change really like in Bihar? Once seen as India's basket-case, what is its turnaround story like? Archana Masih reports from India's other most talked about state.