Dussehra marks the slaying of the demon Mahishasura by the goddess Chamundeshwari, or Durga.
Sharma walked out a free man from Tihar Jail on Friday night after serving close to 23 years for killing his wife Naina Sahni and then trying to dispose of her body in a tandoor in 1995 at the roof of erstwhile 4-star hotel Ashok Yatri Niwas, now Royal Plaza, at Ashok Road in the heart of the capital.
Awful religious practices need to be abolished. But through social and political reformers, not by courts, argues Shekhar Gupta.
The charm of Kolkata is still alive says Sumit Ganguli.
'Goddess Laxmi doesn't come just by praying to her.' 'You have to make yourself attractive to Laxmi for her to come to you.'
A home ministry official said while 9,000 Tablighi Jamaat members and their primary contacts have been quarantined till now across the country due to "massive efforts" to check the outbreak, the Centre has written to all states and union territories that "the lockdown measures should be implemented in letter and spirit".
With relief yet to reach them after 13 days since the devastating earthquake, villagers of Pikhel claim the government is unconcerned about their well-being since they belong to the Dalit community. Anusha Subramanian reports
If the wave has become a tsunami, why is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate playing safe by polarising voters along communal lines, asks Bharat Bhushan.
There is a deep-seated sense of rejection that the new generation Tamil youth have felt for a decade and more now, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Genuine secularism cannot be built on the backs of Hindus alone.' 'In a pluralistic society every religion is duty bound to respect the rights and sentiments of the others.' 'Vande Mataram was a casualty of minorityism. Bharat Mata Ki Jai cannot be allowed to go the same way,' says Vivek Gumaste.
Be it doormats, toiletries or beachwear, the moment these products have sketches of Indian idols, they become a rage in western markets.
Why starve while fasting when you can feast on these nutritious goodies?
The party office in Lucknow buzzed with activity as enthusiastic Congress workers gathered outside the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee building, even before she returned from an overnight stay in Jaipur.
'If the government has not listened to scientists, it must.' 'It's obvious that this is a science-driven campaign (fight), a science-driven situation.' 'We cannot afford to ignore the science.'
Rediff.com lists a few temples that shun tradition and prefer a rather unusual look. Here are some of the world's most bizarre places of worship.
Telugu Desam Party MP Naramalli Sivaprasad has been donning various outfits in order to protest and demand special status for Andhra Pradesh.
Celebrations in Mutharamman Temple in Kulasekharapattinam, a coastal town in Tamil Nadu, have devotees visit the temple in an avatar of their choice. They could be dressed as kings or beggars, monkeys or demons, but the more popular is different forms of the Devi.
Here's how Bollywood stars spent the weekend in various parts of Mumbai.
'Who will cast me?'
'It's all about how many Instagram followers you have, which ramp you're walking on,' the actress who is sensational in Sacred Games tells Rediff.com's Ronjita V Kulkarni.
Could the Haji Ali dargah verdict be the beginning of the end of all social discrimination -- against women, against Dalits, the low castes and the caste-less, asks Durba Dhyani.
Accusing Narendra Modi of using religion for canvassing by putting out Lord Ram's portrait in the backdrop at his Faizabad rally, Congress on Monday approached Election Commission demanding registration of an FIR against him and other party leaders as well as derecognition of BJP.
'How many people have died in India so far due to Covid?' 'Multiply that by at least four, and that many people in intense grief are there in the country.'
'What is happening is worse than Talibanisation.' 'There is no way a film-maker can fight these fringe groups, these extra-constitutional authorities.'
As Melania Trump arrives in Ahmedabad, Sheela Bhatt offers the First Lady Of The United States a primer on one of India's oldest, and historic, cities.
Four women activists tried to offer prayers at the famous Shani temple in Ahmednagar district where the move last month by a woman to defy convention and offer obeisance at the shrine triggered a debate on gender discrimination.
India is celebrating one of its biggest festivals commemorating the victory of good over evil. In Bihar, which is in the middle of its biggest election campaign, festivities are in full swing. Archana Masih set out to capture the mood on the street of small town India and discovered some things that one no longer finds.
'My aim is that the message from our ancient texts reach the younger generation of Indians.' 'The trouble is that our literature is in Sanskrit and scientists don't know the language. And the people who know Sanskrit they don't know science.'
Reddy alone will take oath on Thursday while his Council of Ministers is likely to be constituted on June 7, party sources said.
The desecration of Vidyasagar's statue during Amit Anilchandra Shah's rally, which the TMC projected to be a 'Bhojpuri' and 'Dhokla' invasion on West Bengal's culture, may help her gain some favour with middle-class and erudite Bengalis in the last phase of the polls.
Twenty-year-old Sheetal Jain is the daughter of a bar dancer and grew up in Mumbai's red light district. She is now in the US pursuing a course in drumming
'Nawaz, who plays my husband, doesn't look at women when he has sex with them.' 'He never kisses them.' 'That moment when I am in front of him is decisive,' the New Wave actress tells Subhash K Jha.
Just as the superstars of Indian cricket only play IPL and international fixtures and ignore the Ranji and Mushtaq Ali trophies in domestic cricket, Narendra Modi should play a very limited role in state assembly elections, argues Sudhir Bisht.
In the documentary The World Before Her, a young girl has to submit to the will of her father for a most gut-wrenching reason: 'He let me live... I am a girl... but he let me live.' Is that reason enough, asks Suparn Verma.
It took Gour Hari Das three decades to wrangle out a certificate recognising his work as a freedom fighter. His struggle is now the subject of a film
'Mamata has used minorities only as her vote bank.' 'In her entire election campaign Mamata did not utter a single sentence against the RSS.'
Ranbir Kapoor's superhero movie Brahmastra has been in the making for such a long time that even he is tired of the delay.
This piece is a tribute to that corner of film criticism that they call subtextual film criticism.
On Thursday, Indrani will be obligated to change into the green uniform sari she receives visitors in, as per jail rules, and meet the gentlemen from the income tax department. She may also at some point on Thursday video conference with Delhi in the INX Media-Karti Chidambaram case where she might become an approver.
Forget Munnar and Manali, these places in India are worth your time.
Satvik food is de rigueur this time of the year in most Western and Northern Indian homes, say chefs and food historians Arundhuti Dasgupta and Shally Seth Mohile.
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