Defying prohibitory orders, protests were held in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and several other cities. Protesters, mostly students and activists, were detained on a large scale in national capital and other places.
Vaihayasi Pande Daniel -- who covers the Sheena Bora murder trial for Rediff.com -- reports on a day in a Ranchi court.
'Our Lockdown Life has a sort of schizophrenic, Dr-Jekyll-and-Mr-Hyde personality about it,' says Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
'There were times when my courage and confidence would fail and I was close to giving up,' says Jyoti Kumari who wanted to bring her father home safely. So she began the cycle ride of her life.
The Musahars, still regarded as 'untouchables' in the state, usually hunt rats for food in the paddy fields.
Sheela Bhatt visits a large urban basti a mere 20-minute drive from the prime minister's home to discover a story of grim struggle in the time of lockdown.
From round-the-clock surveillance of people and equipment to choosing the right materials for the building that contains the servers that store data, these facilities are truly state-of-the-art.
'The producer will wear these gold ornaments, but they will not part with Rs 30,000 or Rs 50,000 to pay the writer.'
Trepidation made its home firmly on his face on Thursday, announcing its presence with lines of anxiety and the repeated jumpy widening of his eyes.
Old songs, retro fashion, 1980s pop culture, childhood icons and sharing space with Kundan Shah on paper, the theme of Sukanya Verma's super-filmi week was consistently nostalgic.
'My confidence in the Indian judiciary is absolute after I saw justice being delivered in Gujarat even when a BJP government was ruling the state. The Muslims of Gujarat believed that they will never get justice in a BJP-ruled state, but the facts are before all of us to make a judgment.'
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.
It is a sight that both warms and breaks the heart. The women of Shaheen Bagh seem oblivious of the cold, these women and their children, the latter ranging in age from 19 days to early teens, who have been occupying the road for over two weeks now. Some of them have not gone home for days, but their faces are clear, unlined by fatigue, their eyes bright and fierce as those of the falcon, shaheen, the area is named for.
The most thrilling, romantic, terrifying, musical and comical tring tring moments!
If Kishore Kumar were alive today, he would have turned 90 on August 4.
Half of the screenplay's job is done the minute Dilip Kumar's hypnotising gaze falls on Nargis. The screen bubbles with intense chemistry and sexual tension every time this incredibly handsome pair converse from a distance. Revisiting Kidar Sharma's 1950 classic, Jogan.
In the 2012 election, the BJP's performance was the poorest in Purvanchal, winning only 12 of the region's 112 seats. Will 2017 be different? Will the party ride on Varanasi MP Narendra Modi's charisma?
'Compared to other social groups, managing the Muslim constituency has always been easier for the secularists.' 'Just some symbolic measures and window-dressing would keep the Muslim flock together.' 'Having been betrayed by all the supposedly 'secular' political parties, Muslims should turn into citizens without any ascriptive identity marks,'says Mohammad Sajjad.
'The blood that runs in the veins of our family can never be anti-national.' 'They called Kanhaiya a traitor for questioning the Indian Army. Do they know that our cousin was killed by militants in Manipur while serving with the CRPF?' Archana Masih/Rediff.com travelled to the land of Lal Salam, Lal Sitara and comrades to find out what moulded India's most talked about student leader, Kanhaiya Kunar.
'I cried after my elimination from Indian Idol because I had got used to the lavish lifestyle, the good food, good hotels, good clothes and I was going to miss that.' Shivam Pathak returns to the good life, thanks to his hit music in Mary Kom.
'There has never been a problem between Hindu and Muslims in Kairana.' 'We are a people that smoke from the same hookah.' Once the seat of an influential tradition of Indian classical music, Kairana has become a metaphor for the exodus of Hindus.
'I'm not withdrawing any allegations. I want those CDRs (Peter's call data records).' 'Those are my feelings.'
Does India's first majoritarian government that is hard-focused on economic development have it in it to provide the Muslim community the healing touch? On evidence available so far, I am not hopeful at all. Yet, like the besieged community, I too find it impossible to abandon hope in the land's millennia-old syncretic traditions, says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'I sometimes fight with God and tell him, "Bahut ho gaya yaar, I should go now, call me".'
'When I was younger, 15 years or 20 years seemed like a really long time. But, as you journey though life, you don't realise where the years disappear...'
'He never believes in loose talk.' 'If he is done with you, then you go your way, he goes his way.'
'I never imagined I would be a father and complete my family without getting married.' 'I'm privileged that my parents supported me, a lot of people don't have that.'
Giving up cricket isn't easy for a cricketer especially when you are the son of a cricket legend.
Aamir Khan tells Urvi Parekh why his next release is probably one of the most important films he has made.
Vinita Bisht and Vinita Kamte lost their husbands -- one an NSG commando, the other an IPS officer -- in the 26/11 terror attack. Six years later, Archana Masih/Rediff.com meets them to discover that closure is one of the hardest things to find.
'By the time the ground dries up, considering that the homes are still submerged, winter will be here. By the end of October, it is going to be very, very cold. By the end of November, it will be freezing, and it would have snowed by mid December. So before the ground can dry up, there will be snow.' 'The anger has not receded with the water. It persists. The floods have completely finished whatever 5 per cent chance Omar Abdullah had left with the public... He is seen as someone who is highly arrogant and is coming across as one who has no feelings for his people.' A Kashmiri whose family has lived in J&K since before Partition, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com how the government and media failed the people when flood waters turned Paradise into hell.
