'My life has been quite difficult. I felt I could see it in words. I thought if everyone else can write, then I can too.'
He was a storyteller who made me feel the pulse of history, the stakes of human ambition, and the thrill of a well-told tale. Prem Panicker recalls his debt to Frederick Forsyth, who passed away on Monday.
'I always considered him as a director, never an actor. Do you know he always considered other actors for his films first?' 'For Pyaasa, he wanted to cast Dilip saab; only when Dilip saab refused did Guru Duttji decide to do the role himself.'
Chandragupta Maurya was the first king to establish an empire in India. He died a monk.
The high point of the 19 Shastri months was the 22-day war that he fought against great odds and won in principle, even if military historians often call it a stalemate. Pakistan saw a great opportunity to conquer Kashmir and lost. It was the last time they had the relative strength militarily and diplomatically to take Kashmir. Shastri's resolve buried that dream forever, points out Shekhar Gupta.
South Indian filmmakers have kept their focus on the single-screen cinemagoer. They have kept their finger on the pulse of the single-screen cinema fan, who goes to movies once a month or more, to forget his weekly chores, explains Ambi Parameswaran.
Rajbaris are a link to Bengal's rich past, of grand mansions, classical fine dining, and allow guests to be pretend zamindars for those few hours or days that they stay.
"Do you want to see real bunnies?" Parisa gasped in surprise. "Real ones?! Yes please!" So off they went, giggling, to the pet shelter behind one of the homes.
Because the aftermath of what happened before continues long after. War breeds hostility and hatred and creates mistrust and greed. It extinguishes humanity and breaks the human spirit, argues Aarti David.
'These characters have huge spirits and they are fighting something that is much bigger than them.' 'The attempt was to portray how they navigate their lives, to retain that spirit and not let it die.'
Maria Goretti and Arshad Warsi have beautifully restored a 150-year-old Portuguese home in the sleepy village of Saligao, Goa, and its unique interiors truly transport you to another world.
Lok Sabha on Monday turned into a battleground for the Delhi assembly polls with Bharatiya Janata Party member Ramvir Singh Bidhuri launching an all-out attack on the Aam Aadmi Party government, alleging that they 'looted' the national capital and turned it into 'hell'.
'I have saved your name on my phone, but I cannot read or pronounce it.' 'I am able to recognise my wife's name today because after seeing it for so long, it has been imprinted in my mind as a picture and not the letters.'
'You have to separate the concept of India as a nation State which is very young and the Upanishadic wisdom which is timeless.'
'Studying was never an important part of our life, surviving was.'
'Thankfully, as Indians, we have a long history of trans people in our culture, in our religions, in our mythology.' 'It's not a fad which has suddenly come into existence, the way that a lot of Americans treat it.'
The National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar has called upon the West Bengal government to "act urgently" to address the grievances of the riot-hit people of Murshidabad district, particularly women. Rahatkar, who visited the riot-affected areas in Murshidabad and Malda over the weekend, said the commission is preparing a report which will be submitted soon to the Centre with copies to top state officials. The report will incorporate the views of women who narrated their ordeal during the violence, including demands for a Border Security Force (BSF) camp in the affected area. Rahatkar also expressed concern about the lack of action by the State Women's Commission in visiting the affected areas.
'It was the toughest of roles because he had to change quickly behind the sofa and come out in the next dress!'
rediffGURU Major Inderpaul Singh (retd) offers career guidance and helps students and individuals handle challenges in their professional lives.
'By extending the definition of 'personal' to include institutions and not just individuals, the State has equipped itself with a tool to block access to most kinds of information.'
The Battle of Lhagyala on November 23, 1962, fought by the 4 Rajput Regiment against the Chinese PLA, remains a forgotten chapter of heroism, with no survivors left to tell their story.
'We go through 18 years of school and college, but we lack many necessary skills.' 'The biggest lessons we need, to live life, are somehow not taught, and they are only learned on the job.' 'My intention, through my content, my books, and my start-ups, is to make college kids become life ready.'
'The Dravidian movement was started for the Hindus who were rejected by the upper castes.'
As Swades turns 20, Aseem Chhabra looks back at the film that spoke to him.
Sudha and Akshata Murthy's candid confessions about each other.
Sally Holkar left America and made India her home nearly 60 years ago. She went on a mission to revive a dying craft and changed the lives of rural weavers.
A young couple sharing a laugh - in the living room over a Polish joke book, on the beach, in the rain - with the tagline, "Made for each other", hung from billboards at prominent street corners from the 1960s to the 1990s. It was a campaign for one of the largest selling cigarette brands in India, Wills (Navy Cut) from the ITC stable, that resonated with a generation of smokers and non-smokers alike till the curtains came down on tobacco advertising in 2004. As we prepare to welcome 2024, ITC has metamorphosed from a tobacco giant into a conglomerate straddling multiple large-sized businesses. In the mind space of Gen Z or millennials, the company represents a gamut of branded products - from frozen food (ITC Master Chef), noodles (YiPPee!), and cookies (Sunfeast) to snacks (Bingo!) and notebooks (Classmate), and so on and so forth.
'Justice may or may not happen, but who are those people who did this to her?' 'If the hospital authorities had helped us that day, or the police, then the real culprits would have been caught.' 'Getting justice for my daughter is my goal now and I want the CM to remember that.'
Dinesh Raheja tips his hat to his favourite Raj Kapoor movie, as we continue celebrating the legend's birth centenary.
'This was a film, a story that had never been told before.'
There is and will be plenty written about Shirish's achievements, his awards, his writing, his talks, the mark he left on this city he knew and understood so well. I know much of that, certainly. All of it speaks of the man he was, and what he meant to so many. Dilip D'Souza pays tributes to Shirish Patel, the legendary urban planner, who passed into the ages last week.
Just as the atom and the byte needed careful societal control to prevent damage to society, perhaps, so does the gene, particularly in debates like 'genes vs merit', explains Ajit Balakrishnan.
'People will say a lot of things -- ignore the noise.'
After losing his driver to Covid, Ahmedabad engineer Shivam Dhruva felt the need to build an app that will provide latest medical updates at the click of a button, free of cost.
Soorma, a dashing six-footer, expressed gratitude towards his family for supporting his and wants to give them back by winning a medal at the Paris Paralympics.
When the landslide hit, Sruthi's house was washed away, along with its inhabitants. She lost her entire family and some relatives. All she had left for a close confidante was her fiance Jenson. Days after the landslide and the loss of her family, Jenson died in a road accident that also left Sruthi with serious injuries. News of the accident and Sruthi's backdrop as the lone surviving member of a family wiped out in the July landslide, was picked up by the media, and people rushed to help.
Run by a former cricketer and son of India's military heroes, Mike's Forest Retreat is an ode to all that we hold dear.
'She never desisted from calling a spade a spade and that's what made her such a unique character.'
As a uniquely multi-hyphenated writer-director-lyricist-author, Gulzar has built a reputation across multiple spheres of film-making and literary creative endeavours. Dinesh Raheja salutes the Master who turns 90 on Sunday.
If you are overweight, you will gradually complain of excruciating knee and joint pain while walking, running, squatting, sitting down and taking the stairs, warns Dr Anup Khatri.
