'Amazingly, along with the yellow army, there was still a huge number of desis, who had flown in from various parts of the world. No, we didn't sell our tickets -- we just changed our colours, for the day,' says Swapna Mitter, who was at the World Cup Final.
'Despite the BJP's successes at the state-level, replicating their 282-seat majority in 2019 is going to be an uphill climb.'
Nanak Chand Sharma did not lose his nerve when terrorists attacked his bus and drove 76 passengers to safety.
'Godse is no more, but the mindset which gave birth to such distorted philosophy is unfortunately still with us.'
'Masarat Alam is today one of the the undisputed leaders of Kashmir's Islamists. And all he had to do was to get someone to hold up a flag. He has accurately placed us and we can look forward to many more years of this from him.'
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh interacts with readers on Rediff Chat as he discusses the period that changed India's history, forever.
'When I see the final moments of Padmaavat, it reminds me of how strong and powerful and intelligent women are.' 'I feel so powerful and alive as a woman.'
'He depended too much on assurances given by sadhus and sants. He may not be culpable, but he was wholly responsible for December 6, 1992.' 'While Manmohan Singh came to reforms out of conviction, Rao came to reforms out of compulsion. If the compulsion had not been there, I don't know how he would have responded.'
The meeting between the two leaders lasted about 20 minutes.
Here is the full transcript of Congress vice president and Lok Sabha poll campaign chief Rahul Gandhi's first formal TV interview with Times Now Editor-In-Chief Arnab Goswami.
Borschberg is keen on the halt in Varanasi as a spiritual stopover.
'She leaned forward and asked what I'd want -- and I said, "your blessings".' 'She smiled and replied, "You already have that, but tell me how I can help you".' Commonwealth gold medalist and Arjuna Awardee Roopa Unnikrishnan recalls how Jayalalithaa took her breath away.
'Some in the Congress believe the party should, somewhat brazenly, claim the cause of fighting corruption as its own. But the Congress's idea of fighting corruption is nothing but tinkering with laws, it lacks the stomach to take on the corrupt,' feels T V R Shenoy.
'I have been managing people since I was very young. I really enjoy it.' 'For me, age is only a proxy for experience.'
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In India, the need to find a solution for the jobs problem is perhaps even more urgent considering the oft-quoted number of a million young people arriving every month looking for jobs.
'The entire journey was beautifully nourished and I was very lucky that Lion came out the way it did. Otherwise, I would have really regretted it.' Priyanka Bose is ready to take her film Lion to the Oscars.
'There were certain ideals and morals that I had started bending as I was climbing up in the industry.' 'I was unknowingly hurting people close to me, unknowingly treating people the way I wouldn't want to be treated myself.' 'But I am not that person and I didn't start off like that.' 'Then the introspection began.' 'Very rarely does that happen when you do a film.' 'I was feeling unhappy as a person. Now I am much happier.'
'Engagement should never stop.' 'Reassure Kashmiris that they will be treated at par with the rest of India.' 'The peace you crave will be peace with honour.' 'Your special status will not be tinkered with.'
'Till the time the MSM and Modi don't trust one another, expect more Nirmala Sitharamans springing out from nowhere,' says Sudhir Bisht.
Former India cricketers Bishan Singh Bedi and Kirti Azad slammed the proxy voting system in the Delhi and District Cricket Association polls, saying it proved to be a major factor in their defeat.
'Well begun is half done, today there are more hits than misses by the Modi government in its support towards science in India,' says Pallava Bagla.
The Modi wave has blotched the Congress party's copybook. For the first time since the Lok Sabha was constituted in 1952, the party has failed to secure enough seats to be designated as a parliamentary party, notes A Surya Prakash.
'Rather than an outcome of 'pro-incumbency', the exit poll results betray a completely lackadaisical approach of the Opposition parties.' 'While a new kind of politics was on display for the past five years, they were still mired in their old-style methods which will cost them the election,' predicts Utkarsh Mishra.
'I like the thought that I am competing successfully with writers much younger than me,' says Ruskin Bond.
Maruti Warke's basic understanding illustrated how far outside the system most less privileged Indians are -- simple, innocent people barely but admirably eking out an existence, with almost no knowledge of their surroundings or owning even the basic smarts to go about life. The same people who instinctively and often astutely vote governments into and out of office in New Delhi without knowing the entire reality of this country. The folks who are actually the essence of India.
Dr P K Menon, Chief Scientist and CEO, Optimal Synthesis Inc, who worked with Dr A P J Abdul Kalam early on in his career, recalls what it was like working for his first boss.
How did Greece, the country of Archimedes and Socrates and Plato and Pythagoras, come to such dire straits, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
From small retailers' experiences with e-wallets to digital transaction numbers post demonetisation, Geetanjali Krishna and Karan Choudhury find out where the truth lies.
'Politics is about caste in Eastern UP and religion in Western UP.' Rediff.com's Archana Masih gets a sense of the fault lines in this election's most volatile region -- that can make or break the future of political parties in UP.
'The ISI has given a stunning display of its capacity to do with impunity what it likes within Kabul. Incensed over the triumphalism of the hardliners in Kabul, the ISI has hit out; it is a typical ISI reflex action that Indians are familiar with,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The partnership of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi has made their biggest mistake. They have been very successful for their party in the last two years, but this batting pair has made the biggest political mistake of their life so far, which is calling Kejriwal a chor. It will backfire on them.'
What happened in Uttarakhand is a national tragedy. Why couldn't Dr Manmohan Singh announce that he was forming an Uttarakhand Relief and Rehabilitation Committee, with himself as chairman but inviting Narendra Modi to become the deputy chairman, asks T V R Shenoy.
The full text of the speech delivered by VVS Laxman at the Pataudi Memorial Lecture in Kolkata.
'I see you as a man who has split the nation into two. Vajpayee or even Advani would hold it together. One senses you cannot do this. To heal, to apologise, and to glue together a nation seems beyond you,' Shiv Visvanathan tells the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
'After the 2002 riots when the media and other political parties started blaming Modiji, thousands of people like us -- now, it must be crores of us -- started becoming staunch supporters of Modiji. The more you blamed him the more of our support he gained.' Pramod Singh of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh is one of Narendra Modi's biggest fans and a member of Modi's India272 Web initiative, spreading the leader's message on social media and the Internet.
Celebrated chef Gaggan Anand answered readers' queries on June 9. For those who missed the live chat, here is the unedited chat transcript.
'Mary just stopped talking to me. Maybe she did not like the fact that she was the gold medallist, but it was me (Sarita), not her, who was getting all the attention.'
Most yoga teachers are not driven towards popular acclaim or fame. But Bellur Krishnamachar Sunderaraja Iyengar was goaded by the challenge to prove himself to all those who had dismissed him as a madcap yogi in the early days, and by a burning need to make yoga available to all.
The last seven Indian sailors held hostage by Somali pirates were released October 30. Chirag Bahri, Indian coordinator for the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme that aids piracy survivors and their families, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com on how the near-impossible was achieved.
