The fact that Bollywood is made up of folks from all across India is evident from the fact they celebrate Lohri, Makar Sankranti and Pongal with equal fevour.
Leaders from different parties on Friday paid tributes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother Hiraben.
'I came to hear you sing Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon. I am glad I have heard you sing.'
'Painting opponents as the enemy of the State, using fake news, making wild allegations about rival parties, curtailing civil liberties and challenging the Constitution itself are worrying developments.'
Speaking with Shekhar Gupta, the Editor-in-Chief and Chairman of The Print, on his Off The Cuff show, the former soldier and two-time chief minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh expressed 'personal' hurt over the way the Gandhis treated him and asked for his resignation.
On the 30th year of India's maiden World Cup triumph, the captain of the team Kapil Dev feels that particular evening at Lord's "changed the dimension" of the game in the country.
While the BJP has taken a beating, its leader still stands tall, points out T N Ninan.
As Pranab Mukherjee steps down as President, we remember the man, the politician, the Rashtrapati.
'Through this one step, and more steps that follow, log judte jayenge (more people will come together); I'm sure of that.'
'He always avoided eating non-vegetarian food in presence of his deputies if they were fasting for the month of Shravan.' 'There were no Hindu, Jain, Parsi and Swaminarayan festivals he would forget.' 'He was a conservative Muslim and therefore could get along well with conservative Hindus.'
Suspended Congress leader claims 100 letters to Sonia Gandhi over leadership change
'If he were to ask me, I would tell Mr Modi that the real Congress legacy he has to undo is not Nehru's social and political philosophy -- which fits India perfectly -- but his daughter's economic philosophy,' says T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
Air Commodore Nitin Sathe discovers how the IAF trained Pakistani air force pilots, during the 1971 War, which led to the birth of the Bangladesh air force.
'We saw how vigorous democracy was when it dislodged authoritarianism under Indira Gandhi. We saw its vigour again when it voted Mr Modi out of humble origins as prime minister. It was Nehru who laid that foundation for India and what is worrying today is Modi's rather imperial style of functioning,' says writer Nayantara Sahgal.
'Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai? Don't you believe it. I don't trust the Chinese one bit,' Nehru told Gopalaswamy Parthasarathi before he traveled to China as India's ambassador. Asking GP to be ever vigilant, Nehru advised the diplomat to send telegrams on important matters only to him. Many such anecdotes from a long and eventful career as diplomat and bureaucrat crowd the pages of GP: 1912-1995, discovers Uttaran Das Gupta.
'Parties which supported me were all threatened. This could hardly have been called a fair election.' 'This is Modi's India.'
This is something that Modi's critics are reluctant to accept: He is the most popular leader that India has seen since Indira Gandhi, says Vir Sanghvi.
'To keep laughing is the most important thing in life.'
The Emergency came as a surprise to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who saw an atmosphere of fear in the country during which there were many "arbitrary arrests and detentions", says a new book on him by his daughter.
'When one was with Mother, one realised you were with somebody who was the nearest person to God.' 'She must have been God incarnate.'
'While the meeting on December 6th was perfectly legal, was it ethical?' asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday ordered an urgent investigation into a decision by Margaret Thatcher's government to send an SAS officer to India in 1984 to advise Indira Gandhi in planning Operation Bluestar to flush out militants holed up in the Golden Temple.
'I reached Bhopal the day after the gas tragedy; the smell was still in the air. It was a professional hazard but I was not scared.'
'Why does Mr Modi only attack Nehru from the Dynasty?' 'At one level, it is pure politics,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'The message has gone loud and clear (among the people of Assam) that the BJP is only interested in polarising (the country) and they are basically interested in (capturing votes in) the Hindi heartland and they don't bother much about rest of India.'
It's something to remember as New Delhi welcomes Sheikh Hasina, says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'My adrenalin kicked in and the happiness returned! It was time to go in for the kill again.' IAF Veterans Group Captain Dilip Kumar Dass tells Air Commodore Nitin Sathe about how the IAF decimated tanks in the famous Battle of Longewala.
Gandhi had decided not to celebrate her birthday because of rape incidents and assaults on women in the country.
5 other politically-charged fashion choices in recent times.
At a press conference held in Jammu, the senior Congress leaders announced the party's decision to end its six year alliance with the National Conference, headed by Farooq Abdullah.
'The first 55 years of Natwar Singh's life give a fascinating narrative of our diplomacy,' says Ambassador B S Prakash after reading One Life is Not Enough.
N Sathiya Moorthy goes back in time to dig up three cases that may not have any citation in legal text-books or lawyers' ready-reckoners quoted before courts but which may still have a bearing on the current case against the arrested activists.
'What hurts people most is dynastic impulses and corruption under a family-ruled Congress party -- and Nehru has borne the brunt of it... I cannot be blinded by how the Nehru family has functioned but just as Gandhi can't be judged by his descendents, why should Nehru?' asks political scientist Ashutosh Varshney.
There are so many patriotic songs that make us proud to be Indians.
'Even if a dog dies, a condolence message is sent by Delhi leaders. But I am hurt that 600 farmers have died but no resolution was passed in Parliament'
What better occasion than International Women's Day to take a look?
Modi accused the Congress of criticising EVMs and the functioning of the Election Commission after they were reduced to 44 seats from 400 in Lok Sabha. "They did not question the EVMs after the recent Karnataka elections," he added.
Rahul Gandhi's blunt denouncement of the ordinance on lawmakers was rubbished by the opposition with the Bharatiya Janata Party calling it a "desperate and belated" damage control exercise and saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should quit if he had any self-respect.
The opening speech Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi gave while chairing the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies' 20th anniversary lecture -- Globalisation, Justice and Rights, which was delivered by Professor Thomas Pogge of the Yale University.
The petitioners claim the summons was served via hospital staff, a claim refuted by sources close to the Congress president. George Joseph reports from New York.
