Shuma Raha finds out how writers are using social media to produce bestsellers.
Generations of Indians don't quite grasp that there would barely be an India had it not been for the Sardar whose steadfastness and guile stitched together that which had been united only in philosophy and spirituality and sometimes not even then -- for thousands of years. A fascinating excerpt from Hindol Sengupta's The Man Who Saved India, Sardar Patel and His Idea of India.
'Testing is a very good strategy if only symptomatic people are transmitting the disease.' 'Here asymptomatic people, with minimum, trivial symptoms, are transmitting too.' 'Testing, treating, tracing contacts and quarantining them -- yes, it will work up to a certain extent.' 'But more important is physical distancing, hand hygiene, cough etiquette and cocooning, protecting with reverse quarantining the most vulnerable people, senior citizens, people with other major medical problems.' 'To me, that makes much more sense.'
What happens when a Delhi professor is given the rare opportunity to travel with the Pakistan army along the LoC? Find out in this fascinating excerpt from Happymon Jacob's book, The Line of Control: Travelling With The Indian And Pakistani Armies.
Kolkata's creme de la creme turned up at the launch of Bandhan, The Making of a Bank, but the evening nevertheless had an informal touch typical of the young bank with CMD Chandra Shekhar Ghosh personally welcoming the dignitaries, reports Indrani Roy/Rediff.com.
Now comes news that, for the first time ever, a major Hollywood release will hit India's shores before it launches domestically in the US, a true milestone for conscious Indian moviegoers. The record-setting film? It's the next James Bond installment, Quantum of Solace, which premieres here on November 7.
'Nehru once told JRD, "I hate the mention of the very word profit".' '"Jawaharlal, I am talking about the need of the public sector making a profit!" JRD replied.' 'Nehru reiterated, "Never talk to me about the word profit, it is a dirty word".' A fascinating excerpt from Shashank Shah's The Tata Group: From Torchbearers To Trailblazers.
Sir Mark Tully on the magic of Indian elections. A fascinating excerpt from The Great March of Democracy: Seven Decades of India's Elections.
Sridevi had updated her art to become more contemporary than current actors. She was new-age and yet vintage. By making the predictable so precious, she makes it a scene that could hold its head high anywhere in world cinema.
Biden, 77-year-old the former US vice president, is ahead of Trump, a Republican, in the Northern battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as in the states of Florida and Arizona, according to a poll of likely voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena College.
Nearly 31 million Indians are unemployed and looking for jobs. While economic growth has been humming along, the pace of job creation has been poor. A revealing excerpt from Dev Kar's India: Still A Shackled Giant.
Don't try to be a super woman. You must listen to your body, says Dr Mahima Bakshi.
With her various overtures and right noises at the right time, Mamata is once again trying to reshape her image from being a regional leader to one with national appeal and acceptability. After all, the charge of building a Federal Front may also bring to the fore Mamata's chances to become prime minister in 2019.
'New Delhi showed itself willing -- at least for a period -- to tolerate the risk of conflict and to withstand Beijing's implicit and explicit threats.' 'But it also continued to try to cut some kind of deal with China to reduce tensions.'
Junaid was my son. He was son and brother also to the people on the train compartment of his last journey. He was son or brother also of those at the railway station where he breathed his last breath. This moving excerpt from Harsh Mander's Partitions Of The Heart: Unmaking The Idea Of India reveals why we must immediately end the hatred surging across north India before it consumes us all.
Mallya understood, astutely, that the Dhingras were very keen to acquire Berger Paints. He upped his asking price. The figure Vijay asked for was found to be much more than what Kuldip and Gurbachan had anticipated. A fascinating excerpt from Sonu Bhasin's Unstoppable: Kuldip Singh Dhingra And The Rise Of Berger Paints.
At a time when the Kashmir valley has been shut down, it is perhaps appropriate that we remember Lal Ded, Kashmir's best known spiritual and literary figure, someone remembered with divine adoration both by Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir. A fascinating excerpt from Sandhya Mulchandani's For The Love Of God: Women Poet Saints Of The Bhakti Movement.
If your case is picked up for random scrutiny, any of the tricks that you or your financial advisor may have used to avoid tax will be easily detected.
'It was the Mughals who first established standard units of measurement and maintained offices of meticulous record keepers and auditors, departing from the more haphazard methods of earlier regimes.' 'By the end of the 16th century, their revenue and judicial administrations exhibited an obsessive preoccupation with order, the efficient management of time, and a spirit of rational self-control -- all of them characteristics of early modernity,' point out Sheldon Pollock and Benjamin Ellman.
The 38-year-old singer randomly walked in and gave an impromptu performance, without any heads up.
'Like a madman, I was meeting everybody who ever knew me and getting numbers. I used to text them and ask for work.' 'I would randomly land on different sets and meet people.'
A Bihar court on Tuesday ordered that an FIR be registered against Maggi brand ambassadors Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta and arrest the cinestars.
'This (opposition to the project) is not just architects, but everyone needs to know more.' 'We need to be allowed to participate, maybe, you can ignore what we have to say, that's your decision.' 'At least follow the process.
'Any conventional conflict could trigger a nuclear war with results that neither India nor Pakistan could survive easily.' >A revealing excerpt from Shuja Nawaz's The Battle For Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship And A Tough Neighbourhood.
Naramalli Sivaprasad's over-the-top style of protest has become a unique tool to generate attention at the national level.
'Captain Haneef-ud-din, pulling his sinewy body forward, crawled, rifle in hand, in the snow on 6 June 1999. He died on this craggy mountainside exactly two years after he had passed out of the IMA...'
Long before he launched Paytm, Vijay Shankar Sharma, a 32 year old from Aligarh, embarked on his ambitious entrepreneurial journey.
'Hina Khan is bossy.' 'Sapna is playing a smart game.' 'Hiten has maintained his class and dignity.'
Shehla doesn't and has never shied away from talking the tough talk and walking the tough walk, says Gurmehar Kaur.
'This proved that whatever was growing in the mosquito's gut was a parasite -- it was almost certainly the malarial parasite.'
'At a time when our world has been rattled in ways we have never encountered before, these mornings have been my window into a universe where all that matters is living in the moment,' says Veenu Sandhu.
We bring you this excerpt from Anurag Garg's latest book Love not for Sale.
A lowdown on what's happening in Hollywood.
Intrapreneurs are more diverse in their skill sets and backgrounds, more digitally native, more networked and connected, and more ambitious to do bigger things. A fascinating excerpt from Simone Ahuja's Jugaad 3.0: Hacking The Corporation To Make It Fast, Fluid And Frugal.
'Although the Election Commission remains convinced about the EVM's integrity, as a fair umpire of the game it was necessary to travel the last mile to convince political players that the entire process was not only fair but transparently so.' A fascinating excerpt from former Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's new book, Excerpted from Every Vote Counts: The Story Of India's Elections.
Chidambaram has been magnanimous in endorsing my book, says the former RBI Governor D Subbarao.
'Scenes of self-destruction are exhausting after a point. At nearly three hours, Kabir Singh's belligerence is too much to bear,' says Sukanya Verma.
When submitting house rent allowance receipts, claiming that you pay rent to a close relative like parents, siblings or spouse, ensure that you have supporting documents to substantiate it.
Indira Kannan picks Made in Bangladesh, Greed, Moothon.
A lot of people only associate him with his music. And, obviously, he's a great musician. But Rahman, above all else, is a living example of spiritual equilibrium and intrinsic human goodness. A fascinating excerpt from Krishna Trilok's Notes Of A Dream: The Authorized Biography Of A R Rahman.