'His last journey was like putting out the lamps one by one in a temple at night.' 'It was like the soul slowly walking away from the body; it was so pure and peaceful...'
Aruna Anand, Viswanathan Anand's wife and manager, speaks about his preparation ahead of the World Chess Championship against Magnus Carlsen, which begins in Sochi on Friday.
'The government or the ruling party has indicated indirectly that you are not supposed to publish anything critical of the government or the senior functionaries of the government.'
'It will be important strategically and geographically because there is no port in India which is as close to the international shipping route as Vizhinjam.'
'It's a clear case of political patronage helping an individual grow.'
'Has the Supreme Court ever said that the Preamble is the basic structure of the Constitution?'
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
'Just think of this innocent man who had to suffer so much.' 'Who will compensate for the physical and mental torture Kappan had to go through in the last two years though he has not done any crime?'
'You declare a date, time and place for the landing two months in advance and exactly at that moment, it touched on the moon.'
'One of the advantages is that students need not take many entrance examinations.'
'They have brought out a provision whereby the medium of education in the Hindi speaking states will be Hindi even in higher education institutions like IIT, IIM, etc.' 'Think about the students from the south who get admission in the IITs in Kanpur or Delhi or the IIMs in various places.'
'Everybody thought I was crazy to quit my job and jump into entrepreneurship.'
'I started looking at the raw images put out by NASA 10-12 years ago.'
'Revanth Reddy mounted a spirited campaign in Telangana which turned around the fortunes of the Congress in six months.'
'Maybe the State wants to be watching people all the time. But when they are watching, others too may be watching!' 'The State is becoming more and more secretive while throwing people to the wolves.'
'I am not in favour of the hijab myself.' 'I personally think it wrong to make women shut themselves out of the world, where there is so much to see.' 'But I can't dictate to others about what they should wear.'
'I am the senior most Congress party leader from Kerala, and I don't know why I am sidelined.'
'There was hardly any recruitment after the second wave.' 'Now, there is a huge demand for manpower.'
'The administration will come to a standstill because the governor will not cooperate with the finance minister.'
'It did not vote against America, or for Russia.' 'If we had voted for the American motion, it would have spoilt our relationship with Russia without any change in Russia's behaviour.'
'RBI is already late in addressing inflation pressures.'
'They have come here to protect people, but the allegation is that they help the armed organisations attack and burn down the houses of the Meiteis.' 'Many people have lost faith in the central forces as they believe these forces are involved in the escalation of the problem.'
'If you pay Rs 1,000, you get a special queue.' 'If you pay Rs 500, there will be another shorter queue.' 'There will be a separate queue for Rs 300.' 'Is this the way you give vaccine to the people?'
'Imagine what will happen when a train running at 128 kmph moves onto a track that is meant to have only a speed less than 30 kmph!' 'Naturally, it will derail, and the coaches will go for a tailspin.'
'We don't have any more time.' 'We should close down, and vaccinate as many people as possible.'
'When I was toying with 10 different ideas, my father was diagnosed with lung fibrosis and his condition deteriorated so badly that we lost him in six months. He was very unsatisfied with the lack of proper diagnosis.' 'It made me think will anyone do a biopsy if there is no symptom? Why is it that we do not have any non-invasive diagnostic method?' 'This idea was the strongest out of the ten, and with Snahlata Singh with her cancer biology background joining me, the idea got a real boost.'
'The police just stood there watching our people being attacked.'
'We know a day will come very soon when people will realise our fight was for the environment and not against the nation.'
'The idea of aligning with different political parties -- parties that are relevant at a particular period -- is opportunistic and unacceptable.'
'It is inevitable when he pleases those who share his Hindutva ideology that at the same time he can alienate those who do not feel he speaks for them.'
'One thing about ISRO is that all the people who work there are passionate about their work.' 'They did not mind spending day and night over there.' 'Even today it is like that.'
'The highlight of the interview process is it is robotic.'
'There are companies that are losing and there are companies that are rising.' 'And the companies that are losing are positioning it as an economic slowdown.'
'Unfortunately, our political class is not interested in making this society equal. They just want to exploit the situation for their own benefit.'
'Ajit Pawar and some other people felt it was better to be supporting the BJP and have a coalition with the BJP than support the Congress.' 'But Sharad Pawar did not want to be a party to this kind of an opportunistic alliance.'
'Strategy is to divide and polarise electorate on communal lines.'
'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.'
'It encourages a shadow industry, the coaching industry.' 'Only those students who have the resources to go for coaching, benefit.'
'This obsession with 'one' is not good for a country like India.'
'Inequality has been growing in the world. The virus has only amplified it.'
