Throughout, Mekhail spoke calmly, with hardly an inflection making even the barest attempt to hijack his tone. His tone was so empty it made his narrative all the more touching. And ugly and grey, as the monsoon sky beyond the window.
I have outraged too much in the past like many others, which hasn't gotten us anywhere. Rapes have merely become statistics in our country, best meant for research reports and discussions at conferences, says Devanik Saha.
The start of Indian lobbying in the US can be traced back to Pakistan's anti-India lobbying. Policy wonk Ashok Sharma documents this journey and its catalytic role in transforming the US-India relationship.
In order for somebody to do Big Brother kind of a job, one has to collect lots of data. Aadhaar collects very minimal data whether at the time of enrollment or at the time of authentication.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation might not be as iconic, but it is genuinely compelling, says Raja Sen.
'The talks held in Bangkok, virtually on Indian terms, is an event where Pakistan seems to have blinked first.'
'The way the daredevil feats are set up, they don't have the maniacal feeling of actual gun battles, or good jazz, or a whacked-out dance performance -- they just don't provide you that giddy tingle you go looking for in such films,' feels Sreehari Nair.
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! stumbles considerably because of its simplistic plotting, says Raja Sen.
The dollar's preliminary moves after the low 80.90 are supportive of a like dollar rally back to 85.50. We should see confirmation of that in the early part of next week, says Sonali Ranade
Over the weekend and Labour Day, a change seemed to have come over the former secretary and her memory had all but deserted her. Not unexpectedly, Kajal Sharma had lost much of her exactness. Her vocabulary had shrivelled to four or five words.
In the years to come, India's space assets will play a much bigger role if and when hostilities break out on our borders, says Pallava Bagla.
Sreehari Nair wasn't impressed with Rangoon at all. But find out which film tops his list!
'When Sultan released, I got greedy. I decided to make another film with Salman because he gets me a lot of box office.'
Reports suggest that the police were unable to find any contact of the company's office and had to take a Uber cab to reach the company's training centre in Gurgaon, giving credence to the perception that Uber has grown too much too soon.
Indian Americans speak up about the daunting challenges on the 16th anniversary of the tragedy.
Maine Pyar Kiya, Biwi No 1, Dabangg, Kick... the list is endless!
It turned out that Indrani, who was wearing the Navratri Day 2 green, was fasting for the festival. That caused the impish CBI prosecutor Badami to ask her police detail, "looking for salvation?".
Meet Cassie de Pecol, a 27-year-old traveller from Connecticut, United States, who visited 196 countries in 18-and-a-half months, making her the fastest person to visit every country in the world.
If November 9 ushers in a Hillary Clinton presidency, you can bet your last dollar that Huma Abedin will be back at POTUS' side.
Many app makers have stopped work on their projects or abandoned them, mostly because of the lack of customers or limitations of the device.
Rediff.com's Love Guru has answers to all your relationship problems.
'Even apart from the Bengal famine, there was a great deal more bloodshed and deceit than I was prepared for.' 'Almost every one of the acquisitions was won by extreme extortionate methods and what came out was that these relatively honest officers found themselves doing very dishonest things.'
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh interacts with readers on Rediff Chat as he discusses the period that changed India's history, forever.
'We are going to see relatively soon an executive order that deals with H-1B and other temporary visas.' 'We are also going to see an executive order on undocumented people.' 'Undocumented Indians comprise the largest population growth of all undocumented people in this country.' 'Just because India is not named in this executive order doesn't mean it won't be in the future.'
16 is yet another formulaic representation of teenage life, writes Paloma Sharma.
In an online chat with Get Ahead readers Love Guru answered their relationship queries.
Brilliant cinema at the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival, raves Sukanya Verma.
Natwar Singh's book is un-illuminating, largely self-justificatory, often contradictory, and at times tendentious. He is too preoccupied with depicting himself as a victim of the Congress party's machinations, says Praful Bidwai.
Ajit Doval, former chief of Intelligence Bureau and now head of Vivekanada International Foundation, continues his furious argument against any kind of CBI action against his former colleague Rajinder Kumar in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case of 2004.
Aseem Chhabra picks his favourite movies from the Telluride Film Festival.
In perhaps the first major conference on the United States-India strategic partnership in the aftermath of the Khobragade controversy that plunged the bilateral relationship in a downward spiral and is now in the process of being resurrected, the undeniable consensus among the panelists and participants was that much ballyhooed strategic convergence between Washington and New Delhi has dissipated.
China has been keeping tabs on the restive Tibet province through a 'grid' system and some 600 'convenience police posts' armed with high-tech equipment that monitor the daily life of the citizens of Lhasa and other Tibetan towns. Worse, 'volunteer security groups' known as 'Red Armband Patrols' are roaming around in order to get more information and 'classify' each and every citizen, says Claude Arpi
With Beijing having had a profound rethink on India's admission as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the tectonic plates of the geopolitics of a massive swathe of the planet stretching from the Asia-Pacific to West Asia are dramatically shifting. That grating noise in the Central Asian steppes will be heard far and wide -- as far as North America, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Director Anil Sharma gives us an insight into the Deol men, and other Bollywood Greats.
'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.'
