'Ashwiny Iyer comes from a school of Nil Battey Sannata.' 'The writer of the film Nitesh Tiwari made Dangal.' 'So you can see the kind of cinema they have done and how they will treat the film.' 'That will make Bareilly Ki Barfi different.'
'We spoke of everything but politics.' 'She was well-versed in the Eng. Lit. canon of Dickens and Austen, but had also read Oscar Wilde's famous epistolary tract from jail, De Profundis.' Sunil Sethi recalls his memorable encounters with Jayalalithaa.
'She dwarfs every known politician of recent times with her imperious aura, iron will, tremendous drive, dauntless pursuit of goals she set before herself, ability to capture the people's imagination and unshakeable grip over her party and government,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
If the Congress lost in Tamil Nadu in 1967, never to return, or the DMK and the AIADMK have kept their place in power and electoral politics since then, it owes not to their love or hatred for gods or for one religion over another. Instead, they had always been linked to performance and incumbency/anti-incumbency factors. There may be something in such constructs for Rajini's strategic team to consider, especially if the superstar is to enter direct politics by around this time next year. But then, they would need to brush up their homework more than at present, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The 10-day Ganesh festival began on Saturday under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, with devotees restricting celebrations to their homes and using online platforms to get 'darshan' of the Lord at temples, amid strict COVID-19 restrictions imposed by governments.
'I have never seen anybody disliked more as prime minister than Modi.' 'What is interesting is in his prime ministership, no matter whatever happens in any corner of India, Modi is blamed for it.' 'Modi has not suspended any Constitutional liberties. No Opposition leader has been put in jail... Modi is not Hitler.'
The public discourse surrounding the murder of Infosys techie Swathi begs for sanity. Sadly, there are no takers for it in Tamil Nadu as conspiracy theories -- some communally explosive -- keep cropping up. R Ramasubramanian reports.
As doctors treat Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, a different daily drama takes place outside the Apollo Hospitals gates.
'A one party-State, with only one kind of Indian,' argues Mihir S Sharma.
A Ganesh Nadar wonders what Kamal Hassan hopes to achieve with this film.
Fighting heavy odds, J Jayalalithaa proved her detractors wrong again with her grit and determination as she steered the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to power for a second consecutive term, bucking the tradition since 1989 when no party has retained power in Tamil Nadu.
Inclusion has never been a straight road and stories from ancient cultures show it has always been a struggle to accord equal status to all genders and species, says Arundhuti Dasgupta.
The DMK combine has won 37 of the 38 LS constituencies in Tamil Nadu, and bagged 13 of the 22 assembly bypolls. What swept away the AIADMK-BJP alliance in the southern state was not dravidian ideology but job loss and graft bias, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Though EPS has sworn peace for now, or so it seems, his camp is said to be considering the possibility of calling an early meeting of the party's general council, to get a mandate in his favour before things went out of control. Ground-level indications are that OPS had lost his limited base, which alone had forced him to patch up with the other, reportedly at the instance of the BJP ally at the Centre, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'We are telling them we have isolated them and their religion as not only unwanted,' says Aakar Patel.
Aditi Phadnis and Archis Mohan take a state by state takedown of the party's chances in the poll-bound states.
As West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry prepare for new administrations, one is reminded of the disparity that runs through the veins of the Indian states, notes Mihir S Sharma.
One of the most charismatic figures of Tamil Nadu politics and the most enduring mascot of the Dravidian movement breathed his last at 6.10 pm.
The Varanasi versus Azamgarh story is about the fears and insecurities of two of our strongest leaders, Narendra Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav, says Sheela Bhatt.
'The moment the BJP loses a state, it announces some policy which never takes off.'
'The fabric of democracy is fraying,' says T V R Shenoy. 'It is being attacked not just by terrorists in Kashmir or by zealots in the North-East, but is being ripped apart even in Allahabad, in the Hindi heartland.'
The hypocrisies of high-caste Hindus have cost their followers very dear. Millions have left their dharma, their great religion which boasts of the loftiest philosophical ideas, says Tarun Vijay.
Though the list of superstitious beliefs is long, often dissolving distinctions of class, caste, religion and education, Karnataka's anti-superstition bill is seen as a big step ahead.
'Haven't you heard of the magical EVM machines? They can negate all our votes.' 'There is no hope. Modi is India's Putin.'
Arun Jaitley and Janardan Dwivedi have rewritten the rules of politics in the Age of the Internet and its young and restless user base, reports Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
For the new millennium generation, slowly and at an accelerating pace, it is attractive to harbour a start-up ambition, says R Gopalakrishnan.
Jayendra Saraswati, the shankaracharya of Kanchi, discusses the temple entry for women controversy, the Ram Janmabhoomi temple issue and gurus getting into business with Rediff.com's Saisuresh Sivaswamy and A Ganesh Nadar in his first interview since being acquitted recently by a court.
'There are some castes that grab power, then pass on the benefits to those who belong to their own caste.'
Thousands of people hailing 'Puratchi Thalaivi Amma' (Revolutionary Leader Amma) walked with the cortege.
People from all walks of life and political inclinations, budding and aspiring poets and lyricists, looked at Vaali for inspiration, writes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The veshti controversy in Tamil Nadu is not about the dress -- but a dress-code, which seems permissible in private homes and offices, but not in private clubs that are open only to well-heeled, and well-paying private members, observes N Sathiya Moorthy
Trying to guess Subramanian Swamy's motives or next step has been a rather difficult exercise for decades, says Archis Mohan
'One thing is clear from what happened last night; both sides are being manipulated by the same party with a lot of wrong inputs.' 'I see a hand in Delhi doing the puppet act on both sides.'
'In the three years since 2014 social tyranny has become a very real problem.' 'The government has denounced this tyranny -- once in a while.'
'But its supporters in North India bash on regardless,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
Shobha Warrier reports from Thiruvananthapuram where a former UN diplomat is battling a former governor for the Lok Sabha seat.
'Modi is the first BJP leader to try to include Dalits in its fold.' 'But the rank and file of his party is backward and want to bash up Muslims and Dalits whenever they have a chance.'
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A country as diverse as India has some of the strangest rituals and traditions. From bizarre ways to cure illnesses to an unusual matrimony to please the rain gods...the things people do here must be seen to be believed.
As the political battle for the future of Maharashtra's political quinquennial future nears its electoral conclusion, Shreekant Sambrani looks at the intertwining nature of national and regional interests and the place for and value of inclusiveness in electoral politics.
In the crazily complex cauldron that is India, where caste, community, class and cash are just the primary ingredients, no one has yet come up with a fool-proof method to ascertain how voters make up their minds, on which button to press, in the privacy of their 'confessional' booths, notes Krishna Prasad.
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