Chennaiites are proud that they are a culture-loving people.
The celebrations after the 2017 World Cup went on for the next few months. But there was one question that the Indian cricketers failed to respond to in their interviews. 'What was their next assignment?' Nobody knew; the players were waiting for the BCCI to tell them. The BCCI, with barely any time from its endless legal tangles, had nothing in mind immediately. The likes of Australia and England were back on the field, battling it out in the Ashes in front of sizeable crowds. But for Mithali Raj and team, there was no road ahead.
'Good Earth was more a passion than a business for a long time,' Anita Lal tells Anjuli Bhargava. 'Today, I can assure you I know more about retail than most, but I learnt it all the hard way.'
Sucheta Sharma -- a model for more than a decade -- gave us the right reasons as to why he's the favourite to all.
Rediff.com's Rajesh Karkera takes in the best of Bhutan, a beautiful little kingdom that has bundles and bundles of goodness to offer.
'When I least expect it, I start to find traces of India in foreign lands.'
A former US military lieutenant travels to India to fight a battle of another kind. Archana Masih/Rediff.com met Robin Chaurasiya and the girls whose lives she is changing -- one day at a time.
.gif)
Free Birds has a couple of laughs and if you don't think too much, you might not even find it predictable, writes Paloma Sharma.
'How can we forget the hoax perpetrated on the UN and on all of us when it was stated in the security council, no less, that Iraq had nuclear weapons?' recalls Ambassador B S Prakash.
Follow these 10 Chennai foodies to track down the great restaurants and awesome food there!
'After living in the US for over three decades, where I would spend Diwali nights with close friends and eat Indian meals, I have recently started to return home during the festival. But none of that old Diwali exists for me.'
Here's a look at the shows coming up!
Readers reminisce their bitter sweet experiences of ordering meals in the Indian Railways.
What's it like for two people of the same sex to be in love Mumbai? Anita Aikara/Rediff.com finds out.
Bring out your earthenware and clay pots, don your apron and get cooking!
'My great grandfather Henry Ford would have been very happy with the lifestyle I am leading and the things I believe in.' He's a servant of god. A temple builder. Manu Shah meets the Ford who spreads word about the glories of Krishna.
'My own Indianness has kept me evolving and changing -- and that's something that nobody and nothing can take from me,' says Roopa Unnikrishnan, who left the Indian shores a decade ago. As India gears up to honour its pravasis to mark their contribution in the nation's development, Rediff.com presents different perspectives on the Diaspora.
Kalam, who received seveeral prestigious awards including Bharat Ratna, played a crucial role when India tested its nuclear weapons at Pokhran in 1998 when the Vajpayee government was in power.
The future of the Make in India campaign looks bleak with a generation of ill-educated jobseekers -- and especially dark if they are cannon fodder for caste riots or put behind bars for breaking India, says Sunil Sethi.
ISRO's expedition to Mars is yet another breathtaking adventure for an organisation created by Dr Vikram Sarabhai and carefully nurtured by scientists like A P J Abdul Kalam and R Aravamudan.
'Our prime minister has set a scorching pace. He's logged more airline miles than professional airline pilots... On his regular visits to Delhi, he has also signed files galore.' 'How much of this activity has translated into useful action on the ground,' asks Devangshu Datta.
'Here was a man who played a major part in helping the Bengalis of East Pakistan create a new nation, secured the merger of Sikkim into the Indian dominion and built R&AW into a formidable outfit, comparable to the best in the world.' Rameshwar Nath Kao shunned the limelight, hated to be photographed and preferred to work behind the scenes. A revealing excerpt from Nitin A Gokhale's much awaited book, R N Kao: Gentleman Spymaster.
'For showing us a shining vision of how even a ceremonial role can be infused with life by a patriot, a scientist and a humble man of the people, representing the best of India's pluralist ethos, we will remember Dr Kalam.'
'Mumbai is the toughest city to shoot a film. The hard part is executing an action sequence in a crowded street accurately. There are people everywhere and all of them are curious to watch the shooting.' Second unit director Dan Bradley talks about working on Sunny Deol's Ghayal Once Again.
'For people who are fed on nothing else but the media, what were prejudices become facts of life.' 'What my neighbour may see as just news, for me is a source of fear, living as I do, surrounded by non-Muslims.' 'So I would say it is important to talk to a Muslim, be it your neighbour or your colleague.' 'Have that conversation about what's happening to Muslims.'
Where the most popular camel fair in the world is on...
'The smartest businessmen are shopkeepers as their return on investment is better than anyone else.'
The various meat bans across the country are an attempt to attack civil liberties, says civil rights activist Kavita Srivastava.
'Fashion changes fast and if you are not keeping up you're getting left behind,' design diva Anita Dongre tells Pavan Lall.
'After 8 to 10 hours of running, when my body starts paining, I keep thinking about the pain and sacrifice of my mother and it makes my will stronger.'
Rediff readers share their bitter sweet memories of ordering meals in the Indian Railways.
An unplanned trip to Hoi An in Vietnam turns out to be more fascinating and historic than the mainstream Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City says Anjuli Bhargava.
'The real danger in India right now is that identity politics is being stoked in extremely dangerous ways.' 'The narrative you get about churches in the mainstream Indian media and the narrative you get in the social media is very different.' 'Many Americans today want to appropriate Indian culture. They want yoga, but they say yoga has nothing to do with Hinduism. They want Ayurveda, but they say it's got nothing to do with Hinduism.' 'Hinduism has been failed by political constituencies in India -- seculars and the right-wing.'
With terror and investments high on his agenda for talks with the UAE leadership, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday began his two-day trip to this strategic Gulf nation with a visit to the historic Sheikh Zayed Grand mosque, the world's third largest.
'The idea behind the new rules is that slaughter markets must buy directly from the farms as is the case in the bloody world.' 'The cattle markets have become centres for the organised beef mafia.'
The man sought after by parents when they want to admit their children to Ivy League colleges tells Anjuli Bhargava how a hobby became a source of livelihood.
The beef ban has sparked considerable debate and confusion
'In two years there will be consolidation. Look at the Indian brands now. Only three of us are surviving, many others have died. What will differentiate us are two things -- timing of our launches in the market and the communication to the consumer," Narendra Bansal, CMD of Intex, tells Arnab Dutta.
Any city that imposes a ban on food of any kind to appease the sensibility of a particular religion has lost any right to be called cosmopolitan and progressive, feels Tanmaya Nanada
Analysts say aggressive pricing by Pizza Hut signals weakening demand in the fast food segment and could intensify competition.
