'He doesn't think anyone else has his brilliance or integrity. And he cannot bear to stand a rival,' says journalist Aakar Patel, a long-time Modi observer who has translated Modi's poetry and his biographies of RSS leaders.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, who is on a two-day official trip to India, on Thursday visited the world's largest museum based on life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dandi Kutir, in Gandhinagar.
On the eve of Sardar Patel's birth anniversary rediff.com publishes exclusive excerpts of his soon to be published book Sardar: The Saint Emperor.
On the eve of Sardar Patel's birth anniversary rediff.com publishes exclusive excerpts of his soon to be published book Sardar: The Saint Emperor.
Just how much do *you* know about Lataji?
'He is not acting solo.' 'The plot may have people within the Congress and outside.'
Get the latest buzz on sex and relationships from across the world.
Veteran journalist and former Prasar Bharati Chairman Madhav Vittal Kamath died at a private hospital in Manipal on Friday. He was 93.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Professor of Economics at Harvard University Raj Chetty have been named by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as '2020 Great Immigrants' honourees, the Corporation said in a statement on Wednesday.
Equally admired and loathed, both Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher have been so often memorialised in biography, novels and film that it's difficult to separate fact from fiction, says Sunil Sethi
'The BJP does not offer any credible alternative to the Congress. The Congress is the lesser evil if you had to choose,' says Thomas Macaulay biographer Zareer Masani.
'It is not inconceivable to me that a strong leader can come to power with the consent of the people, with democratic sanction, go berserk with that democratic sanction and bypass some of our Constitutional guarantees,' Vinod Mehta tells Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Three years after Senna, the hit film biography of the late Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna, sporting documentaries about Jackie Stewart, Muhammad Ali and Pele are competing for attention at the Cannes Film Festival.
Modi believes that if he is at the helm of affairs in the Bharatiya Janata Party and the party gets 190 seats, he will have a reasonable chance of becoming prime minister, feels Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Naman Ramachandran author of Rajinikanth, A Definitive Biography talks about the book
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has to make up his mind whether or not he wants to write his autobiography, his daughter Daman Singh has said.
A fascinating excerpt from Naman Ramachandran's Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography charts the rise of a bus conductor named Shivaji Gaekwad to the mega-phenomenon called Rajnikanth.
Hansal Mehta on the challenges he faced while making Shahid, and more.
As Robert Vadra confronts serious charges of corruption, Rediff.com looks back at a happier time, when the pretty princess of Indian politics had married the little-known businessman from Moradabad.
Speaking on the issue, political commentator and the author of 'Sonia A Biography', Rasheed Kidwai tells Rediff.com's Priyanka that the accusations don't reflect state craft and whether government funds were misused.
Samridh Seth suggests nine must-read books that can help turn your life around.
'The most striking comment Yasser Usman makes -- not only about Sanjay Dutt, but also our contemporary society -- is about the transformation that he goes through: From being a man who claimed Muslim blood to one who is a devotee of Hindu gods,' notes Uttaran Das Gupta.
'I knew things were not going well, but there was always that hope.'
She was capable of a level of human compassion that is rare today among politicians, recalls Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who knew the Communist legend K R Gowri, who passed into the ages on May 11, from his childhood.
Despite negative appreciation by critics, female students are sending innovative tongue-in-cheek biographies with photographs to win the 'Rear of the Year' title.
'Why does Mr Modi only attack Nehru from the Dynasty?' 'At one level, it is pure politics,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
A day after he was banned from cycling for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, Lance Armstrong took the first step towards accepting the sanctions by deleting reference to his Tour wins on his Twitter biography.
Small gestures from Indira gave Sonia the confidence that she could be a daughter-in-law in the distinguished family.
Naipaul's views against the commonplace perception towards colonised countries and their people were not the only thing controversial about the famed author.
The culling of key state leaders and bureaucrats has given rise to distrust and uneasiness in Pramod Sawant's style of functioning, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is mired in controversy after charges of corruption were levelled against by him by Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan.
The Shakti Bhatt Foundation is inviting entries for the 2012 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize. In its fifth year, the prize is a cash award of Rs 1 lakh, and a trophy. The award covers poetry, fiction (including graphic novels), creative non-fiction (travel writing, autobiography, biography, and narrative journalism), and drama.
Rediff.com celebrates the epic, which was released 30 years ago on November 30, 1982.
Wayne Rooney, the Manchester United star, captures the drama of the 2011 season when his team lost the EPL title to Manchester City in the League's very last game.
Former United States President Bill Clinton dubbed Barack Obama "incompetent" and pressed wife Hillary to quit her job as secretary of state to challenge the incumbent President in the primaries, a new book has claimed. "The country needs you!" the former president had told Hillary Clinton, urging her to run this year, according to accounts of the conversation included in Edward Klein's new biography of Obama.
The Afghanistan government has cited investigations to claim that the killers of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, its negotiator with the Taliban, were Pakistanis.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
The event took place at the Sofitel hotel in Bandra-Kurla Complex in the western suburbs of Mumbai.
Just what did Prabuddha Dasgupta mean to photography in India? Rediff.com's Abhishek Mande tries to find out.