Bharati Dutt witnessed life-changing events that shaped India on the threshold of freedom. Her memories are an account of how ordinary Indians saw India change.
'I am a daughter of the mountains and my heart is free of care.'
A week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes are illegal tender, at least 33 people have been reported dead in demonetisation-related incidents.
It is a sight that both warms and breaks the heart. The women of Shaheen Bagh seem oblivious of the cold, these women and their children, the latter ranging in age from 19 days to early teens, who have been occupying the road for over two weeks now. Some of them have not gone home for days, but their faces are clear, unlined by fatigue, their eyes bright and fierce as those of the falcon, shaheen, the area is named for.
Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last month, in 20 images.
2016 saw the worst unrest in the Kashmir valley in 26 years.
'Hillary Clinton is no friend of India,' says Rajeev Srinivasan. 'Not that Trump is necessarily one, but at least he gets the benefit of the doubt.'
Political leaders and celebrities, including Union Minister Kapil Sibal, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and filmmaker Karan Johar, have condoled the death of Sunanda Pushkar whose body was found at a five-star hotel in New Delhi.
'Mere 'literacy' is not the same thing as 'education', which involves conceding that others have rights, and that one of those prerogatives is a woman's right to dignity. In 2012, the Kerala police registered 1,474 cases of rape, of which 455 victims were children,' says T V R Shenoy.
'People who have already got diabetes or heart disease or high blood pressure seem to be more badly affected by the disease.'
More than 1,85,000 homes were damaged and 9,000 destroyed as 42,000 people remain in shelters amid overflowing rivers and reservoirs, Texas officials said.
One militant was neutralised by the security forces.
Around 700 migrant workers, women and children have lost their lives in this reverse migration. But what is happening today with the migrant labour is only a continuation of the policies pursued by the Modi regime during the last six years. It is not for nothing that India was ranked the most dangerous country in the world for women in 2018 by the Thompson Reuters Foundation poll, points out Rashme Sehgal.
'Who is the government to decide about my religion?' 'We are governed by the Constitution. The Constitution has given me the independence to follow my religion.'
'She really doesn't care if she is called heartless.' 'For her, the job needs to be done. That's all that matters.'
He is now in the custody of Rajasthan Police for further probe, city Crime Branch's Assistant Commissioner of Police K N Patel said on Monday.
Sandeep Pandey salutes women who have contributed to social transformation in India after 1980.
Of all the Indian films screened in Toronto, three stood out for Aseem Chhabra -- A Death in the Gunj, Mostly Sunny and An Insignificant Man.
'It is time someone told BJP leaders that they were not elected to remind people of Congress corruption. The people of India voted for Narendra Modi and the BJP because they believed that he and his party were clean, unlike the Congress-led government,' says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Anti-CAB protests intensify in Guwahati even as the PM appealed for calm, assuring the people of the state that the govt will protect their interests.
As the first Indian female gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, Dipa Karmakar knows she has to pull off something spectacular if she wants the world to take notice.
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.
When the Muslim Personal Law Board promises 'advisories' and nikahnamas to the Supreme Court, one has to remember not only its recent campaign against any change in Muslim personal law, but also its past record of inaction on the question of triple talaq, says Jyoti Punwani.
'It seems likely that the February 2019 crisis is over.'
Parliamentarians led by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday paid homage to martyrs on the 13th anniversary of the attack on Parliament.
'I don't think we will need to support or get support from the Congress. I hope there is no such political exigency. The Congress will be gone from the political scene. There is no lesser evil. The BJP and Congress are the two sides of the same evil coin,' anti-Koodankulam nuclear plant activist and new AAP member S P Udaykumar tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar.
Twenty two years before Kabir Khan's The Forgotten Army streams on Amazon Prime on January 24, 2020, his documentary of the same name was telecast on Doordarshan. On that occasion, Kabir Khan spoke to Amberish K Diwanji/Rediff.com about Netaji's Azad Hind Fauj and its many battles for India's freedom.
Nine young men killed in police firing last August have become symbols of oppression of the tribals of Manipur.
In all the highs and lows that India's most powerful, and only woman, prime minister faced in her life, the death of her younger son Sanjay was probably the most soul-destroying.
'I asked a group of uniformed high school kids: Who was the one Kashmiri they admired?' 'I shouldn't have been surprised by the answer,' says Sunil Sethi.
Indrani is easily the most striking woman arriving in the court complex from jail on trial days. For those who don't know who she is, there is absurd puzzlement written large on faces when they bump into her. When she reaches or leaves the premises, one notices heads swivelling in jaw-dropping curiosity, as did a pair of transsexual undertrials who crossed her path at the last hearing of 2018, who were, not surprisingly, a less unusual sight than Indrani.
President Pranab Mukherjee has greeted the nation on the occasion of Holi and said that the festival of colours promotes oneness and harmony as well as bring happiness and prosperity to all.
The software had, perhaps unknown to Dr Tripathi, tracked the changes he had made. The 'morph track' feature of the software provided a trail of what had been done and also indicated that the doctor had, it seemed, opted to morph Sheena's face with the provided skull, much in the same manner that Fantamorph can turn a woman into a cheetah.
Here are other controversial 'babas' who were given the Z-category security, though later, it was withdrawn from some.
A woman, who was injured when security forces opened fire in Handwara town of north Kashmir to quell a stone-pelting mob, succumbed at a hospital in Srinagar on Wednesday.
The families of the Muslim youth from Hashimpura who were shot dead 28 years ago had some committed supporters in their long struggle for justice.
'This was our country, after all, our India, humara Hindustan -- why would we go anywhere else?'
'It's a humiliating time to be a human being.' It's a pity that the magnificent 17-year-old gorilla is dead. But it's not enough to hang our heads in shame or comfort ourselves with clicktivism, observes Bijoy Venugopal.
Right in the midst of bustling Kolkata lies what might be the most prominent population of Britons in India.
'People don't like me wearing saris. But I am an Indian drag queen. I will wear a sari.'
