On August 13, Muhammad Yunus visited the Dhakeswari Temple and reached out to the distressed Hindu community members in the wake of attacks on the minority communities.
Rediff.com's Indrani Roy visits Pranab Mukherjee's ancestral home in Miriti, Birbhum district. India's President arrived here on Saturday to perform Durga Puja
Kolkata hangs its head in shame as the hope of a government with a moral compass and a heart in the right place recedes into the distance, notes Payal Singh Mohanka.
The pulling out of films S Durga and Nude from the 48th edition of IFFi did not go well with the director.
Be prepared to bump into some special people at the pandal.
Here are some of the famous faces queued up to get ink mark on their fingers.
In the second of a two-part festive recipe series, we bring you traditional Bengali preparations to help celebrate Durga Puja.
For the devotees of Maa Durga across the globe, the wait is almost over. But in Her 'home state' West Bengal, preparations for the most awaited 10 days of the year are progressing on a war footing.
Meet Bacchu Malakar whose family has been making traditional ornaments for over a century.
Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly inaugurated a Puja Pandal in Howrah on Wednesday and during the inauguration the former Indian skipper opened up on India's campaign in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023.
Rediff.com's Dipak Chakroborty sends some fantastic images of one of the grandest, most thought-provoking and 'out of the box' Durga Pujo celebrations in Kolkata. Joy Maa Durga!
Take a look at the festive pictures.
In a statement that expressed the unrelenting stand of the Samajwadi Party government over the IAS officer's suspension, UP minister Ahmed Hasan in the presence of Yadav and his cabinet colleagues said the issue was being "highlighted unnecessarily".
Nothing is more promising than countries putting aside hubris and ideological differences to invest in our shared future, observes Durga Sreenivasan, a delegate at COP28.
Gen Z may not know who these ladies are, but Uma Bharti and Sadhvi Rithambara played important roles in the Ram Mandir movement for the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allied organisations in the early 1990s.
Rediff.com's Indrani Roy was the only journalist to attend President Pranab Mukherjee's ancestral Durga Puja celebrations at Miriti village in West Bengal, and is charmed by the sight of the Head of State play a gracious host during the festivities.
Away from the political chaos in New Delhi, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is celebrating the Durga Puja at his ancestral home in Miriti village of West Bengal's Birbhum district.
The hotly debated 1998 JMM bribery case judgment, which protected former Union minister Shibu Soren from prosecution, was overturned by a seven-judge bench on Monday, ironically following a petition by his MLA daughter-in-law Sita Soren.
Sita lamented and said she was feeling neglected and reluctantly decided to tender her resignation from the primary membership of the party.
A comment in Bengali written against her read "You won't be able to save yourself, your god of earth won't be able to save you.. After your death you will realise your folly. There won't be any excuses for you."
The five-day Durga Puja festival in West Bengal ended on Wednesday with people celebrating Bijaya Dashami which marked Goddess Durga's return to her husband's home.
Briefing the media after a three-hour tour at the project site, Ravi Kant said the trial production would commence in June-July and after a month or two, regular production would begin. "Commercial production, that is the real thing, will start in October, around the Durga Puja time," he said.
Film and television stars made their way to the North Bombay Sarbojanin Durga Puja in Juhu, north west Mumbai, to celebrate Ashthami.
Sonia condemned the appearance of the said posters and ordered the state Congress committee to inquire into the matter and identify the persons responsible for it.
But the more significant development is that just as politicians took over pujas some years ago, NRIs, hi-tech and market managers are now moving in. I have nothing against them except that it would be sad if professional commerce overwhelms the spirit of collective youthful effort that traditionally sustained public pujas.
'Perhaps the greatest curse that modern technology has inflicted on the people during the pujas is powerful public address systems that blare out songs which you have no option but to listen to,' says Subir Roy.
The pooja pandal is designed in a manner which resembles Hogwarts Castle and displays statues of the Potter characters like Hagrid and Hedgewig apart from Harry himself.
"The puja is around 100 years old. Pranab's grandfather late Jangaleswar Mukherjee started the puja," said Goutam Roy, who has been looking after puja arrangements for the last couple of years.
This Puja-typical behaviour invariably tells you how enthusiastic Bengalis are when it comes to Devi Durga and dhunuchi naach and everything in between.
And it's not just the festival Kolkata's beloved tram service is celebrating.
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Take a look at the pictures!
Through Manorathangal, M T Vasudevan Nair makes himself available to a whole new generation of uninitiated viewers, who can familiarise themselves with his rich body of work and hope to learn a thing or two about life in all its messy grandeur and flawed imperfections, notes Arjun Menon.
Kolkata is ready for Durga Puja and Mamata Banerjee is taking an active part in preparations for the festival.
Uttar Pradesh is under the scanner again as that state IAS Association has taken on CM Akhilesh Yadav for the suspension of Durga Shakti Nagpal, who campaigned against the sand mafia
The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, an NGO in the heart of Kolkata's red light district, has decided to celebrate Durga Puja, reports Indrani Roy/Rediff.com.Speaking to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com, the sex workers say that they want to get rid of ostracisation and be allowed to celebrate Durga Puja just as others do.
At least four babies, three boys and a girl, who were born in the Kendrapara district hospital here on Wednesday evening were named so by their overwhelmed parents.
Devotees all over the world will now be able to watch the unique Durga Puja of Belur Math, where a young girl is worshipped along with the goddess, as the Ramakrishna Mission has decided to stream it live on Internet.
The HC was hearing three PILs challenging the restrictions on immersion of idols at the end of the five-day Durga Puja festival.
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