'You know the difference between being brought up by a mother and a step-mother?' 'As long as Amma was there we had nothing to fear. Now the step-mother is there and we are on the streets.'
A Ganesh Nadar finds out how private water distributors help Chennai's water-starved citizens.
A Ganesh Nadar wonders what Kamal Hassan hopes to achieve with this film.
'All this for only one reason -- that I oppose the government's nuclear power policy.' 'They will not break my resolve.' 'I will stand by my principle, which is to point out that nuclear energy is not safe.'
A Ganesh Nadar visits the bustling centre that hosts Tamil Nadu's health helpline that answers more than 100 medical queries an hour.
A Ganesh Nadar watches the fourth day of protests dawn on Chennai's Marina beach.
'How can you have massages on trains in the presence of other lady passengers?'
'When you enter our secretariat, you are insulting us.' 'It is the seat of government of the state of Tamil Nadu,'
'There are 80 million tonnes of foodgrain in our godowns and yet, 200 million people go to bed hungry.' 'So I decided to fight hunger.'
'The last four years was not Dravidian rule, it was BJP rule by proxy.'
Why is the BJP upset about the dialogues in a Tamil movie, wonders A Ganesh Nadar.
Dr Anand Rai says the Madhya Pradesh government is harassing him by transferring him and his wife to Dhar and fears for his security in the new posting.
When a Hindi film does well in Chennai, it's time to sit up and take notice, says A Ganesh Nadar.
A Ganesh Nadar meets Daniston Litten, a sailor from India, who was held captive by Somali pirates for four years. While the pirates may have harmed him physically, his spirit is unbroken.
A Ganesh Nadar shares interesting vignettes that usually get lost in the heat-and-dust of election coverage.
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com pays tribute to his school mate, Talat Jani, the man behind quite a few episodes of Kyunki... Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi...
'The government is not doing anything for the people. They don't know that people foremost need jobs. Where there are no jobs available, you see the youth turning to crime,' says Chennai autorickshaw driver, singer and composer Parthasarathy.
'The Constitution allows me the Right to Freedom of Speech and Religious Freedom. But this is not religion... this is spiritual discourse,' says IAS officer C Umashankar, who is being prosecuted in the Madras high court for hurting the feelings of Hindus.
'Don't try to impose anything on us.'
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com attends Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's presser in Chennai to tom-tom the government's achievements in its first 100 days in office.
'In the last three to four months the BJP vote share in Tamil Nadu, which was 2.86% in 2016, has gone up to about 5%-6%.' 'The AIADMK will lose the minority votes and others who don't like the BJP and Modi.' 'The AIADMK decided to take the risk to get the 5%-6% votes that the BJP will bring in.'
The NIA detained 31-year-old H Subuhani from Kadayanallur in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district for plotting terror activities.
Three young Indians plan to cycle from Kochi in Kerala to Tokyo in time to attend the Olympics there next year.
'The biggest agitation in Tamil Nadu -- after the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965 -- were the Jallikattu protests. The anti-Hindi agitations had the backing of a political party but this one does not. No famous actor is involved in it either. It was an incredible agitation.'
Neetu Chopra, who travelled solo across India on a scooter covering 7,600 km in 42 days, tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar why girls should not be scared to dream.
Yaadhum is a documentary that talks about how Islam spread in South India because of trade and not through invasion.
'He just said that those who cannot control the violence should go. He did not name the BJP.'
'Every person is a Jatayu, each one of you can be Jatayu, both men and women,' says temple priest behind the group set up to prevent atrocities on women and young girls.
'We are the largest film industry in the world.' 'We employ millions and entertain billions.' 'We generate the highest amount of sales tax.' 'Our stars pay the highest amount of income tax.' 'All I would say is: Don't f*** it up!'
P Rafeeq's comment on the burkha led to his studio being razed.
'In spite of her superstar status, she was always polite and soft spoken.'
Coffee is a very small part of the magic that envelopes this beautiful land.
'A recent compromise by the state government is accepting NEET exams for medical entrance.'
'Earlier it was a stigma to discuss mental problems. But I get more patients for past life regression as in India people believe in rebirth and karma,' Dr Prakriti Poddar, who uses hypnotism to treat illnesses, tells A Ganesh Nadar.
It had all the makings of a movie thriller. Students who paid a few lakh rupees were supplied with vanishing ink. Answer papers were intercepted on the way and corrected. No one would have been wiser had the perpetrators of the exam scam not gotten greedy.
'If the government cannot protect the acid attack victims the least they can do is support their rehabilitation.'
'The BJP wants an AIADMK government so that they can implement their policies.' 'All the policies implemented in UP are being implemented in Tamil Nadu.'
In one village, a woman asks, "They are always showing cash seizures on television, you think some of it will escape and we will get money as usual?" "Only 1 percent of cash is actually seized, the rest has arrived, you don't worry," a party worker assures her. Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar reports on the election in the southern-most tip of the country.
Police in southern Tamil Nadu are facing grave charges of falsely implicating members of a nomadic tribe and torturing them into admitting to crimes they did not commit. A Ganesh Nadar reports from Kanyakumari.
