Sheela Bhatt visits a large urban basti a mere 20-minute drive from the prime minister's home to discover a story of grim struggle in the time of lockdown.
A pandal, just outside the local church, that once had thousands of protesters flocking there and shouting slogans, is strangely silent.
While the standards of Visva Bharati University fall, the chief minister of West Bengal fantasises about a Biswa Bangla University a few kilometres away. Keya Sarkar ponders the sad state of affairs.
'The Constitution, which talks about democracy and equality, is something that will be applied in this country, and not Manusmriti in which the RSS believes.'
Mother Teresa is expected to be officially canonised in Rome on 4 September as part the pope's Jubilee year of mercy.
'Though the river is cleaner than what it was five years ago, a lot more needs to be done.'
Modi also reminded Congress of the Emergency, saying it's a blot on the democracy that will never fade.
Modi made a veiled attack on the corruption during United Progressive Alliance regime and a barb at the Congress president's son-in-law Robert Vadra.
'Haven't you heard of the magical EVM machines? They can negate all our votes.' 'There is no hope. Modi is India's Putin.'
The constitution of the Missionaries of Charity that declares, 'We shall not impose our Catholic faith on anyone, but have profound respect for all religions.'
Generations of Indians don't quite grasp that there would barely be an India had it not been for the Sardar whose steadfastness and guile stitched together that which had been united only in philosophy and spirituality and sometimes not even then -- for thousands of years. A fascinating excerpt from Hindol Sengupta's The Man Who Saved India, Sardar Patel and His Idea of India.
Bollywood is rushing to embrace him, but Vivian Fernandes aka DIVINE wants to rap his own tune, discovers Shreevatsa Nevatia.
In the space of two days, top batsman Smith has gone from Australia's cricketing golden boy to national pariah and it looks likely that he has played his last Test as captain.
Five states will go to the polls including Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio as well as the Northern Mariana Islands.
'He gave this 'gaali' (abuse) to me or you? Did he abuse me or Gujarat? Did he abuse the cultured society of India or me?' Modi asked the people at a rally in Banaskantha.
'We look and say their life is so tragic.' 'But there are hundreds of millions of people in these circumstances and what can they do but to carry on.'
The strong words came after the ASG said that the MCDs and the other agencies need to work together in an integrated and synergetic manner to handle the problem.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
After three consecutive abysmal performances in Iowa, New Hampshire and finally in South Carolina, the third presidential aspirant from the Bush family announced to suspend his campaign.
How has Raj Thackeray, who is as much a businessman as politician, been able to pull it off, when most Opposition politicians live in fear of IT and ED and CBI, asks Krishna Prasad after attending a Raj rally in Nashik.
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.
Are Indian citizens mindful of their responsibility?
'Eventually the law of averages has to play catch up with Modi and the BJP, sooner or later,' says Rajeev Sharma.
Mother Teresa, who cared for the world's most unwanted and became an icon of the Catholic Church, was canonised at a ceremony in St Peter's Square in Vatican City.
'His negotiations with Idi Amin and his men for compensation for the Indians, who left Uganda, were particularly tough. Apparently, Amin warned him that the body of the British negotiator, who came earlier, was found in a roadside gutter... As Jagat Mehta's special assistant during the last two years of his tenure as foreign secretary, I saw for myself how his conviction, courage and patriotism enabled him to fight against heavy odds, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
National award winner Chaitanya Tamhane tells us the story behind his film, Court.
'I went away from the industry because all the people I enjoyed working with, like Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra, are no more.' 'They left this world and went away, so I lost interest in my work.'
Rediff.com meets a family that longs for "a very nice man" who, alas, will never return.
'Nobody laughed during the shooting. There were fights, swearing and what not. Tempers were high but the unit and the actors stayed on, and finally, the film was made. But it was like riding a wild horse!' Kundan Shah's last interview.
Economists expect Modi to announce big-bang reforms.
As the NDA government completes two years in office, there are more questions on Swarupa Dutt's mind than answers.
Amsterdam-based artists Jorge Maes Rubio and Amanda Pinatih attempt to give traditional products created in Dharavi a design spin.
For the thousands of destitute that Mother Teresa treated, she was 'god incarnate' and her hand was the miracle of love the poor needed. Attributing scientifically-unproven remedies as miracles does not help the followers of Missionaries of Charity and humanity in general, says Pallava Bagla.
Preetisheel Singh lets us into some star secrets.
Chaitanya Tamhane's National Award-winning film seems more relevant today than when it released, says Sreehari Nair.
'The Modi administration has access to so much evidence that it can rip apart the Congress, not just the Nehru-Gandhis, but almost the entire leadership structure of the party,' says T V R Shenoy.
'The non-cinephiles may hold up Sholay as their personal favourite and the cinephile lot may quote something like 8 1/2 as the movie to load with them on the ark.' 'But for a good percentage of these people from both categories, if there is one film to simply laze around with, a film that can extract them from their dull funk, it's definitely DCH.'
'Despite living in a free nation for so many years, if atrocities like rapes, public flogging, social boycotts are faced by Dalits, then conversion is the only option.'
'Mufti is much more mellowed, much more accommodating. He knows he is stuck and he knows that he cannot retreat now.'
Only reforms that accelerate economic growth can generate the revenues to finance expenditure on social infrastructure for the poor, not the other way round, insists Jagdish Bhagwati.
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