Far away from the glare of publicity lives Atal Bihari Vajpayee's family -- three sisters, nephews, nieces and their children. A large family proud of its bond with India's leader.
Upstaged by the swanky malls in town, both M G Road and Brigade Road have lost their "happening" status
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest and funniest stories from around the world.
They have been entertaining throughout the year!
'Shakti Samanta was a very honest man. I have done four films with him. He was very sick before he died; nobody was allowed to see him in the hospital. I went but I could not bear to see him like that. Iftekar and I would go to see Ashok Kumar often. He would ask me to bring some kheema, as he loved my wife's preparation. I would have attended kavi sammelans with Jan Nisar Akhtar (Javed Akhtar's father), Sahir Ludhianvi and Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan was a child then, and would often accompany his father.' Veteran actor Chandrashekhar Vaidya goes back in time.
This is your chance to squeeze in a quick trip before the monsoon sets in.
The American university, once the envy of the world, is in crisis, notes Ajit Balakrishnan in his latest column.
In a first of a special series on second generation Indian Americans giving back to India, we begin with Meghana Sreevatsava's story.
'I think I've got to see Happy New Year but people have told me that I would like Haider,' The Best Of Me director Michael Hoffman tells Paloma Sharma.
'Disney is presenting Black Panther as Manoj Muntashir's film.' 'Such a big studio, a billion dollar film is being released as Manoj Muntashir's film.' 'It is in the same space of Baahubali, which I wrote.' 'The film has got a kingdom, kings, treachery... things which are very much up my alley.'
In little over 24 hours, the wildfires, which erupted on Sunday and forced the evacuation of about 80,000 people from Fort McMurray in the Canadian province of Alberta, have grown tenfold.
'Despite a quarter century since India began the uphill battle of moving away from its peculiar hybrid of imperial-feudal-socialism, it remains distressingly -- and sometimes reassuringly -- the country I left in 1986,' says Rahul Jacob.
Aseem Chhabra is heartbroken that India overlooked the acclaimed film, The Lunchbox, as its Oscar nominee.
'Masaan is history for me. This is another journey with Raman Raghav 2.0. You have to clean your slate after every film, and not let its success or failure affect you.' Vicky Kaushal moves on, with Raman Raghav 2.0.
'Love Sonia is a motion picture with the ambitions of a novel.' 'When I walked out of Love Sonia this Monday night, I walked out with a hushed audience that seemed too overcome by the raw power of the film to even pause for applause,' notes Sreehari Nair.
While Calcutta has transitioned to Kolkata, Satyajit Ray's detective, Feluda, has remained unchanged in the Bengali consciousness
Meet Cassie de Pecol, a 27-year-old traveller from Connecticut, United States, who visited 196 countries in 18-and-a-half months, making her the fastest person to visit every country in the world.
On the actor's 54th birthday on November 2, we write another tome about the boy with big dreams and a regrettable haircut, who defied incredible odds to become one of the most loved actors on the planet.
Meet the cleanliness warrior from Nagaland who is cleaning up the holy ghats of Varanasi...
Six Kashmiri Muslim students belonging to Sarhad, an organisation which brings semi-orphans from strife-torn regions to live and study at their school and college in Pune, share their hopes for their state and their experiences outside it. Jyoti Punwani reports.
'The mood in the country is the challenge. Everything is going well, but nobody is feeling good. Why? I don't know. Maybe aspirations are too high... The most important thing in life is to be a good person. Rahul is a wonderful person. He is a thinking man. He has convictions and is passionate about his work.' Sam Pitroda discusses the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi in an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Even in this season of political-peeing-on-lampposts, Rahul Gandhi's statement takes the cake (with due apologies to another astute observer of poverty, the much late Mary Antoinette).
Born and abandoned in Mumbai, reborn in Sweden, Erika Sandberg says she is Indian on the outside but feels Swedish on the inside. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel narrates her tale.
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt unearths some never-told-before details of Narendra Modi's early life. Read on!
Rediff.com's Rajesh Karkera recounts the brief moments of interaction and conversation he had with the international celebrity.
Amitabh Bachchan talks about Te3n, Aaradhya and actors he would love to work with!
'Yes, my son will watch Raja Natwarlal. I'll just cover his eyes when the kissing comes around so that he doesn't go, 'Wait, that's not mom,' Emraan Hashmi gets candid with Sonil Dedhia.
As German makes provisions to accept 800,000 refugees this year, the nation is split vertically on the crisis with refugee shelters attacked with Molotov cocktails and swastika signs painted outside many refugee homes.
Her book is less of a Hindutva-loving diatribe against the Dynasty than its detractors suggest, but it is still hard to agree with much of what she writes, says Vir Sanghvi on Tavleen Singh's latest book.
The band's trip to Rishikesh delayed their split till 1970! This & other unheard stories...
With a massive final push, which began mid-November, Syrian forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad took over the last remaining rebel strongholds in the historic city of Aleppo on the night of December 12. They only won a ruined city and ruined lives.
How did Sudarshan Shetty, curator of the Kochi Muziris Biennale, decide what gets to be part of the show and what doesn't?
MUST READ: The speech Nayantara Sahgal was not allowed to give.
Two whole weeks after he landed on his feet in unfamiliar territory, Patrick Ward records what it is to be a parachute journalist in the chaos called India
Australian model Alicia Komodromos talks about travelling to India to pursue her modelling dream and how she found her second home and friends for life.
'It is extremely important to take back the domain of both religion from the religious bigots and nationalism from the chauvinists, who are spreading hatred.' Sugata Bose, the Harvard historian-turned-MP, who is Netaji's great-nephew, tells Anjali Puri why it is imperative to speak up for India's students.
'It's a joy working there.' 'It's good work and when you come back it gives you pleasure.' 'On returning you take a shower and look at the day and say, "Ah! Nice scenes we did!"' 'Here sometimes you are doing nothing in the day, but you are there for the shoot.' 'You come home and it can be very frustrating, with that frustration the tiredness does not go, you know.' 'Good work gives you that strength and kick.'
'What you saw in Gangs Of Wasseypur is only two percent of what really happens. Murder and other crimes are a daily affair even today. There is no value for life. People can shoot someone for Rs two! Once, I was talking to a person. I turned around to ask for tea, and when I looked at him again, someone had shot him dead.' Meeruthiya Gangsters director Zeishan Quadri talks tough.
Raja Sen feels The Lunchbox id this generation's Masoom.
