Many of us have a kind of apocalyptic view of famine, and there is no doubt that, once the stigmata of starvation are revealed, the images haunt you lifelong, says Dr Binayak Sen in his speech at the fifth annual K C John memorial lecture at Kovalam Literary Festival in Trivandrum
Noted Pakistani writer ,journalist and grand daughter of former Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Fatima Murtaza Bhutto has said that the people of Pakistan and India are not enemies and there is no enmity between the common people of both the countries. She spoke with rediff.com's Arun Lakshman on the sidelines of the Kovalam literary festival, which she inaugurated on Saturday.
Ashok Gehlot may very well pat himself for winning over a few Muslim votes, but he has simply provided the template for the next offended group: The past is often the prologue to the future, says Rohit Pradhan.
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, the president of All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat says people will denounce Rushdie and hurl shoes at him if they find him. The blasphemer should be ready for such a reception, he adds.
Here's what your favourite celebrities are tweeting.
The lingering effects of colonial rule show up in a variety of subtle and not so subtle ways, says Rupa Subramanya Dehejia
'Main koi rootha nahin hoon for denying me a visa. I am baffled, and a bit hurt.'
Writer-Director Suparn Verma and Rediff.com correspondent Abhishek Mande are attending the Jaipur Literary Festival, the leading literary event in the Asia Pacific. After their enthralling experiences on Day 1, Suparn didn't have a good Day 2; although Abhishek cuckooed all through the day. This is what he has to say:
Indo-Canadian Dr Sheema Khan was amongst the five South Asian authors invited to the 12th Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal April 21 to 25.
Lewis Hamilton told fellow-Briton Nigel Mansell to get his facts straight on Saturday after being branded 'manufactured' by the former Formula One world champion.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's writer daughter Daman Singh, who will soon come out with a biography of her parents, says the account will be more personal than political.
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit has called up Anupam Kher and offered him a visa to travel to that country if he has applied for the same but the Bollywood actor declined the offer, saying he has already taken up other assignments on the scheduled dates.
'Surprised by the absence of any sloganeering or even mild protest in an ambience so free and self-regulated, I asked a friend from Delhi whether he too, with sharp political antenna, was surprised at how smooth and easy going everything was,' notes Ambassador B S Prakash.
"You have no right to take laws into your own hands. At the same time, you don't have the right to hurt the sentiments of others", the vice president said.
Actor Anupam Kher was booed by the audience as a debate at a literary festival in Mumbai on freedom of speech heated up, with the actor wondering aloud if it was a paid audience.
Star wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Saturday backed the #MeToo movement that has been sweeping through India, saying the country must find ways to prevent sexual harassment of its women.
On a visit to India in 2013, writer Ved Mehta -- who passed into the ages on Sunday January 10, 2021 - gave Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel a rare glimpse into his state of mind and what he thinks of the changes he encounters in his motherland.
Dylan is not really a writer and awarding the prize to him in the literature category is a "great insult to all the writers who have already received the award and also to those who rightly deserve it", the author said.
In the future, publishers will need to think of digital immersive marketing just like marketing a movie or show on Netflix is an immersive experience.
The former India opener Virender Sehwag, on Wednesday, described the current national cricket team as the strongest he had seen and predicted a 3-0 or 3-1 win in the upcoming Test series against Australia.
'These remarks completely expose the Congress....Rahul Gandhi. They are anti-Hindu'
Ace off-spinner Harbhajan Singh termed Indian captain Virat Kohli as 'an intense cricketer' who thrives on.
Indian writer Anuradha Roy on Saturday won the prestigious $50,000 (Rs 33.89 lakh) DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for her novel Sleeping on Jupiter at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka.
Tawang is very much a part of India, and if the present Dalai Lama decides one day to take rebirth in Tawang, the Indian government will openly welcome him and support him, notes Claude Arpi.
Aseem Chhabra attends an unusual medley of movies and literature in Chandigarh.
The India Test vice-captain has scored just three hundreds and eight fifties from 48 innings since 2016.
India are favourites to 'steamroll' Australia in the Test series Down Under due to the absence of the experienced duo of Steve Smith and David Warner.
Zainub Priya Dala was hit in the face with a brick last week after she praised Rushdie's writing at a school in Durban, a city on the country's east coast.
'There is an effort of painting the entire problem as religious one.' 'That Jammu and Kashmir is the way it is because the valley has radicalised.' 'I would be the first person to accept that there is a greater element of radicalism today than it was 25 years ago, but to suggest the entire valley of Kashmir is radicalised and everything you see on the ground is because radical Islam has suddenly taken over is not true.' Omar Abdullah, former J&K chief minister, explains why 'the situation in J&K is very worrisome.'
Expressing his concerns about India under Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, India-born author Salman Rushdie said that the attacks on freedom of expression could worsen if the Bharatiya Janata Party comes to power.
'I suggest Rahul Bajaj come out in the open and give us his own white paper on the perceived sense of fear that he thinks haunts corporate India,' says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
'He never went to the Bombay industry.'
Two Nobel Laureates, four listed writers of this year's Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists, winners of Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Crossword Prize and film stars will be the attraction at the most sought after literary event in India -- the Jaipur Literature Festival.
'Ambedkar's ideas have their own teeth -- if you don't have an appetite for them, you can't swallow them.'
Kher was one of the 18 Indians invited to the four-day festival by the organisers but he is the only one whose visa has not been cleared. The other 17 Indian participants have been given visas.
Bhubaneswar-based Akshaya Rautaray and Satabdi Mishra are on a mission to promote reading.
Former Army chief General V K Singh has dismissed the story of an alleged coup attempt by Indian army in January 2012 as the product of a "very fertile brain" and said it was at "somebody's behest".
To be held alongside the Japur Literature Festival, the three-day BookMark conference will look at different aspects of the publishing industry -- from self-publishing to e-books, digital content to distribution.
'Our grandparents' generation knew one another.' 'In our generation, you could go a lifetime without meeting someone from the other country,' British Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie tells Rahul Jacob.
Soulful strains of classical music wafted through the chilly air as the ninth edition of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival kicked off in Jaipur on Thursday at its usual venue, the sun-kissed Diggi Palace grounds, amid elaborate security arrangements.
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