Multiple Grand Slam winner Sania Mirza is only 29 but the iconic sportswomen has put together the story of beating incredible odds to get to the top of the tennis world in a new book. Sania, who turned an instant sensation after she won the Wimbledon Championships girls' doubles title at the age of 16 and went on to register 41 consecutive wins with her doubles partner Martina Hingis, talks about her journey and its hardships to become the Tennis World Number One.
Samuel Stokes made India his home and participated in the freedom struggle. He was the only American to be imprisoned for sedition; the British CID maintained a special file on him.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels that a big deal is made out of Suresh Raina's susceptibility to short-pitched bowling.
'For years American academia has used the concerns about Hindutva in India to almost completely trash the concept of Hinduism.' 'In the American debate, Wendy Doniger's point of views perpetuated Hinduphobia.' 'Americans were willing to change... Indian intellectuals let us down badly.'
... And sometimes, that's enough, says Sreehari Nair.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
'Nehru's hegemonic politics has been responsible for many ills, which undoubtedly includes Kashmir'
Dad had sneaked into East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) well before the war had started for reconnaissance of the terrain on the other side. He had disguised himself as a driver of a truck laden with goods and traveled into East Pakistan to be received by the underground fighters of the Mukti Bahini.
The Indian-American astronaut will fly the first space capsules built by private companies, SpaceX and Boeing.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
'2016 was the age of convenience for Hindi movies; of down pat effrontery and planned feeling triumphing over attempts to discern something complexly beautiful,' says Sreehari Nair.
10 important things we've learned purely by watching Mohenjo Daro's extravagant trailer!
Though this time India's first astronaut remained earth bound, P Rajendran/Rediff.com finds out more about his journey off the beaten track along America's East Coast.
Glimpses from the magnificent Kochi Biennale.
The eighth edition of the Indian Premier League, says Haresh Pandya, provides Yuvraj Singh a chance to make up for time lost and opportunities missed or squandered.
Celebrate 70 years of the bikini with these hotties in India.
'I say Modi was India's last chance.' 'Because the kind of work this government has done -- I'm talking about physical delivery -- is fantastic, like no time in our history.'
Can we make high speed 4G Internet available at 10 cents per GB, and make all voice calls free of cost -- that too in a large and diverse country like India? Can we make high-quality but simple breast cancer screening available to every woman, that too at the extremely affordable cost of $1 per scan? Can we make a portable, high-tech ECG machine which can provide reports immediately and that too at the cost of 8 cents a test? Can we make an eye imaging device that is portable, non-invasive and costs 3 times less that conventional devices? Can we make a robust test for mosquito-borne dengue, which can detect the disease on day 1, and that too at the cost of $2 per test? Amazingly, says Dr R A Mashelkar, the eminent scientist, all this has been achieved in India, not only by using technological innovation but also non-technological innovation.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap speaks to Harish Kotian/Rediff.com about his recent triumph over world No. 1 Chen Long of China and why he wants the Indian Badminton League to be revived.
'It is in the interest of both sides that the visit of the US President is seen as being successful. Both sides have invested considerable political capital in it. This rapid exchange of visits and the decisions taken have to be justified, beyond the symbolism, which is no doubt important in itself. This opportunity to impart a fresh momentum to ties should not be missed,' says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.
From Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, Imran Khan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, these cricketers, among others, etched their names in the annuls of cricketing history with heroic efforts that helped their teams clinch the big prize of One-day cricket. With the 2015 edition of the cricket World Cup starting on February 14, we bring you a brief history of finals from 1975-2011...
Like the Vietnamese, maybe we too will survive bombs and disasters to see a better day.
So what money lessons did we learn after watching Rohit Sharma's magnificent, world record inning unfold? Read on...
Her great grandfather began sugar co-operatives in Maharashtra. Her grandfather was an eight time MP. Her uncle is currently leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly. Her cousin joined the BJP on Tuesday, March 12. Nila Vikhe Patil, who could one day become prime minister of Sweden, unravels her India connections in an e-mail interaction with Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Repeated surveys have shown that India is among the world's top vacation-deprived countries. Kanika Datta reflects on our work-life balance - the lack thereof that is.
The controversy over Sant Rampal and his army of followers taking the law into their hands has once again thrown the spotlight on the clout that India's godmen possess.
Two months after the Malaysia Airlines plane vanished into the skies, conspiracies have floated to explain the enigma of the vanishing flight. Amid these claims, one is that the plane was hijacked and is being prepped for a terror attack by the Taliban or by Israeli terrorists. Anvar Alikhan tries to piece this puzzle together and find out the truth behind flight MH370.
Top seed Sameer, who won the Swiss Open earlier this year, had to dig deep into his reservoir to outwit compatriot Pratul Joshi 16-21, 26-24, 21-7 in 55 minutes. In another quarter-final, Gurusaidutt, a former Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, recovered from a game down to beat Malaysia's Lim Chi Wing 13-21, 22-20, 21-11 in 59 minutes.
Lovers of good cinema should not miss this opportunity to watch one of the best Indian films of 2016, raves Aseem Chhabra.
There's more to this country than just the Northern Lights.
'I have done so much work after the Mahabharat, but people still remember me as Duryodhan.'
Twenty two years before Kabir Khan's The Forgotten Army streams on Amazon Prime on January 24, 2020, his documentary of the same name was telecast on Doordarshan. On that occasion, Kabir Khan spoke to Amberish K Diwanji/Rediff.com about Netaji's Azad Hind Fauj and its many battles for India's freedom.
The legend of Virat Kohli grew exponentially with his clinical decimation of rivals in a year during which the Indian women's team finally found love and acceptance in the cricket-crazy nation after an emotionally charged World Cup While 'King Kohli' geared up for a watershed next 18 months after nine straight Test series wins, mostly at home, the last six months witnessed Mithali Raj turn from women's cricket team captain into a brand.
'I am actually quicker now than before,' Boxing legend Mary Kom tells Pavan Lall.
England batsman Joe Root believes if they stay true to their character, it will not be a problem to beat West Indies in the ICC World Twenty20 summit clash on Sunday. "I don't think there's been an attitude swing or the way we approach practice or anything like that. We went into the tournament and stayed true to what we believe in as a side and the way we play our cricket. I think that's probably been the most important thing," Root said ahead of the final. The promising youngster struck a match-winning 83 from 44 balls to script their famous win against South Africa chasing a huge 230 as they have not looked back since then. "It's about making sure that we did not go away how we wanted to play and the way we wanted to approach our cricket. Having that self-belief in each other and we could get and win against South Africa and build our confidence from that point onwards. Everyone contributed in some way, shape or form which is always nice getting into the final," Root said. He however credited the captain and coach duo of Eoin Morgan and Trevor Bayliss for this turnaround, especially after their ignominous exit in ODI World Cup in Australia last year where they had failed to get past any team apart from minnows Scotland and Afghanistan.
'Muslims are depressed and disillusioned.' 'The safety valve is that we still have a multicultural mosaic in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.'
Justifying the security extended to separatist leaders of Kashmir Valley, Union minister Jitendra Singh has said that they faced threat from Pakistan which might attack them to blame it on India.
'The diplomat's arrest has led to a major diplomatic spat, the likes of which I have not seen in my nearly three decades of covering the US-India relationship, says Aziz Haniffa. 'The knee-jerk reaction by the powers-that-be in Delhi was myopic to say the least.'
From Kutch to Itanagar, Kashmir to Kanyakumari, there is only one emotion, it seems. Fear. Of coronavirus.
