How Rayna Arya, who became a victim of a hit-and-run at age 12, got back on her feet again.
'Reluctance to go against temple rituals is understandable and the Hindu vote bank is extremely important at the ensuing elections.' 'But even the devout Hindus will not hold it against the government if the opportunity presented by the tragedy is utilised at least for a temporary ban.' 'Later, it may be too late as it might dawn on people that a hundred lives are not too much of a sacrifice to save a tradition,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Modi has debunked the uncontested wisdom of foreign and strategic policy remaining unchanged and running on a broad national consensus. This is clearly seen in his unhesitating embrace of the US and the clear hardening shift in India's stance on Pakistan, says Shekhar Gupta.
It would seem that Indrani's application was not something prepared or maybe even sanctioned by her lawyers and was a courtroom enterprise she had embarked on by herself, perhaps not realising it distracted from the main business of the trial and didn't help her cause.
Why Dalit leaders cross over to the BJP
Patrick French, who profiled Nupur and Rajesh Talwar and the case against them in his book India, A Portrait, speaks to Rediff.com about their acquittal.
'It used to sound very strange.' 'That the same child who used to sing Jana Gana Mana the loudest in class, who celebrated August 15 and 26th January with such fervour and who has always nurtured the desire to make India a better nation being called desh drohi.' 'It was very painful.'
'The non-violent movement would not have brought freedom to the country, that had to be an armed struggle.'
'He depended too much on assurances given by sadhus and sants. He may not be culpable, but he was wholly responsible for December 6, 1992.' 'While Manmohan Singh came to reforms out of conviction, Rao came to reforms out of compulsion. If the compulsion had not been there, I don't know how he would have responded.'
Seeing Indrani in court with her perpetually sunny demeanour and beaming face is sometimes as unreal an experience as making sense of court delays.
'The nicest thing is that it is not my film.' 'People bring their own stories and life histories to the film.'
'With folded hands, on humanitarian grounds, if she can get temporary bail on medical grounds so she can get treatment.' 'If she dies, the whole trial gets derailed.'
Rediff.com takes a look at some cases from the recent past where the courts awarded the capital punishment for horrific crimes that fall under the rarest of rare category.
The government vowed to track down the main beneficiaries of the kickbacks so that "we can do" what "we could not do in Bofors
'Could the Khar police and the CBI have tinkered with the driver's call data records?' 'And did their fiddling with the information not make it that they were tampering with the lives of people that were in the balance as a result of this case?'
Throughout, Mekhail spoke calmly, with hardly an inflection making even the barest attempt to hijack his tone. His tone was so empty it made his narrative all the more touching. And ugly and grey, as the monsoon sky beyond the window.
'Dulat's professional successors in the game would now find it that much harder to access/create meaningful sources/assets needed for effective functioning in a place like Kashmir. By blowing their cover the former top spy has undone whatever he might have been able to add to his organisation's resource kitty.'
Without a moment of hesitation, Rai jumped up on his rickety wooden stool in the witness box. He then drew his legs close to his body and wrapped his arms around his knees and finally tucked his head into his knees demonstrating the fetal position.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in the Lok Sabha that former Air chief S P Tyagi and Gautam Khaitan, both accused in the case, are "small people" who "simply washed their hands in a flowing ganga (of corruption)" and that the government will 'find out where the river was going'.
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.
'Without doubt, Narasimha Rao confronted huge challenges. Yet, in the very brief period I saw him at the closest of quarters, I have to say that he was simply magnificent. A lifetime of circumspection gave way to courage.'
Arthur J Pais interviews John Madden, director of the Marigold Hotel films, on the difficult task of creating an equally hilarious and as feeling a sequel.
The IPL has produced more controversies in its short lifespan than any other sporting league in history.
There are unprecedented political implications of identification based on 'biological attributes of an individual', such as employed by Aadhaar, warns Gopal Krishna.
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest stories from around the world.
'It was almost as though there was widespread relief that the defence bureaucracy, and the minister, could find someone willing to shoulder the blame for everything that had gone wrong with the services under Antony's charge -- the poor preparedness of the forces, slow acquisitions caused by indecision, cancellation of contracts and whimsical blacklisting of defence contractors over the tiniest suspicion that they may have paid speed money or kickbacks.'
It was between 2010 and 2014 that wildlife biologists began to realise the heavy proliferation of tigers in the Bandipur National Park in Karnataka. The fiercely-territorial beasts are today locked in battle for dominance with man and his cattle.
'It was a mission undertaken in darkness in every sense -- literally, because Afghanistan had no electricity at that time; and, metaphorically because Delhi historically dealt only with the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and the foreign ministry's vast archives had nothing to offer on the culture and politics of the northern tribes in the Hindu Kush.'
