Ram V Sutar, 89, has already created more than 200 distinct statues, many of them massive. Now, he is a leading contender for the commission to produce the world's largest statue: A 597-foot tall rendering of Sardar Patel, an independence leader who played a crucial role in uniting India's fractious states.
India cricket captain Virat Kohli and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu were on Monday recommended for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna by the awards selection committee.
'Is this protest real or a manufactured one? Is this not a case of ideological intolerance?" the finance minister writes in a Facebook post.
"World Cup is a big event and seeing the enormity of the situation, the players might just rise up to the challenge and peak at the right time," Anjum told PTI.
'Every time I step on stage, I feel like I'm performing the play for the first time,' Manoj Joshi tells Sadiya Updade.
'A person should not be caught in the pursuit of enjoyment alone, he should experience enlightenment too. I mean, there should be action and motion. We must enjoy the action, not the motion,' BKS Iyengar told Rediff.com in September 2000.
The gold medal in men's javelin throw F46 category in the Rio Paralympics made Devendra Jhajharia the most successful Indian para athlete ever but he is in no mood to stop here and is eyeing for a treble in the 2020 Tokyo Games. The 35-year-old Jhajharia, a left-hand amputee, is the only Indian para athlete to have won two gold medals in the Paralympics, the earlier one being the yellow metal he won in 2004 Athens. "I am not stopping here after the Rio success. I have enough gas in my tank and I will definitely go for gold in Tokyo. I know my body and I can still train two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening rigorously everyday, just like I did in the build-up to the Rio Paralympics," Jhajharia told PTI in an interview.
'The industry is all about money. It has nothing to do with talent and calibre,' Kay Kay Menon tells Sonil Dedhia/ Rediff.com
The Bombay Hemp Company offers goods fashioned out of hemp, the lesser known cousin of ganja.
The last rites will be conducted in Mandala in Madhya Pradesh, according to his wishes.
Kadvi Hawa has some very bad news for us all.
"A writer must be like a sponge. I absorb everything from different parts of life."
'There are different kinds of risk.' 'It is a very powerful value. Your ability to de-risk the risk is also as important for risk taking.'
We bring you excerpts from Mother Teresa's Nobel Prize acceptance speech
'There is nothing in Headley's testimony. Where is he saying anything? He says, 'I don't know, I don't know.' He says 'I overheard somebody's speech.' Is this evidence? This is double hearsay.' 'If this (the Ishrat Jahan encounter) investigation is really carried out further it points to the heart of BJP's political leadership. And therefore they want you to distract you and say terrorist, terrorist.'
Charles 'Biharilal' Thomson, an Australian who speaks fluent Hindi, on how India has bewitched him.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Narayanswami Srinivasan suffered a major setback on Thursday as the Supreme Court barred him from contesting any election of the Board of Control for Cricket in India on grounds of conflict of interest.
Today, it is modish to be part of a yoga class, to post stories on Instagram while striking an impressively complex asana in a bralette and crop-top paired with neon yoga pants, to bond over green tea and yoga bars after a strenuous session at the studio and have subscriptions to yoga studios, not ashrams, says Manavi Kapur.
'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.'
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.
'If not, we can become frighteningly chaotic, more chaotic than what we are today.' 'In today's environment in the country, we still have a window of opportunity.'
Mark Tully on the India he loves.
Mohammad Sajjad salutes the memory of Mushirul Hasan -- historian, thinker, academic, institution builder, -- who passed into the ages this week.
Shobha Deepak Singh, whose association with the legendary Kishori Amonkar, spanned 35 years, shares her memories of the musical genius.
Probably the only such school in India, the Satguru Kabir Shiksha Samstha in Luniyakhedi village, Madhya Pradesh, is based on Kabir's philosophy and ideals.
And no, the list doesn't start and stop with Boman Irani!
Mithali Raj trained in classical dance for eight years until she decided one day it was time to follow her heart and exhibit footwork of another kind.
'In my personal life, I honestly find it very difficult to express my anger.' 'And then, when you are a public figure, you feel watched that much more and then you are all the more careful.' 'Begum Jaan, therefore, was the answer to my angst.'
Cancer surgeon Dr Ramakant Deshpande answers the most crucial questions on the disease. And offers very important advice on ensuring yourself a healthy, everyday life.
Professor Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao is the third scientist to be awarded the highest civilian award -- Bharat Ratna, a crowning glory of his inexorable list of outstanding achievements.
'It is not about women today; it's about men.' 'We need to focus our energy on a war footing on men.' 'Let us start with a boy who is 10 years old.' 'If you don't concentrate on your son, the safe spaces for women will shrink further.'
'When you go through the ups and downs of life you need someone who says that no matter what happens to you, whether you are successful or not, I am there with you.' 'In the absence of that person and that love, you have a society which is depressed.'
'Acting is a very crazy profession to be in. Mentally and emotionally we have to go into a particular zone and come out of it and keep on doing it. I am sure acting takes a toll on everyone and maybe that's why logon ko actors pagal lagte hai.' In the second part of a fun conversation, Tabu shares some beautiful nuggets with Rediff.com's Savera R Someshwar and Sonil Dedhia.
'I am a very personal writer. I write direct to the reader. I don't hold back,' says India's most loved writer, Ruskin Bond.
'I had once gone to Kashmir with him and his wife. He would talk to the boatmen, the watchmen, at the dargahs he would ask so many questions. He always had a notebook and would write down everything... He was an intellectual and he was fun. He loved people, loved life and had the spirit of enquiry. He used to advise me, "When you write - inform, provoke, abuse".' Sadia Dehlvi on her 30-year-old friendship with Khushwant Singh.
'From the beginning (I have told her) "Whatever it may be -- you are losing or winning -- on the ground you're not going to cry!" She never cried.' '"I don't want you to project that you are a loser. You are a winner".' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com speaks to Leela Raj about her famous daughter, now in the West Indies for the women's T20 World Cup.
Hers is a rags-to-riches story for the ages, peppered with risks, determination and strokes of luck.
In an interview to HarmonyIndia.org, the artist, who had famously said that he lived to paint and painted to live, spoke of what the 'bindu' meant to him, about his friend M F Husain and the legacy that he will leave behind.
