Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar visits the latest pilgrimage site in Chennai: J Jayalalitha's final resting place.
This barefoot pilgrimage home we're seeing all around us, and the way plenty of us have reacted to it, is not just a commentary on India, circa 2020. It also shames us forever, notes Dilip D'Souza.
The age of the girl, with 'irrumudikettu' (offerings to Lord Ayyappa) had been shown as 10 in the virtual queue booking.
The number of Indians killed in a stampede at the Hajj rose to 45 on Monday, as authorities identified 10 more bodies among the victims of the worst tragedy in 25 years to hit the annual pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
A series of guidelines have been issued to pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath Yatra this year, including asking women not to wear sarees while trekking, by the shrine board which organises the two-month long pilgrimage.
Pilgrims travelling through the Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand will continue as scheduled.
'We have taught our children about every religion. But we have never told them that they belong to any particular religion. I always believed that these differences would slowly fade away'
Puja at the Kedarnath temple is set to resume on September 11. However, the yatra to the battered shrine wouldn't resume this season.
The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday put the number of missing people in last month's tragedy at 5,360 and announced that pilgrimage to Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines will resume by September 30 even as fresh rains pounded several parts of the state and claimed 11 lives.
"Unfortunately, there are six more Indians taking the toll to 35," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted.
The two-month old Amarnath pilgrimage concluded on Wednesday with a group of devotees carrying the mace of Lord Shiva to the 3,880 metre high cave shrine in South Kashmir.
The Railway Minister had come to Thiruchendur in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin district to flag off a new express train to the state capital Chennai.
The 39-day long annual pilgrimage to the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath concluded on Thursday amid traditional prayers at the cave shrine.
On Thursday, maximum new cases were recorded in Balochistan where the number of infected people rose to 76 from 23. Punjab was the next where the number rose from 33 to 78, Dawn reported.
Over the last decade, individual Muslims have started breaking from the tradition of sacrificing animals on Bakra Eid, motivated by the thought that the considerable amount spent on buying and sacrificing animals would be put to better use for the community's welfare, specially education.
The annual pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath began on Saturday with over 7,000 pilgrims trekking the 17-km northern Baltel route.
If he doesn't win next year, it will set back the party's prospects in 2024. If he wins, it will be seen as his win as much as the BJP high command's, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is trying to rake up as many divine blessings he can in this election season.
Ageing is a funny process. After rebelling and exploring, the human being drifts to the ordered arrangement, he/she once left. As a youngster I outgrew ABBA while my mother continued to like them. In September 2021, when ABBA's first single in 40 years was launched, I sent the video link to my mother. Meanwhile, now in my fifties, I find myself curious to hear ABBA's new songs, notes Shyam G Menon.
'Half of China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, which are among the most populous countries in the world, are dependent on the rivers and glaciers of the Himalayas for sustenance.'
The submissions were made during the eighth day hearing in the case before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
Can you ever imagine seeing Shrinathji of Nathdwara in Rajasthan weaved to come alive in Jamdani? This sari is to mark the 2021 Handloom Day Special on August 7, masterfully crafted by acclaimed weaver, Lakshmana Rao Tammisetty from Andhra Pradesh, says Ranjani Govind.
According to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), on March 12, 61,652 pilgrims had darshan, after waiting for nearly five hours, compared to 57,352 on March 11, after they waited for nearly eight hours. On February 12, about 61,860 pilgrims had darshan.
The number of Amarnath yatris leaving daily for the holy cave shrine of Lord Shiva on Tuesday reduced to three-figure, first time during the pilgrimage this year, with only 885 devotees proceeding for the darshan of ice 'lingam' in south Kashmir.
Dubey was arrested outside the Mahakal temple at Ujjan in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday morning.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday retraced the 1893 train journey between Pentrich and Pietermaritzburg of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday denied revoking permission to Kousar Nag yatra, saying no permission had been sought or granted in the first place.
According to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, the ice lingam inside the cave has fully formed this year. There had been apprehensions that the ice lingam may not take form completely owing to global warming and shifting of glaciers.
The busy administrative schedule is being cited as the reason for holding of polls in October.
A total of 350 flights from 15 embarkation points will carry the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, with the first being from Lucknow on November 11. Flights from Nagpur (to Jeddah-170 pilgrims), Kolkata (to Madinah-423 pilgrims), and Srinagar (to Jeddah-215 pilgrims) will also arrive on the first day.
Opposition Congress termed the government's decision as 'unilateral' and said it was against the interest of a majority of Ayyappa devotees in and outside the state.
'Is this man crazy?' the postmaster asked. 'Yes, who? Ali, na? Yes, saheb. Five years have passed and, no matter the weather, he comes to collect a letter. It's very rare for him to receive a letter,' the clerk replied.
Whether the third wave will ravage us depends on the pace of vaccinations, careful and calibrated opening up of establishments, and a strategy to contain the spread in specific states or pockets.
Catch up on all the big news of the week gone by, in images.
Two pilgrims died of cardiac arrest en route to the 3,880 m high holy cave shrine of Amarnath even as one lakh pilgrims paid obeisance at the shrine, officials said in Srinagar on Friday.
'I know that they are a deadly terrorist group and that killing is their hobby. But I have no fear.'
Cinemas, stadiums, town squares and other public gathering places are devoid of people as the coronavirus spreads to at least 118 countries around the world. As of Thursday, the Johns Hopkins University tracker says 1,26,258 people have contracted the disease and 4,638 have died across the globe. The vast majority of the victims have been in China but the country said on Thursday that it had only 15 new cases. The outbreak also claimed its most high-profile victim so far when Hollywood star Tom Hanks announced he and his wife, Rita Wilson, had tested positive. The couple, who are in Australia where Hanks is making a film about Elvis, said they had felt "a bit tired, like we had colds" before being "found to be positive" Take a look.
The C-17 Globemaster can airlift around 230 passengers in one go and takes less time to fly between different places.
The pilgrimage to Kedarnath was suspended on Wednesday for three days in view of the weather department's warning of heavy rains in the area and frequent blockage of roads to the Himalayan shrine following intermittent showers in the valley over the past few days.
Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory -- India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.
