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.
'There is a time for grace and there is a time for dignity and, sometimes, there is a time to fight. We should never back down from that fight. Don't let them win. Don't let them bully you.'
The real Kathmandu is different from the Kathmandu of the news stories, writes Patrick Ward.
'When I see an unclothed woman, I do not see nudity; I see the beauty of nature, I see God in every female form.' That's L Ramachandran from Kumbakonam, India's first Playboy photographer, in conversation with S Saraswathi
Rediff.com's Manu Shankar caught up with the 'Everest Sisters' in a candid interview, wherein they spoke about their passion for mountaineering and risk and challenges one has to face in the sport.
Wrestling komodo dragons, ethereal egrets and thirsty squirrels are amongst some of the incredible images captured for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
At the 53rd annual convocation ceremony of the IIT-Bombay, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi shared stories of his struggle and victories.
'Asked which Dilip Kumar films were among her favourites, she said she had seen not a single movie of his until that time. This became a sensational issue. She did not mean to offend Dilip Kumar. There was not a bone of diplomacy in her and she never acquired that calculating attitude even at the cost of some of the roles that she would eventually lose.'
'If I tried remaking my father's films, he might just come out of his grave and give me a tight slap.' 'Kareena doesn't want to have babies,' Randhir Kapoor tells Sonil Dedhia/Rediff.com
'I do hope the Patel family sues the hell out of the state of Alabama, and I hope the Hindu American Foundation and other community organisations are helping with legal aid and monetary support. For, there is reason to believe that it is religious and racial bias that led to the incident: In other words, a hate crime. There is no reason to suffer that silently.'
Aseem Chhabra's take on the highlights of Indian cinema this year.
Meet the cleanliness warrior from Nagaland who is cleaning up the holy ghats of Varanasi...
Prince William and Princess Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, collected quite a few Mumbai hearts on a hot two days in April.
'I am a human being, I was surely nervous, I am competing against a lot of people, but even when I played cricket there is not a single match where I was not nervous.' 'Lots of mothers, lots of sisters are so sure that no matter what happens, Sree will stand by them.' 'I will go to any length to help people.' 'If it is important to save somebody I will save him even if I have to die.'
President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday addressed the first joint sitting of Parliament as mandatorily required under the Constitution after the general elections. The address is the political, economic and foreign policy road map of the Narendra Modi government and covers virtually all crucial areas.