Captain Saurabh Kalia was captured, tortured and barbarically killed in the Kargil War. For 20 years, his father has waged a war of his own to get justice for his son. Captain Kalia is no more, but he lives on in the home he did not return to.
'The BJP would not have brought him into the party if they did not appreciate him.'
The NDA candidate tells the Election Commission that the Maoists plan to kidnap him.
Mahendra Raj is a towering figure of 20th century Indian architecture.
'The police will give weightage to the socially strong.' 'The dominant caste is usually a powerful person, while the scheduled caste is normally powerless.' 'That is why FIRs are not registered.' 'Most of these complaints are by very poor people against very rich powerful people.'
As India's turns 70, a 70 year old -- one of India's finest poets -- decodes his relationship with her.
Irom Sharmila, the woman who was on a hunger strike for 16 years, leads a quiet life, and recently became a mother of twin girls.
Acclaimed writer Nayantara Sahgal, the niece of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award to protest against the "vicious assault" on India's diversity and the government's failure to protect cultural diversity.
'An unsung hero is fine, but an insulted one is not.'
There is a reason Jodie Underhill is called 'garbage girl'. She has been dirtying her hands in a crusade against filth for the last 5 years.
None of the political parties in UP has any effective plans to create jobs.
Vinita Bisht and Vinita Kamte lost their husbands -- one an NSG commando, the other an IPS officer -- in the 26/11 terror attack. Six years later, Archana Masih/Rediff.com meets them to discover that closure is one of the hardest things to find.
'I like the thought that I am competing successfully with writers much younger than me,' says Ruskin Bond.
'Wayanad has become famous because of Rahul Gandhi.'
'Never lose your optimism. Never lose your aspiration and never -- even if India becomes a prosperous consumer society -- never ever lose that shining light in your eyes,' advises Dr Peter McLaughlin, headmaster of the Doon School.
Every year, for thousands of years, the Sonepur Mela, transforms a small rural town in north Bihar into a giant fair.
'One big leader said you might get 3 lakh votes and still lose.' 'I said if I do I will make sure you are sleepless because it will be me and three lakh people.'
'They thought he can separate the Muslim votes and win, but the Kerala mind is completely different.' 'It is a secular mind because Hindus, Christians and Muslims live together.' 'We don't like somebody coming from outside, contesting in our state, winning and going and avoiding us.'
A modern day prince and princess are getting married in Bengaluru this weekend.
Unlike the LDF and NDA nominees who are at ground zero and campaigning hard every day, the Congress candidate's campaign is undertaken in absentia, dependent on an army of local and imported from the rest of Kerala Congresswomen and men.
One of the best stories coming out of Bihar is about a place where Chandragupta Maurya, Buddha, Ashoka, Sher Shah Suri and India's Mona Lisa meet.
'Politics is about caste in Eastern UP and religion in Western UP.' Rediff.com's Archana Masih gets a sense of the fault lines in this election's most volatile region -- that can make or break the future of political parties in UP.
The best analysis of politics does not come out of air conditioned newsrooms, but from the voices on India's streets. Rakesh Kumar Singhal -- once an army jawan, then an ONGC employee, then a tea shopwallah -- reveals why he left the Congress for Modi.
Saurabh Mahajan, a former Indian Army officer, is making history in medieval battles grounds. Rediff.com's Archana Masih meets the man who has supplied vintage armour and war props to Assassin's Creed, The Hobbit and knights in shining armour to the Tower of London.
The Alams saw the magical spot while on a drive to the hills. A few years later they set up home and a small hand woven shawl business, hiring local weavers, using local wool and natural colours made of root, stem and flower.
'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.
There are several other famous temples across India that disallow non-Hindus to enter their place of worship, Rediff.com lists some of them.
'There is an effort of painting the entire problem as religious one.' 'That Jammu and Kashmir is the way it is because the valley has radicalised.' 'I would be the first person to accept that there is a greater element of radicalism today than it was 25 years ago, but to suggest the entire valley of Kashmir is radicalised and everything you see on the ground is because radical Islam has suddenly taken over is not true.' Omar Abdullah, former J&K chief minister, explains why 'the situation in J&K is very worrisome.'
MUST READ: The speech Nayantara Sahgal was not allowed to give.
'Our biggest problem has been keeping this country together.' 'Nation building is never easy. It is a very difficult task.' 'Even 70 years is not too long a time.'
'This has absolutely nothing to do with Kalburgi or anybody else, it only has to do with two words: Bihar elections. It's electioneering by other means, let's save the fig leaf of morality,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
In the dangal of UP politics, much as Muzaffarnagar wants to leave its past behind, the shadows are never be far behind.
In an all Dalit village in Muzzaffarnagar, three girls who do mazdoori after finishing the day's chores, will cast their vote for the first time. Opening their home and heart to Archana Masih/Rediff.com, they say all they want is a high school, a vehicle to take them to the main road and a sewing machine.
'There has never been a problem between Hindu and Muslims in Kairana.' 'We are a people that smoke from the same hookah.' Once the seat of an influential tradition of Indian classical music, Kairana has become a metaphor for the exodus of Hindus.
The Mahindra Monastery Escape 2016 is a one-of-its-kind road trip through some of India's toughest and picturesque terrain.
'This term -- "Nehru-Gandhi" family -- is a misnomer. Nehru was not a dynast; he did not even name his successor... The big mistake she made was to push forward Rahul Gandhi who is a dead loss as a leader,' says Nayantara Sahgal, whom Sonia Gandhi calls 'Tara Masi.'
Sylvia Dyer's life began nearly 90 years ago in a forgotten, untamed land. She spent her childhood on a plantation on the Bihar-Nepal border in pre-Independent India, lived through the '65 war as the wife of a decorated army officer and saw an era grow and fade in front of her eyes.
'We saw how vigorous democracy was when it dislodged authoritarianism under Indira Gandhi. We saw its vigour again when it voted Mr Modi out of humble origins as prime minister. It was Nehru who laid that foundation for India and what is worrying today is Modi's rather imperial style of functioning,' says writer Nayantara Sahgal.
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