'Because I am the first official transgender candidate of a political party and fighting against Jayalalithaa, I got a lot of publicity.' 'Till now, nobody knew me. Now, the entire Tamil Nadu knows me.' 'The transgender community here wanted me to withdraw my candidature, saying Jayalalithaa had provided them with houses.' 'They feel Jayalalithaa would be angry with all transgender people because I am standing against her.'
"When the people of BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) talk of Article 370, they talk of technical integration. We have to make them understand that we also want that Jammu and Kashmir should fully integrate with India emotionally," she said.
Sanjeeb Mukherjee, who was eight years old when the deadly gas leaked from Union Carbide's factory, gives his account of living in the city during that fateful period
"Start small, chill out, work through your ideas. And then make them happen," is 22-year-old entrepreneur Zeba Abdur Rehman's success mantra. Zeba, whose desire for a little extra pocket money led her to start her own handcrafting company, Paper to BagI, tells Rediff.com how it all started and the two years of growing, learning and maturing as a businesswoman.
Fun and games at start-ups have ended as easy money dries up.
'...because we are truer to the spirit of the Hindu faith.' 'There is absolutely no question that the Hinduism of the mob lynchers, the people who have killed others because of what they are eating or how they are worshipping or the faith they belong to or what they're doing professionally, those are, to my mind, not Hindus at all.'
'Renu Raj has exploded many civil services myths.' 'The popular belief is that unless they come from English speaking, sophisticated and affluent families, prepare at a young age, get educated in a first rate college, go to a coaching class in one of the metro cities, take the examination several times, the aspirants cannot make it to the civil services list, particularly its very top.' Ambassador T P Sreenivasan -- who serves in an honorary capacity at the NSS Academy where Renu coached for the IAS -- on how she surprised even herself by topping the UPSC exam.
Donald Trump's executive order prohibiting the entry of people from seven Muslim-majority nations widened the rift between the Trump administration and several leading American companies.
Dhruv Shirpurkar's parents never let go of their faith in God while standing with him in his battle against a rare disorder that left him 85 per cent disabled and bound to a wheelchair.
'For a long time I didn't know what my mother did -- she kept me in the dark to protect me.' 'But whatever she did, she did it for me.' 'It's been three years since my mother passed away.' 'If she was still alive, I'd respect her choice and stand by her.'
Many exemptions make little sense, such as a monthly exemption of Rs 100 for college education and Rs 300 for hostel fees.
'We could not sleep for many days. We kept hearing gunshots and blasts throughout the night.' 'To live in a war-torn city is terrifying.' 'Our journey from the hospital to the port was the scariest.' 'We were taken care of so well by government officials. They did not leave a single person behind.'
'When the youth population is so large, in a globalised world, they look for opportunities. Are there enough opportunities for the youth in India?' 'The idea of affirmative action has to be creating capability. All individuals have potential. Unfortunately, there is capability deprivation because of the State's inaction.' 'Nation building has been a disaster in India mainly because we lacked the work ethic compared to the US and European countries.'
Unprecedented violence... Mobs determined to teach Delhi a lesson... An incompetent chief minister... Losses of over Rs 200 billion. Haryana's Jat agitation has a somber message for the nation.
Make in India has few advantages and some disadvatnages too.
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.
'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.
As an entrepreneur the most important quality you have to have is that all consuming passion to become an entrepreneur.
On the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, Sangh Parivar affiliates say they are annoyed with the ruling dispensation but can't live without it either
After Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, discontent is brewing among Congress MLAs in Manipur.
The biggest lesson China can teach India is that when it comes to sustaining a love affair with investors, nothing works better than an undervalued currency and its by-product: a current-account surplus.
he has to demonstrate the ability of his government to take a quantum leap, almost tantamount to setting the Ganga on fire, in the next six months, if not in 100 days, if the people were to take seriously the cascade of commitments spewing out of the President's address to both Houses of Parliament on June 9, says B S Raghavan. B S Raghavan suggests five practical propositions through which the Modi government can bring in paradigm changes.
'Young Indians are reading, but the wrong stuff.' 'They are reading and sharing Pappu jokes, Alia Bhatt memes and all the irrelevant material online.' 'My aim is to get them interested in books.'
Lalit Sathyarthi, an aspiring actor, left his home in Agra to follow his lifelong dream of becoming a Bollywood hero. He is still struggling to succeed but he's not giving up yet.
'So what if the enemies take us as prisoners of war? So what of they kill us? I would feel proud that I could sacrifice my life for the country,' say these proud lady officers of the Indian Navy.
The Hero Electric Cruz is a good electric vehicle, but has a few more boxes to be ticked for it to be accepted by the masses.
The Lumoid site a is clean and user-friendly e-commerce experience, prompting visitors to select a category, like 'Landscape,' 'Sports,' and 'Student' for recommended custom created kits or 'Shop All Gear' for those who prefer to pick and choose the pieces they need.
Lawyer: 'Did YOU not ever feel scared?' Shyamvar Rai: 'I am a driver, I said okay. Madam said it is your job...'
'Modi's campaign has been strikingly devoid of anti-Muslim rhetoric. After the kutta pilla incident, it has been several months since he said something horrible about the Muslims of India. It is the result of democratic constraints. He has to make compromises... He's trying to reinvent himself. He will politically hurt himself if 2002 becomes the definition of Mr Modi again', says political scientist Ashutosh Varshney.
When Pope Francis canonizes the late Mother Teresa at the Vatican on September 4, she will officially be recognised as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. However, for her followers in Kolkata, the title is a mere formality.
65,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees still live in Tamil Nadu. Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar discovers the challenges for the refugees to return home.
An excerpt from Conde Nast India's Make In India magazine.
'It is a great misfortune that the Nehruvian Stalinists of India have colluded with the grand project of demeaning and destroying Sanskrit. Today, the number of Sanskritists in India is low, and falling,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
The December elections in Delhi will be the first real test for the Aam Aadmi Party. Manavi Kapur spends a day shadowing its leader on his campaign
'Everyone in my family has got huge success in films but I failed. The person who hits rock bottom has to face his difficulties himself. People at a higher level don't know what's happening down there.' Aamir Khan's brother Faissal tells us where he's been all this time.
'I always used to say ignore the trolls and move on and focus on your fans and friends,' Sreenath Sreenivasan tells Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar. 'That was easy for me to say. But now when I say it, I really mean it.'
PM Modi addressed the Sri Lanka Parliament on Friday.
Twenty-year-old Sheetal Jain is the daughter of a bar dancer and grew up in Mumbai's red light district. She is now in the US pursuing a course in drumming
'Manto is the only writer to grasp what the project of Pakistan would eventually mean,' says Aakar Patel, who has translated a collection of Saadat Hasan Manto's essays in a just-released book Why I Write.
