'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.'
Ashish Sharma remembers a time when he set up the Web Monkeys to save the still new internet from doom.
'People in Pakistan opened their homes and hearts to me because I was an Indian. I didn't feel alien at all and I felt as if I was in my own country.' 'I believe that there is a strong chance that the Taliban can win over Pakistan. In an era of ideological confusion these people (Taliban) thrive.' 'The Pakistani State is an enemy state not just for India but for Pakistan itself. By funding non-state actors, the Pakistani government is destroying itself.' Film-maker Hemal Trevedi speaks on her experiences when filming a documentary on Pakistani madrasas
Junaid was my son. He was son and brother also to the people on the train compartment of his last journey. He was son or brother also of those at the railway station where he breathed his last breath. This moving excerpt from Harsh Mander's Partitions Of The Heart: Unmaking The Idea Of India reveals why we must immediately end the hatred surging across north India before it consumes us all.
We go on the sets of Juhi Chawla's Chalk N Duster.
'His past as a cricketer makes it difficult for the BJP to question his nationalism.' 'He gets away by ridiculing Modi while something similar from most Congress leaders does not resonate as much.'
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest and funniest stories from around the world.
'Poor home work, and a subsequent loss of nerve.' 'This sums up the Modi government's current travails, the stall in key sectors, fading momentum, irritability,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
As per the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), Oxford overtakes Cambridge as Britain's best research university.
At the start of the English football season last August, bookmakers in Britain were offering odds of 5,000-1 against LeicesterCity winning the Premier League. 5,000-1? Now, let's put that into perspective.
Muslim community members came in large numbers to support the Dalit community in their campaign.
Models.com recently released its 2015 rankings of the top female models in the business.
This week's collection of stories that prove we live in a truly mad, mad world.
As we celebrate the spirit of childhood, here are some children who've made India proud.
Here's this week's collection of wacky and funny stories from around the world.
The transformation of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, once a naive politician, into the most elastic entities in Indian politics is complete.
When it boils down to matters of discipline, Pullela Gopichand has no peers with PV Sindhu learning it the hard way since her formative years at the legendary coach's academy.
Communist Party of India-Marxist Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan will be the next Chief Minister of Kerala.
'She really doesn't care if she is called heartless.' 'For her, the job needs to be done. That's all that matters.'
'Does it make any difference to you, that one of our doctors almost lost his vision, while you delayed in immediately getting the right care for your family member, as per his advice?'
'A Life With Wildlife is a must for all who are concerned about how a billion Indians will coexist with over 500 mammals and 1,300 birds, not to mention 25,000 flowering plant species in the new century,' says Mahesh Rangarajan.
Rediff reader Celeste Tudu who recently joined Bongaigaon College in Guwahati writes about the nervousness and simple joys of his first day in college.
'I've seen the craze for English education even among the poorest. But that is only for their sons. Parents feel thrilled when they see their sons going to school wearing a tie. They don't mind paying for their sons' private tuitions too.' 'But daughters are sent to municipal schools, madarsas, small schools where teachers with no teaching skills are paid Rs 2,000 or Rs 4,000. That's why more girls come to my class.' Syed Feroze Ashraf, who has sent 500-odd girls (and a few boys) -- all first generation learners, children of grave-diggers, hawkers, rickshaw-drivers, tailors and watchmen -- to college, speaks to Jyoti Punwani. A Rediff.com Special.
The earthquake epicentred in the Hindukush mountain range in Afghanistan struck at around 2.40 pm, sending ripples across several states like Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi- National Capital Region, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.
Every year, for thousands of years, the Sonepur Mela, transforms a small rural town in north Bihar into a giant fair.
Daniel Carder said he's surprised to see such a hullabaloo now, because his team's findings were made public nearly a year and a half ago.
'Let us see the tricolour flutter and soar as we park our vehicles, as we play cricket in the gullies, as we surf the Internet, as we enter our places of worship,' says Ankita Athawale.
Anil Swarup, who conceived the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana -- a scheme the United Nations Development Programme and the International Labour Organisation recognised as among the finest -- speaks to Anjuli Bhargava.
Technology and social media are great tools to fight injustice, says Abhijit Masih, use them!
Jaya Puri Gharti, who served as a cabinet minister during the Maoists' term in government, tells Patrick Ward about the issues facing Nepal and the difficult road to reconciliation.
While his critics described him as a leader 'with no smile on his face, and the most feared politician in Kerala', his party rivals have often accused him of deviating from the party line.
Happy with her latest move, Indrani departed from Courtroom 51 with a spring in her step. The woman who hopped up into the jail truck was a cheerful one.
'Tying somebody to the jeep is not the military way, but the officer was able to come out of the situation without any bloodshed.' 'I am not supporting him, but I am also not criticising him.' 'He had to use some mechanism to save the uniformed personnel, many of whom were Kashmiri boys of the J&K police,' points out Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar (retd), who was instrumental in the surrender of a record 1,267 terrorists in Kashmir.
'Sriram Raghavan is mainstream Hindi cinema's greatest gift to us,' declares Sreehari Nair after watching the director's latest movie caper.
The DMK combine has won 37 of the 38 LS constituencies in Tamil Nadu, and bagged 13 of the 22 assembly bypolls. What swept away the AIADMK-BJP alliance in the southern state was not dravidian ideology but job loss and graft bias, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
At 15, she has already written two books on poetry and a novel. Meet the fascinating Zuni Chopra.
Sandeep Mawa is a Kashmiri Pandit married to a Kashmiri Muslim, intent upon spreading the message of love and Kashmiriyat through his campaign. He wants to hug Assaduddin Owaisi, Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and do a pau lago to Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi.
Pakistan on Sunday ordered a judicial probe into sectarian clashes in Rawalpindi that killed at least 10 people as authorities imposed curfew for the second day, turning the garrison city into a ghost town.
