'There are some castes that grab power, then pass on the benefits to those who belong to their own caste.'

'You have to respect nature. You won't respect nature unless you see nature's fury.'

'When we became a Rs 100 crore company in October, we celebrated in grand scale. We have grown from producing 10 packets a day in 2005, with just my cousin managing the kitchen, to 50,000 packets a day with 1,100 employees in 10 years.' 'If you have the passion to start something, do it immediately. Don't wait for tomorrow.'

Priya Ramesh, a psychoanalyst and life coach, recounts how she, her husband and neighbours braved the floods by sheltering on the first floor of their villas in Chennai's Sholinganallur suburb.

'Why do they talk about Narendra Modi insulting Oommen Chandy when he himself informed the PMO that he would not be available? Why did he write to Delhi that he was preoccupied on the 15th? After that, he should not make such noise about the function.'

'I did not ask their religion when I rescued them and they did not ask my religion when I helped them get onto the boat.' 'The moment I came out of my house on this mission, I am an Indian, I am a human being,' says Mohamed Yunus, who helped save hundreds of people on the flooded streets of Chennai.

'After three days, most people resigned to the idea of living with minimum facilities. By then, they had stopped getting angry, irritated and worried. As days passed by, one heard less and less complaints.' 'In a crisis like this, you expect the administration to help people but I didn't see any administration here. I saw only NGOs and people helping themselves' 'I feel people have not leant anything from this disaster. Unless we learn to respect nature, learn to take corrective measures, this will happen again and again.' N Rajasekharan Nair recounts his ordeal as the flood waters rose around his apartment complex.

'Male domination is not coming down but women have started standing up and questioning the authority of men.' 'I was attacked in such a crude manner only because I am a woman. Had this been written by a man, he would not have been attacked like this.' 'If at all the fascists are using this as a stick to attack Islam, it is not because of my post but because of the intolerance of those who abused me in foul language.' V P Rajeena, who created an online stir by claiming that a madrassa teacher had sexually abused her, says what she wrote on her Facebook page is just a sample, more will follow.

Chartered accountant and commentator M R Venkatesh on why the GST Bill will cost the BJP dear.

'In each hartal, enormous amount of public money is wasted. The entire state comes to a standstill. How long can this go on?' 'Every year 3 crore people sit at home not because they support hartals, but because they are forced to do so.' 'This is part of a larger measure to curb democratic rights.'

'The Chennai floods in particular clearly show there is a nexus between corruption, disaster, destruction and death.' 'Urban development in India is the source of all corruption.'

'Our children score very high marks, but do not get admission in good colleges. They get top rank, but they do not get jobs because they belong to the so-called forward caste.' 'What can we do when a boy or girl from the community with first rank is considered only at the 6^th or 7^th position for a government job just because those with reservation get precedence over us?'

'We all expected Modi with the majority to tame the bureaucracy, but it is the bureaucracy that tamed him.'

'India is so poor that political parties will not be able to wipe out poverty from our country in another 100 years. I am of the opinion that development can come only through corporates.' 'Tomorrow, if Tata or Birla or Reliance takes up another 500 panchayats, it will boost the Indian economy also.' Sabu M Jacob, managing director of the Kitex group whose NGO Twenty20 has just won a panchayat election in Kerala, speaks to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com

The government has decided to ban Indian women from being surrogate mothers to foreigners to stop 'commercial surrogacy'. How will this decision affect surrogacy in India?

'Slightly more than 50 per cent of all Keralites are Hindus. If we can unite as many as we can, we can create a huge difference in the political scene in Kerala.'

Hidenori Ish talks about his fascinating journey, from a small town in Japan to Tamil Nadu in India, for the love of music.

As the Hindu Mahasabha shockingly threatens to celebrate the death anniversary of the man who murdered the Mahatma, we need to remember Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the ideals he stood for. In this exclusive excerpt from Shobha Warrier's new book, His Days With Bapu: Mahatma Gandhi's Personal Secretary Recalls, V Kalyanam, the Mahatma's personal secretary from 1944 until January 30, 1948, recalls his murder in cold blood.

'Communal tension and violent mobs have been part of our country, whichever government is in power. What has happened since the BJP came into power is that individuals or group activities asserting Hindutva have become louder, more aggressive.' 'Now we are finding ourselves in a country where reasoning and thinking have no place, the power lies with the goons.' 'I find any ban, whether on what we write, what we eat, how we dress etc, absolutely abominable. They have no place in a democracy.' Shashi Deshpande on why she joined the writers' protest against the growing intolerance in India.

'Dadri was an extension of the cultural fascism that was happening in the country.' 'All the people in the country suffered under the Emergency, but now we see one community trying to crush the other community. Do they know what is brewing in the minds of the other side? What is happening today can lead to a very dangerous situation in the country.' 'We have lost religious tolerance in today's India.' Writer Sarah Joseph on why she returned her Sahitya Akademi Award.