Shobha Warrier has extensively covered the Sabarimala issue for Rediff.com. She is the author of His Days with Bapu: Gandhi's Personal Secretary Recalls among several books. You can e-mail the author at shobhaw@rediff.co.in
'The Supreme Court should not have come out with this kind of order and in my opinion, the court should correct it.'
'I told him, "Balu, you have to get out of the hospital. We have to do a lot of programmes together".' 'When I kissed him on his forehead, tears started rolling from his eyes.' 'I wiped the tears away and prayed.' 'I didn't know that was the last time I was going to see my friend alive.'
'The common belief in political circles is that if you provide reservation to somebody, s/he will automatically come up.' 'This is a very faulty understanding.'
'Every person has two identities in India, that of his caste and nation.' 'It is understandable in a multi-caste, multi-religious society and I don't mind this.' 'What I mind is the State has failed in doing enough to melt these two identities in such a way that everybody has access to citizenship which is more important than your caste.' 'That is why people remain in the narrow identities of his caste or religion.'
'When the Americans are talking about colonising Mars by 2030, India cannot be lagging behind.'
'Everything will be decided by the Centre.' 'Universities will have no autonomy to start a new course or introduce a new syllabus.'
'The entire rescue operation was very dangerous, and something we have not experienced before.' 'It was different from what we experience on the seas.'
'The rivers that caused the maximum problem were the ones that had dams built on them.'
'One wrong input meant instead of rescuing one person, four people in the helicopter would gone down.' 'That was the risk I was supposed to take.' 'It was like balancing on a pin.' 'In an ordinary situation, I would not have done that operation at all because it was extremely risky. But this was an emergency.'
'Nothing differentiated us, neither religion nor money.' 'We were all in a crisis together and we survived together.' 'We plan to assemble on the bridge every year on the same day, to thank for giving us a second life.'
In these dark, divisive times, Ajitha's humanity gives us cause for hope.
'The most alarming thing is all our wells have got filled with flood waters.' 'Drinking water is going to be a big problem for all of us.'
'Only when you see it, you will understand how bad the situation is.' 'The soil in the entire mountain range is soaked with water now and that uproots the trees.' 'It is frightening to see the way the soil drags down the trees with great force.'
'We used to enjoy looking at the serene Periyar river every day, flowing quietly and calmly.' 'How everything changed in a day!' 'The quiet Periyar became angry, aggressive, ferocious terrifying everyone in its way.' 'I have not seen this kind of rain fury in my entire life.'
'A lot of unauthorised encroachments have taken place in our forest area.' 'The landslides are partly because of such encroachments.' 'The other factor is deforestation.' 'Protection of forest resources is not on the agenda of any government.' 'The damage caused by the rain in Kerala is a man-made factor.'
'It is not going to be a fight between the AIADMK and the DMK; that fight is over.' 'The fight is going to be between the BJP's attempt to finish the Dravidian era and the DMK and the others trying to prevent the BJP from doing so.'
'Whatever good he did, all his achievements were overshadowed by the perception of corruption and other things.'
The differently-abled deserve a normal life. Nothing will stop Poonam Natarajan from ensuring that India, slowly but surely, gives it to them, discovers Shobha Warrier.
'You must understand that NEET is in its infantile stage.' 'When a child falls down while trying to stand up, you don't say it will never walk or run.' 'The child that falls down several times while trying to stand up may one day run a race at the Olympics.' 'Similarly, if there is firmness in approach and the willingness to listen to suggestions, NEET will be a great success.'
'When Kamal Haasan came into the room, I was literally shivering. I am just an ordinary head load worker and there, I was standing next to a legend like him. I didn't know what to do. Not even in my dreams did I think of meeting Kamal sir or talking to Shankar Mahadevan sir. I was living a dream.'
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances