"I’m getting divorced, thanks for letting me know": Actor Abhishek Bachchan

Abhishek Bachchan refuted rumours over divorcing his wife and popular Bollywood Actress, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Aishwarya is at the Cannes Film Festival with Abhishek and Aishwarya’s daughter Aaradhya.

An angry Abhishek Bachchan took to the microblogging website, Twitter, to clarify his stand.

“Ok…. So I believe I’m getting divorced. Thanks for letting me know! Will you let me know when I’m getting re-married too? Thanks. #muppets (sic)” tweeted Abhishek Bachchan.

Indian Society: An Interesting Interplay of Religion With Culture!

Alain de Botton, one of the best known intellectuals of Britain, suggests that in modern world, culture should have upper hand overreligion. Ultimately, he prescribes that the former should replace the latter in the longer run of the evolution of post-modern society.

It’s fascinating to see how far Alain’s ideas can go in an oriental society like India.Recently, I visited my native district, Deoghar, situated in Jharkhand to celebrate Durga-puja. What surprised me was not the scale with which the festivity was celebrated there, but with the degree of strictness that people still follow the religious rituals. Hardly one can identify any change in the methodology of worship over these years. Even, the animal sacrificeswithin the premise of goddess’ temple still happen uninterrupted. It made me think how strongly religion governs culture in our society. In other words, I saw Alain de Botton’s thesis failing in that small district of Jharkhand.

LOVE-JIHAD? A Hindu-Muslim couple walks into a bar…

Go on, complete the joke. It’s time someone declared open season on ‘love jihad’.

In a novel I’ve been reading for the past couple of weeks, the vice president of a television channel informs a comedian — or at least that’s who she thinks he is — that Jews are not a laughing matter. The comedian agrees. The novel’s satire hinges on the misunderstanding underlying this exchange. The woman means that poking fun at Jews is no longer kosher. The performer, on the other hand, is implying that Jews are really too much of a pain in the neck to be laughing about.

HARSH REALITY: This is what a snake bite can do to you!

Snakes, those creepy crawly reptiles, the appearance of which causes a shiver to run down our spine and makes us run for our lives are far more dangerous than you could ever imagine.

A teenaged girl found this out through a very painful experience. She was bitten by a snake and despite remedies given by her local doctors, her leg, which had been bitten, began rotting and has turned black. The picture was posted on instagram by juventudmedica.

When the local cures failed, she was taken to Venezuela for medical attention. Doctors there say that her leg will have to be amputated and they have also said that she is likely to die of the snake bite despite the amputation, simply because the poison has already spread through her body.

The snake's bite led to something called necrosis - the death of living cells - which caused her leg to rot and degenerate.

Doctors say that the necrosis is likely to lead to aggravate her condition and lead to rhabdomyolysis, in which muscle tissue will begin to die throughout the body ultimately leading to her death.

So, the next time you spot a snake, run like the devil is after you. We want you safe and sound and alive.

Why Modi govt should not have revealed names of black money account holders?

Often politicians glibly say that they cannot comment on an issue  as the matter is sub judice, a convenient alibi for escaping the sustained media and public gaze, little realizing that the doctrine of sub judice has ceased to hold sway in India long ago.

In 1960 India consciously chose to resile from the doctrine that has its origins in countries where jury system of trial is in vogue which India abandoned in that year. Yet, our politicians, many of whom are legal eagles take convenient perch on the non-existent excuse. Be that as it may, the issue is something called respect for the judicial system. If not in deference for sub judice, the government ought to have shown healthy respect for the Apex Court which is now seized of the black money issue.

Behind the victory of a Muslim party in Maharashtra, the gamble of a journalist

Former NDTV correspondent Imtiaz Jaleel ran for elections so that he could make a difference. But why did he chose to represent a Muslim party that many believe is communal?

On September 19, soon after filing a report on a Bharatiya Janata Party election rally, Imtiaz Jaleel, the Pune correspondent of the NDTV news channel, surprised his colleagues by putting in his papers. Two days later, he created a Facebook account, put up a picture of himself dressed Nawab-like in a sherwani, and posted this open letter.

"Dear Brothers, Assalam-alaikum, I am not sure how you are going to react to this development but you will be surprised for sure or rather shocked to know what perhaps is the most toughest decision of my life. Having completed 23 years in journalism ‒ 11 years with Lokmat and near 12 years with NDTV, I have quit this profession, only to take a plunge into active politics. I will be contesting for the Maharashtra state assembly elections on MIM ticket from Aurangabad. (I could visualise your shocked faces!!!)."

Who are these people? Salman Khan's 'airline' themed Bigg Boss 8 fails to take off

The cream of Indian reality shows began last night. I’m not being sarcastic.

Bigg Boss really is the crème de la crème of reality TV in India. And this is purely because of Salman Khan. Whatever we may think of his acting chops or lack thereof, his superstar status makes his hosting a reality show equivalent to having Brad Pitt hostBigg Brother US.

But that’s the where the glory of the show ends this season.

We don't need PM Modi's new 'smart' cities, we need to run the existing ones better

Fourteen years ago, when Bill Clinton was issued a driver’s licence in minutes by the then Chandrababu Naidu government in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, a classmate in Hyderabad immediately decided to bring my excitement and awe to a quick end.

“Don’t exult yet. Things can go wrong: the computer or the printer may not work, or the cussed clerk at the counter may just not let them work.”

This is more or less a truism of a sort, for later I discovered that a senior secretary to the Maharashtra government would just not get to read my emails. His PA with the password would be on leave, or in those days of limited sizes of the mailboxes, wouldn’t have cleaned it up. My mails would bounce back. It was exasperating to have access to technology and not use it.