Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, has exhorted people to have more children before it is too late to repent. Naidu is not normally known for making out-of-the-box statements of this nature. He is not the type who speaks impulsively without applying his mind. He is perhaps the only Chief Minister in the…
In the small yet picturesque town of Kotagiri, about 29 kilometres from Ooty, this writer stayed for five days even before the election results were declared. During casual conversations with locals, despite exit poll predictions, most people mentioned either the DMK or the AIADMK, largely reflecting their traditional political loyalties. Very few believed that Vijay…
Call it a play on words, but after a recent, rather harrowing drive, this writer is convinced the answer is a resounding yes. What began as a neatly planned road trip from Hyderabad to Bengaluru on April 29 nearly spiralled into a roadside nightmare—saved, quite literally, by a blinking dashboard sensor most of us barely…
Much like Much Ado About Nothing, the enduring drama over Andhra Pradesh’s capital risks becoming an exercise in noise rather than necessity. What began as a legitimate post-bifurcation challenge in 2014 has, over a decade later, devolved into a prolonged political spectacle—rich in rhetoric, poor in resolution. Amaravati has remained at the heart of this…
Among public figures, Garikapati appears to be the first high-profile “victim” of the paraabhava dhaati predicted in the panchangam during Ugadi. Few would have imagined that a preacher admired for his blunt, unapologetic style—often seen as a counterweight to the more measured approach of contemporaries like Chaganti—would face such a sweeping and viral backlash. The…
Happy Ugadi The first two words should bring a smile to you, while the other two—in Telugu and English respectively—may create an eerie feeling of anxiety. But that’s how this year is destined to be, if we go by what the Hindu calendar, or panchangam, portends for us to ponder over. Every year marks the…
This writer has a habit (don’t know whether it is good or bad) of forcefully convincing his close friends and relatives not to miss something which he feels compelled to say. When he was trying to do this over the phone to a former student cum close friend, he shot back,’ Why don’t you write…
A recent trip to Tirupati offered this writer the opportunity to discover an extraordinary place, despite having visited the temple town several times earlier, including a year of college study there in 1974. The place may be new to this writer, but its history stretches back over 2,200 years. One wondered whether he was the…
A recent incident involving a Kova Bun vendor during the Medaram Jatara prompted me to reflect on the larger street food culture in our cities. Today, one can spot customised mini closed vans selling Kova Buns across the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The episode involving “Kumari Aunty” has not yet faded from public…
When does political theatre cross into a national security concern? That is the uncomfortable question now confronting the nation after excerpts from an unpublished memoir of former Chief of Army Staff Manoj Mukund Naravane surfaced in public discourse — and were cited on the floor of the Lok Sabha by Leader of the Opposition Rahul…
