The Gond tribes of Adilabad district believe he is God; they deify him and the younger generation remembers him as their saviour. That was Prof. Christoph Von Furer Haimendorf (1915-1995) who lived among them at Marlawai. Haimendorf was an eminent social anthropologist who taught at the University of London. He had spent many years in…

Adilabad is in the news, thanks to the ongoing Nagoba Jatra, the biggest tribal festival of the country – at Keslapur. Over the years, my reporting assignments had taken me to various places in the Telugu states, but Adilabad was the one I instantly fell in love with. This was one reason I had chosen…

Today is Subhas Chandra Bose’s 128th birth anniversary.  His birthday is commemorated across the nation to honour his role in the independence movement in India. Japan’s declaration of war on America and Britain came as a golden opportunity to Bose.   He felt it was better to carry out his campaign from the Far East than…

Nearly 50 years ago, I landed in Kurnool to join The Hindu as its roving correspondent. I left Hyderabad amid mixed feelings of sadness at being away from the family and the excitement of a new job at a new place. Day One, Jan. 21, 1977, went off routinely with me submitting joining reports and…

ADY 1362 – THE HOME WRECKER: Two-wheelers have cast a spell on me ever since I was ten. The obsession became stronger after a cousin lent me his bike for a day. Exploiting this weakness, a crafty fellow journalist palmed off his 15-year-old rickety dying Lambretta to me. While marketing its plus points to me,…

Dasu Kesava Rao This is the story of the sad end of a newspaper, representing the darkest phase of the life of its founder, Andhra Kesari Tanguturi Prakasam, whose 152nd birth anniversary falls today (August 23). Prakasam started ‘Swarajya’ to kindle and sustain patriotic spirit among the masses and to aggressively promote the cause of…

Breaking News, literally: Sensational and shocking. These are words by which some channels and web magazines swear.  There is nothing sensational or shocking about what they report. However the other day I watched news actually breaking. Yes, spokesmen of two rival parties during a live TV debate found hot words not getting them anywhere. Logic…

How we set out to Srisailam without a paisa in hand: This was in the early 90s. We planned a trip to Srisailam and my schoolmate who was the regional manager, of APSRTC, offered to help us with seats (there was no reservation for day services those days) and entrusted the job to the station…

In the early ‘50s, a young man, tall, fair, and of athletic build, used to call at our Barkatpura residence to look up Rushi, my brother, over a cup of tea. They talked about football and nothing else. I remember these meetings though I was only ten at that time. The handsome guy, I learned…

This happened a few years ago on a March afternoon. It being a holiday, we considered a short drive. ‘No temples, no relatives. Only a long drive’, insisted Gen. Next of the family knowing well our preferences. ‘OK’, we said but read on what happened. Having started late and not knowing where to go, we…