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…

Do ghosts and spirits exist? Dayyams and bhoothams, that is? Some say yes, others don’t. Sometime in the late 80s, I and our photographer traveled to Rollapadu in the Kurnool district to do a story on the Great Indian Bustard, an endangered species which was in a revival mode at the time. On the way…

Yes, my bond with Kacheguda railway station and the area has been strong and timeless. I was born in what is today Badruka College, a stone’s throw from the station, and had spent all my childhood at the nearby Barkatpura Chaman. When my parents and siblings arrived from Bezawada to settle down for good, their…

Two wonderful stories, both on page one stuff,  came my way without a sweat. The first one in the mid-70s and the second in the mid-80s…. Read on… In the evening I was joined in the Secretariat by T. Sirish Kumar, my colleague and circulation executive in The Indian Express. As we passed the chambers…

It is not often that one slams the door on your face and then opens it with a hearty ‘welcome sir.’ It happened to me at The Deccan Chronicle more than 50 years ago. I was a happy young man, just married, working as sub-editor at The Daily News when my father-in-law thought I deserved…