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…
Jan. 20, 1975. Place: Paloncha A busload of reporters from Hyderabad arrived at the APSEB guest house for the commissioning of a unit of the Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) by the Chief Minister Jalagam Vengal Rao. A handful of us representing mainstream newspapers rushed to the telegraph office to file our despatches, while the…
The standing of journalists in public esteem has never been as dismally low as at present. Time was when journalism was accorded a place alongside the three pillars of democracy and recognized as the Fourth Estate. This episode would arguably go down as the finest hour of the Press. Members of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative…
