Chilkuri Sushil Rao

\ Indira Gandhi  Etched in memory: As a nine-year-old I waited for a glimpse of Indira Gandhi and waved to her Word had spread that Indira Gandhi would be driving past our house .   I ran out from the Wesley Church Musheerabad premises, where our family stayed. I stayed put on the road. The cops were all over for her security. Why would a nine-year-old’s mind have the inclination and the interest to go out there and wait for her? Indira Gandhi was to take the road beside Rahat Mahal theatre (now Raja Deluxe) and proceed towards Ramnagar. This was part of the Musheerabad assembly constituency falling under the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency purview. She had come campaigning for the Congress party in the 1977 general elections. As a child, I would read the newspapers every day. Perhaps this was because my father Chilkuri Samuel, would engross himself in following the day’s news with much interest. From January 1966 to March 1977, Indira Gandhi...

The man wearing a crumpled coat caught my attention. Some noticed him  –  as someone not actually dressed properly  for the occasion. It was an ‘at home’ hosted by President R Venkatraman at the Rashtrapati Nilayam, Bolarum, Hyderabad. The “who’s who” of the city was there. I saw cricketer Mohd Azharuddin. Made small talk with him. But it was the man who was standing aloof, who grabbed my attention. Not one seemed to know him. I did. He was standing out in the motley crowd. Never mind his crumpled coat. Never mind his unkempt hair. Never mind him being by himself. I walked up to him. He was taken by surprise that someone even seemed to know him. He wasn’t a celebrity. He wasn’t behaving like he was trying to grab attention. He stood there, where he was. Stood apart, would be a better description. We shook hands. He was pretty amused that somebody had recognized him. Abdul Kalam was heading a defence establishment in Hyderabad as far back as in 1988-89. At that ...