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Sailors express gratitude from the Persian Gulf

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  Thank you Sushma Swaraj. Thank you TOI. Thank you Sushil Rao. This is what the poster reads. This quite literally moved me. The poster was held aloft by a group of sailors on a ship in the Persian Gulf in 2017. The seafarers on a commercial vessel were in a difficult situation. Thanks to the intervention of the then Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Protector General, Government of India, Director General of Shipping, Consul General of India in Dubai, officials and individuals who went out of their way to help them when they were in dire straits, the seafarers could return to India safely. I am truly humbled by the fact that they held this poster aloft on their ship. When I wrote news reports about their plight in the newspaper, I did it out of concern for them. I did a small part as a journalist bringing to light the fact that they were in a difficult situation, quite literally abandoned, and needed help. It came as a surprise to me when they se...
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The Assembly Speaker sent word saying I should meet him. Did I do something wrong?

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  "The Speaker is calling you," a staff member from the Speaker's office came and informed me. I was sitting in the media gallery of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. This was in 1989. What was my mistake? How had I erred? From the very beginning of my career in 1988, I was asked to cover the assembly proceedings. Everything was new. I did not know the MLAs by name. I did not know which party they belonged to. The only thing that was clear was that those in the treasury benches were legislators belonging to the ruling party. On the opposite side, the leader of the opposition and main opposition party MLAs sit. The legislators belonging to the other parties have a seating arrangement, and this too is on the other side of the treasury benches. There was nothing that I knew about assembly coverage. But thanks to my seniors in the profession, I gradually understood. All of them represented other newspapers, English, Telugu, Urdu and Hindi. If I had to learn something, ...
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We lost our bicycle, NTR lost his chair. We got them back.

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Sometimes I would notice him standing on the balcony of the building in Ramakrishna Cine Studios at Golconda Cross Roads in Hyderabad. This was before he launched the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on 29 March 1982. He probably was out there to get some fresh air. So his mind was not completely occupied with the agenda on hand. We lived at Risalagadda, a few minutes' walk from Ramakrishna Cine Studios. Sometimes, we would catch a glimpse of the famed actor and there were occasions when we also caught his attention. In those moments, he would reciprocate when I waved to him. This was during 1981 and 1982. I was a student of Class VIII or IX then. It was mostly when I was returning home from Wesley Boys High School near Paradise, where I studied, that I would notice him. The only film of NTR I had watched was "Adavi Ramudu", which was released in 1977. I was nine years old then. We, however, got to hear some very interesting stories about NTR and his acting. His personal make-up ...
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How I investigated about fake medals available in the market for army personnel to buy

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  It was a fake medal. A high-ranking senior Army official wore it on his uniform. Not just him — many others also had the same fake medals. Why would they have to show off a fake medal? I was curious. I tried to understand. I could not understand it. What came as a shocker was that it was not an uncommon practice to wear a fake medal and display it. Everyone seemed to know that there were fake medals. Fake. How could it possibly be? An expert on defence affairs, who was from Hyderabad but lived abroad, had a better understanding. "Even you can get the medals," he told me. That sounded casual. He said it like it was a matter of fact. This aroused my curiosity even more. "They are available for a price and can be bought over the counter," he said. How could various Sena medals that the Army gave to its personnel be available to anyone? I went to a shop at Trimulgherry in Secunderabad, in the Army area. There are several shops at Lal Bazaar selling Army uniforms and t...
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The calculations went awry. The numbers did not add up. KCR had to do some rethinking.

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  "Okay, I have to leave now," K. Chandrasekhar Rao said. We wondered where he was headed as he suddenly got up to leave. A few other reporters and I were sitting across the table, talking with him. Usually, after addressing a press conference, he would go to his chair and table in what served as an office room adjacent to the hall. This was at another premises before the present Telangana Bhavan was constructed in Banjara Hills and from where the party started functioning in 2006. We were not aware of any other political activity for the day when we sat with KCR in his office chatting with him. So, when he suddenly announced that he had to leave, I could not help asking him: "Where?" "To Koti," he said. "Why?" I asked. "To buy footwear," he answered. KCR was particular about buying his footwear from that very shop. The right size. The right fit. The right number. For KCR, the president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi that he founded,...
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My Correct Poll Outcome Forecast Of 2004 Assembly Elections in Andhra Pradesh

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  I correctly analysed what the poll results would be. The assessment turned out to be accurate. On April 18, 2004, I wrote this report in The Times of India, Hyderabad. The substance of the report was that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had reason to worry about its prospects of returning to power. The ruling TDP contested 267 seats in alliance with the BJP and won 47 seats. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), formed in 2001, was contesting the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections for the first time. The party was created to fight for a separate Telangana state. It joined hands with the Congress and contested the elections held in April–May 2004. According to the analysis I made, the TRS had already proved its mettle in the panchayat polls held three years earlier, where it secured a vote share of 20 per cent. Under the seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress, the TRS contested 54 seats and won 26. The Congress contested 234 seats and won 185. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy of the Congres...
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Sankaran's postcards

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  Shankaran is unique in the way he greets and wishes people on their birthdays. Shankaran sends a post card with birthday wishes. I have got several cards from him over the years. The greeting card will invariably have some additional information. He lists the names of some well-known people who were born on the same date. All of his friends receive such cards from Shankaran. There are three ways the card lands on your table. He would post it and it would be delivered. If he was in the office itself, he would personally come to wish and hand over the birthday card. If one was not around in the office, he would leave it at the table. Shankaran continued with this practice even though he left TOI a few years ago. His greeting card would still land on the table or he would personally leave it at the reception. I worked in the editorial and he worked in another department. We would always talk. We would talk on subjects that I was not interested in. He would assume that the two subjec...
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