Chilkuri Sushil Rao

  A 16-year-old girl was taken captive by her own family members. She became a prisoner in their hands. The ‘prison’ was bizarre. I went there to see for myself what was happening and to write a news report. This was in 1996. I was then working for A P Times. It baffled me as to how the family could have come up with such an idea. “It is the idea of a relative of the family,” the villagers told me. I travelled to this far-flung village in Mahbubnagar district to see this, and what I learnt was something I felt was criminal. A room was constructed for the girl to stay in. Here’s the catch. There was no door to the room. She could not come out of it, even if she wanted to. She had to use the same room to attend nature’s calls. From a small opening in one of the walls, she was given food to eat. This completely enclosed space was all her world. “Why?” I asked the family. “People are already flocking to our place from nearby villages in large numbers. They are paying obeisance to her,”...

      After having been a journalist for the last 38 years, it indeed was a moment of crowning glory when Information Technology, Electronics and Communication, Industry and Commerce, and Legislative Affairs Minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu bestowed on me the “Media Legend Award” at a function held at Cyber Gardens, Hitec City, Hyderabad, on May 2, 2026. The media awards were instituted in 2021 by Hybiz TV to recognise media professionals for their work in different streams. During the media awards for the year 2026, apart from the awards given away in various categories, five personalities were chosen by a committee to be honoured with the Legend Award. It indeed is an honour for me that I was chosen. It was indeed a privilege receiving the Media Legend Award from Minister Sridhar Babu, Vivek Gupta, President, Indian Newspaper Society, former MP (Rajya Sabha) and Publisher of Sunmarg, Narendra Ram Nambula, Chairman and Managing Director of Lifespan Pvt Ltd, M Ravinder Redd...