Chilkuri Sushil Rao

  Ch Sushil Rao: Queen Elizabeth II has passed away. My recollections with The Royal family.  On November 20, 1983 Queen Elizabeth II visited the Holy Trinity Church at Bolarum in Secunderbad and attended the Sunday worship service there. The Queen and Prince Philip were on a visit to India and the occasion was their 36 th wedding anniversary.   I have a photograph of the Queen at the Holy Trinity Church where she was given a traditional welcome with a garland. The then Bishop-in-Medak Rt Rev Victor Premasagar, Rev B P Sugandhar, Rev Hamiltan, the presbyter of the church at that time and other senior officials of the diocese welcome the Queen. My eldest brother-in-law Vennamalla Padma Rao, as an official of the Medak diocese is standing on the extreme right of the photograph behind the Queen during her visit.   During this visit to Hyderabad, the Queen and Prince Philip attended some programmes together and in a packed schedule chose to attend some of them separat...

 It is not unusual to hear someone hum a song as they listen to music during their metro train journey, but this young man was different. He began singing loudly. Right into my ears. He was so engrossed in the song, which he seemed to like a lot, listening to it with his earphones, but he became completely oblivious to everyone else around him. He interrupted his listening. “Keep an eye on Adi,” he told him. “Look at the status on his social media and you’ll known why I am telling you that,” he explained to the person at the other end who probably asked him why. A little while into the conversation, our young man on the metro train asked his friend if he could arrange some money for him. He was not too bothered about the people around him who could hear the conversation. He hardly seemed aware that his voice was loud and audible and even if people did not want to pay attention to his conversation on the phone, the only choice they had to was move away from him. There was no space...

  How KCR won his first poll battle with tact and other stories his friends in Chintamadaka told me The odds were stacked against him. The rival seemed invincible. Seemed. He had the numbers. Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao had the verve. Something had to be done. Something had to be done quick. Elections for the cooperative bank in Siddipet were being conducted. For the young man who was making his foray into an electoral battle, a win was what he was hungry for. If he lost, he would have lost nothing because the battle lines were clear, and it was evident that he would not make it. Who stood a better chance than him was evident from the fact that his supporters were known? They would stand by him in thick and thin. The rival, of course, did not think much of the Chandrasekhar Rao's challenge. He knew him. But from the outcome of the election, he became aware that he did not know him well enough.  Chandrasekhar Rao had managed to pull all stops and be one up over him. The...

The 16-year-old tribal girl’s fate was sealed in a room with no door.  She was now like a caged bird. She would not be able to come out of the tiny room . Four walls and a slab roof were raised.   Before the last portion of a wall was constructed, she was sent into the room. That was to be the end of her contact with the world. Like others of her age, she would no longer be able to run around and play. Like others in her community, she would not be able to join in the celebratory dances. The girl was now deprived of all her freedom. The   parents and family were fine with it. The relatives were happy. The man who celebrated this most was the girl’s brother-in-law.   He had constructed what he described as a temple and the living deity was the girl. She was no idol. She was a living person, breathing. If the room was sealed without even as much as a door, where would she get air to breathe? Good question. Would she be deprived of food too? Was this not practica...

  “So, I managed to get lodged in the jail,” Rajappa told me.  Sam Rajappa's entire focus in life at that point of time was to get jailed. He was eager to enter the prison. And stay there within its four walls, sacrificing his freedom.  Who would want to end up in jail? If there are life goals, this one is not included in anyone’s list. It sure does not figure in the bucket list of anyone. In Sangareddy district of Telangana, there is an old jail where you can pay and spend time in jail and experience the spirit of ‘lack of freedom’. But that is a luxury. You ask for it. Get it. ‘Jail tourism’ is promoted so as to give people a chance to spend time in the decades old structure. If a jail cell is what one gets to see in movies and form an opinion about, this prison gives up the atmosphere because it originally was a jail before a new building was constructed. We are not talking about jail tourism here. It was about breaking into a jail itself. Sam Rajappa worked for th...

US President Bill Clinton's visit to Hyderabad and where my  nose for news led me Bill Clinton was coming to town. A US President flying down to Hyderabad was significant. March 24, 2000 was the day he would arrive. I was curious. What goes into the coming of the most powerful person on earth? That there is meticulous planning is anybody’s guess. That the security will be tight goes without saying. There were official functions arranged. Those we could anyway cover in the newspaper.   What more? What else? So I got interested in the weather. Weather? Well, the weather was clear. In any case, once he arrived at the Begumpet airport, he was to travel by road to the couple of functions that had been lined up for him. He would return to the airport by road and fly off. The weather was clear. But I was still keen on checking it with the weather officials directly by personally meeting them. It was, actually, a means to an end. An idea that would open up a world for me. The ...