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4 days ago | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
“How do you plan to keep your father’s legacy alive?” It’s a question I get asked a lot these days. Earlier it used to be “What are you doing to keep your grandfather’s legacy alive?”The question changed, I’m guessing, because my father passed away three years ago while my grandfather did it 45 years ago. And people figured the guilt of not having done enough for my father would be a lot fresher, therefore a lot more mineable, than the guilt of not having done enough for my grandfather.
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1 month ago | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
What’s your problem, someone asked me the other day. I get asked this a lot and somehow hadn’t had the opportunity thus far to respond properly. You have a minute? I said. Yeah, sure, he said. Well, I’ll tell you what my problem is. My problem is that you don’t mean it when you say sorry. My problem is you don’t know how to forgive. My problem is you don’t acknowledge what is good but are quick to find fault. My problem is you think it’s okay not to respond to mails, messages or calls.
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2 months ago | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
I don’t go to literature festivals. That could have something to do with my not being invited to too many these days. I used to be at one time, mind you, and went to a dozen or so. But each time I came back, what did I do?
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Jan 18, 2025 | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
I think the press, social media warriors, and — more to the point, my favourite, the kind, beautiful Deepika — have been unduly harsh with L&T’s S.N. Subrahmanyan. What did he say that was so wrong, I say? “I think we should work on Sundays, too, for how long can you stare at your wife?” or something to that effect. From my own experience, I can tell you — not for more than three seconds max. Because my wife can outstare me even when she’s asleep.
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Nov 23, 2024 | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
The other day, I got a couple of pictures from an old school friend whom I hadn’t heard from in a while. These were photographs where the entire class posed with someone you can see now as an unbelievably youthful class teacher, one you saw as ancient back then. The surprise element of these pics was that they featured me — a rarity, believe me, because every school day for me meant one thing and one thing alone: figuring out a way to be somewhere else.
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Oct 19, 2024 | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
Location: Swanky new office of NRI ‘tech-billionaire’ from Dallas turned South Indian film producer. Those present: Producer, director, writer and a twenty-two-year-old young hopeful from interior Punjab aspiring to become a South Indian leading lady. Casting for the three-hundred crore (in two parts) film is going on in full swing. Director: So what do you think of your role? Heroine Hopeful: Er, I love the story and all, sir…but I have a question. Producer: Go ahead, but make it quick.
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Sep 21, 2024 | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
As a young fellow starting out as a magazine illustrator, my childhood dream come true, I miraculously got the opportunity to freelance for a prominent Tamil magazine. When I say miraculously, I mean nepotism. My illustrator-cartoonist father, despite his misgivings, poor man, had no choice but to introduce me to the editor knowing I was dead set on following in his footsteps.
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Aug 17, 2024 | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
“Give us something, and we’ll make it worse.” These (roughly) were the words from a few years ago of a talented singer whose voice is the only thing I like about him. Despite my reservations, his simple pronouncement was so succinctly accurate and undeniably profound that I thought it ought to be on a plaque somewhere. He was referring to a popular show on which he was serving as judge.
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Jul 20, 2024 | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
“What does the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty and above all it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits out quantity.” — William S. Burroughs The recent wedding celebration in our great land a week ago, a spectacle so blinding, and so maniacally covered by the media that it could have been avoided only by those on life support, made me think of three things. Money, free time and celebration.
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Jun 29, 2024 | 
deccanchronicle.com | Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
At a party I attended a while ago, a friend of mine, self-admitted doting dad, was having his daily phone conversation with his daughter, currently studying in the US. (Funded entirely by him, of course.) ‘Yes, sweetie, no, sugar,’ my friend went, giving the soon-to-be-laid-out dessert section a complex. Choochie pies, puppy dolls, babykins and honey boo boos were flying like missiles, as our Father of the Year took large sips of his Scotch.
