Between You & Me

The Monday column for THE HINDU Bangalore edition 1981-2001

CHP, or C.H. Prahlada Rao wrote the Monday column Between You and Me for the Bangalore edition of The Hindu relentlessly for 21 long years! It just fell short of one week to complete twenty-one years mathematically. But then, it is minor stuff!
All those weekly columns are now archived. The collections are grouped under the respective year, nested month-wise for easy access. It was a tedious job, scanning, cleaning-up, and converting each to PDF, but rewarding nevertheless, and a nostalgic drive down.
CHP was both frugal and thrifty in most matters, which he unfortunately applied even to preserving the original writings! In his inimitable way, he clicked away the final piece on either his Brother or Bijou typewriters straightaway, without a handwritten draft till 1997. With a PC getting added in 1995, he was sportive to learn (the hard way though!) and composed in Word Perfect DOS version. He would destroy the past week's softcopies soon as they were published, considering their redundancy after publication!
It is nice to recall Mr. Raman and Anand, who typeset at The Hindu's teleprinter room; the regional editor Mr. R. Madhavan, Mr. P. Ramiah, the local editor; and Mr. C. Ramachandra, the editor who preceded him, and also was instrumental in suggesting CHP to the head office for writing this weekly column in the Bangalore edition. The Madras edition had a similar column written by Dr. Anjaneyulu, and subsequently by Mr. R. Krishnan.
CHP passed away on 17 February 2002 after a brief illness, and many of his friends and admirers did inquire when no collection was brought out even after the first anniversary. The credit for this archival goes to the admirers who still evince interest in his writings, and to his family for making them publicly available.
With neither the typed manuscripts or the softcopies available, the only way out was to scan each week's paper cutting, as they appeared originally. CHP was meticulous in preserving the full page of each Monday, right from the first to the last, neatly folded, and arranged year wise under separate brown envelopes that saved much work!

         The column naturally saw a few changes over the years in both form, content and writing style; right from the varying Between You and Me mast, the positioning on page 12 in a single column that ran beyond the half-fold during 1981-82, to a more compact and elegant three or four column layout on page 5, to the final promotion to page 3 under the Regional News. Section subsequently. His name curiously didn't appear at all initially, and later surfaced as a mere CHP, and varied between his nickname and a full C.H. Prahlada Rao all through! The topics also show variety, addressing a broader spectrum.
It was our intention to release a book of his collections, but like the earlier efforts by his admirers fell through. The best we could do currently is to put up some of the available softcopies, and the scanned copies of originals in PDF.
Happy reading!

DOWNLOAD

All the below Scanned PDF copies of complete collection  Between You & Me can be downloaded as separate ZIP files for each year under the Between You & Me folder.

Between You & Me 1981 ZIP 4.4 MB (13 Apr - 28 Dec)

Between You & Me 1982 ZIP 8.6 MB (4 Jan - 27 Dec)

Between You & Me 1983 ZIP 9.4 MB (3 Jan - 26 Dec)

Between You & Me 1984 ZIP 9.4 MB (2 Jan - 31 Dec)

Between You & Me 1985 ZIP 9.0 MB (7 Jan - 30 Dec)

Between You & Me 1986 ZIP 9.4 MB (6 Jan - 29 Dec)

Between You & Me 1987 ZIP 9.5 MB (5 Jan - 28 Dec)

Between You & Me 1988 ZIP 8.9 MB (4 Jan - 26 Dec)

Between You & Me 1989 ZIP 8.6 MB (2 Jan - 25 Dec)

Between You & Me 1990 ZIP 8.6 MB (1 Jan - 31 Dec)

Between You & Me 1991 ZIP 8.7 MB (7 Jan - 30 Dec)

Between You & Me 1992 ZIP 8.7 MB (6 Jan - 28 Dec)

Between You & Me 1993 ZIP 9.1 MB (4 Jan - 27 Dec)

Between You & Me 1994 ZIP 8.2 MB (3 Jan - 26 Dec)

Between You & Me 1995 ZIP 8.5 MB (2 Jan - 25 Dec)

Between You & Me 1996 ZIP 8.5 MB (1 Jan - 30 Dec)

Between You & Me 1997 ZIP 7.7 MB (6 Jan - 29 Dec)

Between You & Me 1998 ZIP 7.5 MB (5 Jan - 28 Dec)

Between You & Me 1999 ZIP 7.6 MB (4 Jan - 27 Dec)

Between You & Me 2000 ZIP 8.2 MB (3 Jan - 25 Dec)

Between You & Me 2001 ZIP 2.3 MB (1 Jan - 2 Apr)

Weblinks

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The 19 June 2000 column of Between you & me on The Hindu

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2000/06/19/stories/0419402i.htm