On seeing the news, Sanjaya Baru, then editor of the Economic Times, hurried to Rao’s house. The gate was open, unguarded. Baru drove his Fiat car inside, entered the bungalow, drew the living room curtain, and peeked inside. Wearing a white dhoti, white banyan and white slippers, Rao was seated on a sofa talking to a visitor. Rao noticed Baru, whose bureaucrat father he knew from their days in Andhra politics, and beckoned him to enter.
