C. Rajshekhar Rao, batch of ’87, is a media professional and author whose published works include a novel whose main characters are built on his closest friends from AFBBS.

Rajshekhar studied commerce in high school and was a prominent member of the volleyball team that won the zonal inter-school competitions in 1984-85 (sub-junior), 1985-86 (junior) and 1986-87 (senior). He was earlier part of the sub-junior cricket team, which used to practice at National Stadium at the time.

His novel “The Middle-Aged Teenagers”, published in 2018, is an ode to his friends from AFBBS as he recollects anecdotes from the campus at Lodhi Road during the 1980s. Quite appropriately, this book is dedicated to our Alma Mater.

It is the story of a group of friends who, now in their 40s, embark on a stag weekend to Goa, hoping to relive earlier times. Happily married but looking for excitement elsewhere, the five get out of the mundane to be their natural selves.

The story brings out the contrast between this trip and one taken 23 years ago when they were just out of school, cash-strapped and immature. But what the two trips have in common is their propensity to run into trouble. The story ends in a hilarious climax that sees them all achieve some long forgotten desires, quite unwittingly.

This is Rajshekhar’s fifth book and the second work of fiction after “India Beckons”, a collection of short stories which was published in 2006. The other three books are biographies of Indian cricketers Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh.

Rajshekhar handles media and communications for the International Cricket Council in Dubai and is part of the core group delivering top cricket events like the World Cups and the T20 World Cups for men and women. He has been instrumental in raising the profile of women’s cricket over the past few years.

Before crossing the fence, Rajshekhar wrote on sports for top media groups like The Associated Press, Agence France Presse and The Hindu. He was also a regular on television and radio shows during his time with the media in New Delhi.

An alumnus of Delhi University, he has degrees in commerce and law apart from diplomas in media and communication studies.

His sister C. Pallavi Rao, a well-known radio personality associated with Radio Mirchi and who also dabbles in short stories, was two years his junior in AFBBS (1989 batch).

A link to an interview of Rajshekhar in The Hindu is available here

The “Middle-Aged Teenagers” is available on Amazon here

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