Python read characters vertically in a file

with open('input_vertical.txt') as input_file:
    rows = input_file.readlines()
print rows
print '---'
rows = [row.strip() for row in rows]
print rows
##The single star * unpacks the sequence/collection into positional arguments
rows = zip(*rows)
print rows
rows = [''.join(row) for row in rows]
print rows



"""
Output:

['prabhath\n', 'test\n', 'vertical\n', 'lines']
---
['prabhath', 'test', 'vertical', 'lines']
[('p', 't', 'v', 'l'), ('r', 'e', 'e', 'i'), ('a', 's', 'r', 'n'), ('b', 't', 't', 'e')]
['ptvl', 'reei', 'asrn', 'btte']
"""