R. Radhakrishnan's Blog, page 9

The legend of Bonbibi of the Sundarbans

The Sundarbans is a strange and different land. It is a universal meeting ground. An intertidal zone where rivers meet the ocean, humans meet the wild, the jungle meets cultivation and where religious beliefs too coexist.

Bonbibi, the lady of the forest is worshiped and prayed to by both the Hindus and the Muslims of the largest mangrove forests of the world, the Sundarbans.

The story goes that there was once a couple Ibrahim or as they call him in the Sundarbans, Berahim, and his wife ...

Soul sisters of the Mahabharata, and the birth of Karna a tribal version.

The Mahabharata is a history of life in the Indian sub continent and there are bound to be different perspectives depending on our beliefs.

The Mahabharata thus has many versions including a tribal version sung by the Bheel tribals. Many stories are changed, characters change and sometimes it is difficult to accept or even recognise the characters in different versions.

Gandhari and Kunti are supportive of each other in the epic. Even as their children fight, maim and kill each other the...

The birth of Karna

Kunti had just completed her fifteenth year. She had, like teenagers even today, a curious mind. It is the nature of the young to experiment, question, and be curious. That is how they learn. Sadly many of us forget our youth and blame youngsters for being true to their age and nature.

Kunti was curious whether the mantra would work. Her close friend and attendant was an equally young and curious youngster. They both giggled and wondered who they could invoke. They did not realize the danger...

Back from the brink.. er break.

So there I was in the most colorful airport in God’s own country, Kochi. ( For those who don’t know Kerala is God’s own country, sadly now being despoiled by humans. But let’s keep that for later.)

It was a late-night flight to Bengaluru and then from there to Kolkata by an even later flight. I hoped to arrive in the “city of joy” by 2 am. A rather joyless time to arrive.

No, I did not choose these horrible times to fly due to lower costs, they were forced on me by the airline, Air Asia a...

Taking a break!

Just a few pictures of my favorite airport.

I will not be writing much but hope you like the pictures I post. Waiting to board my flight to Kolkata. A long long flight will land at 1.30 am. Click on the picture below to see the other photos.

Taking a break! ...

Kunti

The young princess Kunti

The picture above was created by me using AI.

Kunti was the adopted daughter of Kuntibhoja. Her biological parents Shoorasena and Marsiha, a naga princess, gave her to Kuntibhoja when she was born. Kuntibhoja was Shoorasena’s cousin and had no children of his own. Longing for a child he had asked for Kunti. Shoorasena was the father of Vasudeva and the grandfather of Krishna and Balarama. Kunti thus was the paternal aunt to Krishna and Balarama.

Kunti was name...

The Indian Budget 2023, middle-class musings.

There had been assumptions, speculations, and discussions for more than a fortnight.

Serious-looking men in suits and women also in formal wear came and showed graphs and charts. They argued and bounced figures over my head.

I was retired and so instead of wasting my time looking at a computer screen, which is what corporate is all about, I wasted my time looking at the TV screen.

I dozed off in between but the better half could not catch me at it, I was a veteran of many marketing s...

Artificial intelligence: The elephant in the room!

What is artificial intelligence? AI, as it is commonly called, is the ability of machines to understand, perceive, infer, sort, and synthesize information. In simple terms, it is the ability of machines to handle information… Data as it is called today.

There is a hype about programs like ChatGPT and many others. Everyone seems to have jumped on the AI bandwagon now.

We have AI writing content, AI creating images and AI doing a lot of stuff that we did not believe machines could do eve...

A bride for Pandu

Dhritarashtra and Gandhari made a striking couple. Tall and imposing in stature, the two seemed made for each other. They seemed happy together.

Dhritarashtra was besotted with his bride Gandhari looked after him well and with affection, she found her earlier misgivings about him were misplaced. Her anger at being married to a blind man lessened to a great extent. But she could not bring herself to forgive either Satyavati or Bhishma.

Pandu and Vidura were like her own brothers. The...

Gandhari

Gandhari

The princess of Gandhar was the cynosure of all eyes. She was a tall fair girl with large wise eyes that looked upon the world with equanimity.

There was intelligence in her and a stillness, a calmness that seemed unshakable. She met her husband-to-be and was pleasantly surprised.

Dhritarashtra was a tall man with incredible strength but was gentle in speech and demeanor. He had been surprised that a princess had agreed to marry him. He was also grateful. Gandhari understood ...