Symbol

Do the symbols people choose
reflect the level of their civilisation?

Note the level at which the sword is held... the body language.

Does the body language reflect the mind, the attitude?

[Photo courtesy The Hindu, dated 23 Dec 2010]

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As I Turn 66

A n exercise in narcissism – that’s what this post is ultimately. But I wanted to start my 66 th birthday on a naughty note. So I asked AI [ChatGPT] to interview me. With AI’s permission, I’m reproducing extracts from the interview here. The whole interview can be read here . [ChatGPT turned out to be more voluble than I am.] Q : Sixty-six years of life — that’s a grand stretch of stories, wisdom, and wonder. How does it feel to be 66 today? Is it what you imagined it would be like? A : Thank you, first of all, for your wishes as well as your consent to my request [to interview]. I'm happy that I've hit this mark particularly because the average lifespan in my country is 67 which may mean I have another year to go. But I'm healthy and may go on more. It hasn't been exactly like what I wished. A lot of things went wrong. Q : Looking back across all these years, what’s one lesson life has taught you — something you now hold like a precious gem, something that chang...

Mandodari: An Unsung Heroine

Mandodari and Ravana by Gemini AI To remain virtuous in a palace darkened by the ego of the king is a hard thing to do, especially if one is the queen there. Mandodari remained not only virtuous till the end of her life in that palace, but also wise and graceful. That’s what makes her a heroine, though an unsung one. Her battlefield was an inner one: a moral war that she had to wage constantly while being a wife of an individual who was driven by ego and lust. Probably her only fault was that she was the queen-wife of Ravana. Inside the golden towers of Ravana’s palace, pride reigned and adharma festered. Mandodari must have had tremendous inner goodness to be able to withstand the temptations offered by the opulence, arrogance, and desires that overflowed from the palace. She refused to be corrupted in spite of being the wife of an egotistic demon-king. Mandodari was born of Mayasura and Hema, an asura and an apsara, a demon and a nymph. She inherited the beauty and grace of her...

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below. Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Good Friday and Jai Sri Ram

By Gemini Today is Good Friday in the Christian calendar. Truth was nailed to the cross some 2000 years ago on this day by a governor of the Roman Empire who did want to know what truth was before he succumbed to the pressure of the Jewish priests and their right-wing mob to crucify Jesus. “What is truth?” Pilate asked. The trial of Jesus was going on with a ferocious mob of right-wing Jews shouting murderous slogans outside the praetorium. Have you ever wondered why the slogans turn murderous whenever the right-wing gives them voice? I have, many times. And my answer is: religion belongs to the emotional half of the human brain, and in the case of too many people that half is unevolved. Jesus doesn’t answer Pilate’s question. Rather, Pilate doesn’t wait for an answer. He knows the answer probably. His problem is not an epistemological definition of truth. His problem is whose truth is to be given more weightage here now. There is Jesus’ truth on the one hand, and the murderous r...

Omens in the Ramayana

Illustration by Gemini AI Dasharatha is preparing for the coronation of Rama as the King of Ayodhya. It is the most joyous night of his life. His subjects celebrating outside. Garlands adorn every doorway. Drums roll through the city like thunder from the heavens. But there is something ominous that disturbs the King who is planning to retire. He steps out into the courtyard. The sky is clear, but a thunder growls in the distance. There is a howling wind that tosses the lamps and banners, and snuffs out the light. His horses whinny unnaturally as if they sensed something that their master failed to perceive. Even the palace elephants raise their trunks and trumpet into the darkness. Some birds screech in the trees. “My spirit trembles,” Dasharatha mutters to himself, “though there is no enemy at the gates.” The enemy was within. And the omens were not for nothing. Rama wouldn’t be the king. Kaikeyi had other plans. The Ramayana describes signs and portends that appeared bef...

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