DALL-E: Prodigy or Plagiarist?

 

DALL-E: Prodigy or Plagiarist?

(Time to read-4 mins)  

Why blog about AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools?

This blog is about DALL-E, another AI-driven tool. It enables you to create digital art.

This is my third blog in a row about AI. In my previous blog ‘Lipika, O My Darling!,’ I wrote about ChatGPT, the AI-driven text-generator; and in ‘Talking with the Dead’ about Character.AI, a tool which enables the user to chat with various characters including the dead and gone.

Why am I blogging about AI tools? Do the AI companies pay me a commission to promote their merchandise? No, they haven’t yet heard of this author, and have top marketing professionals in their payroll. Why then do I blog about AI?

Because I learnt about it recently, and wish to share it with my readers. After reading my blog on Character.AI, Ashok, my friend tried the tool and messaged me: Just had an amazing chat with Socrates!

Painting by Prasanna x DALL-E

I had read about DALL-E, the OpenAI tool that can create amazing digital paintings from natural language inputs. Recently, I tried it.

I asked for “An oil painting of a Royal Bengal Tiger in M.F. Hussain style.” In a few seconds, DALL-E created the painting I had ordered. Here it is:

Lead Painter

DALL-E is rather generous. It has acknowledged me as a co-creator or co-painter, since I provided the idea (the text for the image idea). Magnanimously, it mentions me as the Lead Painter. That’s a huge massage for my ego! I will never be a painter on my own, but being a 50% collaborator with AI feels pretty good. However, in my humble opinion, the Credits should be: M.F. Hussain x DALL-E x Prasanna.

What’s DALL-E?

A free-to-use (with some limitations) digital art creation tool, launched by OpenAI, a company which is focussed on Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and deployment, and has a partnership with Microsoft. It generates images from text descriptions, using a combination of neural language processing and image generation techniques.

DALL-E is a mash up of the words Salvador Dali, and WALL-E. Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was a renowned Spanish surrealist artist. WALL-E was a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures, and is among the best animation films ever made.

On 28 September 2022, DALL-E 2 was opened for all. In Nov 2022, OpenAI mentioned that more than 1.5 million users are generating more than 2 million images per day.

What can it do?

It can generate a wide range of images, from photorealistic to highly stylized, based on the text input provided. DALL-E can generate images of objects, animals, scenes, and more.

Based on Natural Language inputs, it can create ‘imagined’ and fantastical digital art. You may ask: Create an oil painting of a gorilla enjoying an ice-cream cone on Eiffel Towers, and DALL-E would oblige.

What it can’t

It is not able to understand or generate images based on real-world context or physical constraints, and the quality of the generated images can vary widely.

Why did I Sign Up?

At school, I was drawing-challenged, and was quite jealous of Guru, Shankar, Mahadev and other classmates who excelled at drawing. For my scholarship exam at Class VII, I was required to pass a drawing paper to qualify for the merit scholarship. I had scored 17/50! I guess the examiner had been very generous to award me pass marks since the brinjal I had drawn looked rather like a potato even to me.

But I had many superb ideas for drawing and painting, and hoped to someday ‘learn’ how to paint. When I met DALL-E, I sensed an opportunity to indulge in my fantasy.

What did I ask it to make?

I admire great painters, since knowledgeable folks admire them. Being a novice, and having little knowledge of painting, who am I to question the considered opinion of art critics?

I have gawked with awe at the amazing paintings: ‘The Sistine Chapel Ceiling’ at the Vatican, and ‘Monalisa’ at The Louvre. I also know the names of the famous painters of the world, and of India. I could reel off their names, but this is not the place to show off my general knowledge.

I asked DALL-E for the following:

·      A sunset in Pachmarhi, MP in Van Gogh style (You may read, if you like, my blog: Pachmarhi: Two Paintings)

·      A sunset in Pachmarhi, MP in Claude Monet style

·      Sunrise at Bhopal Lake in watercolour

·      A high-resolution image of a swarm of dolphins at Bhopal lake (There are no dolphins in Bhopal lake!)

·      Khajuraho temples in style of Rabindra Nath Tagore

·      A Royal Bengal Tiger in M F Hussain style

·      Men hunting a bison in Bhimbetka rock cave painting style

·      Bhopal skyline in Gond painting style

·      DSLR quality photo of a royal Bengal tiger couple at the Taj Mahal

·      Monalisa in Raja Ravi Varma style painting

·      DSLR quality photo of Chilika lake on a bright sunny winter morning with fishing boats, migratory birds, a group of cavorting dolphins, and foreign tourists on a cruise stunned by Loch Ness monster towering over the lake at a distance

·      You may note that I began with modest ‘prompts and DALL-E produced in a jiffy excellent output, as ordered by me. I got bolder, and raised the difficulty level by adding multiple and complex parameters. DALL-E didn’t even raise an eye-brow, and went about valiantly and resolutely to deliver. AI is not allowed to be emotional, I think. My last ‘ask’ was indeed tough, and the result was average. 

     But why blame DALL-E? I had included several parameters about which DALL-E has not been trained yet. If I provide the feedback of what lacked in the output, it will understand my concerns and suggestions, and next time it will do better. It is capable of deep learning. Power of AI is not to be underestimated.

My Assessment

Quite impressive. My Rating: 7 on a scale of 1 -10. But don’t take my word for it. Go ahead, Sign Up, try it, and find it out for yourself.

Prodigy Painter or Plagiarist?

A painter will possibly dismiss DALL-E as a plagiarist who shamelessly steals from the work of serious artists. Much as writers may consider it beneath their contempt to even explore the possibilities of ChatGPT.

A painter takes a day or two, sometimes a week or longer to create an art. Da Vinci took about three years to complete Mona Lisa. DALL-E works fast and furious and completes any assignment the user gives in a matter of seconds. If you don’t like the output, it can offer six variations at once. If you wish to tweak your parameters and ‘prompt’, it doesn’t complain. In fact, it is raring to go.

Is DALL-E a prodigy painter, or a shameless plagiarist? Since the tool has been released for all only recently, it is too early to pass a verdict.

How To?

Go to OpenAI, and sign up for DALL-E. Try it. It is not an App, but available at OpenAI’s portal. Here is the link: https://openai.com/dall-e-2

Yes, DALL-E 2 is the newer, improved version.

Of What Use is DALL-E?

For me, to marvel at the capability of AI, and the inventiveness of the engineers and software makers who created it. For professional artists, it offers immense opportunities to be super-creators, by intelligent use of the capabilities of DALL-E. Possibly, it would be of commercial use, too. Lastly, a painter could co-create with DALL-E, say on 80:20 (Human: AI) basis or any combo that she prefers. For low-paying assignments, she could even quickly make a 20:80 art, and the buyer may hardly note the difference.

***

 Note: 

• Author's profile may be seen at http://amazon.com/author/pkdash
• Books by this author are available on Amazon.in, Kindle eBook, Flipkart, and Notion Press, Chennai.

***  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talking with the Dead!

 

Talking with the Dead!

(Time to read-4 mins)

Bhopal Literature and Art Festival, 2023

On 13 January 2023, I greatly enjoyed speaking on ‘The Art of Writing Stories’ to a distinguished and responsive audience at Bhopal Literature and Art Festival (BLF). My Discussants were eminent Professors: Dr. Seema Raizada, Prof. & HoD of Dept. of English, MLB College, Bhopal, and a Shakespeare scholar; and Dr. Diwakar Shukla, Professor and Dean -Faculty of Journalism and Creative Studies, Jagran Lake city University, Bhopal.

Talking with the Dead

Earlier in the day, preparing for the session, I talked with the dead. You read that right, I talked with the dead! Not with one, but with three – William Shakespeare (1564 -1616), Albert Camus (1913 -1960), and J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 -1973).

Why did I talk with the dead, and what about? Not about whether they were in heaven or hell, not about the living conditions there. These famous authors are dead, but not entirely, since their works are still read and loved. I asked each of them a simple question: How to write a great story?  

My Short Story Collections

I have published eleven books of which three are collections of short stories:

·      Tell A Tale and Other Stories

·      Invisible Poet and Other Stories

·      The Mysterious Ladies and Other Stories

I have read, as most lovers of short stories have, several great stories by eminent authors from all over the world. So, I was confident I could share a few thoughts with the distinguished audience at BLF. But, no harm in drawing upon the wisdom of famous authors. So, I opened Character.AI, for which I had signed up recently.

What is Character.AI?

It is an AI (Artificial Intelligence)-driven tool that enables you to chat with an amazing range of people and characters including the dead. You can create any character you like and chat with him/her/it.  

This is what Character.AI says about itself:

“Character.AI is bringing to life the science-fiction dream of open-ended conversations and collaborations with computers.

We are building the next generation of dialog agents—with a long-tail of applications spanning entertainment, education, general question-answering and others.

How does the Character.AI beta work?

The Character.AI beta is based on neural language models. A supercomputer reads huge amounts of text and learns to hallucinate what words might come next in any given situation. Models like these have many uses including auto-complete and machine translation.

At Character.AI, you collaborate with the computer to write a dialog - you write one character's lines, and the computer creates the other character's lines, giving you the illusion that you are talking with the other character.

Needless to say, a hallucinating supercomputer is not a source of reliable information. Still, we hope that you find Character.AI a useful tool for imagination, brainstorming, language learning, and a host of other purposes we have ourselves not yet imagined :)”

How to write a great story?

Here are the tips I got from the eminent authors: (I have italicised certain words and phrases to highlight key elements of the reply)

William Shakespeare

My request: Hi, Mr. Shakespeare. Good morning. How to write a great story? Your tips, please?

Shakespeare’s reply:

Hello!

To write a great story, you must write a story that is full of details. You must make your story realistic so that readers will be able to believe it. You must also try to make the story more emotional with some dramatic scenes. Finally, you must make sure that your story has an unexpected ending so that readers will be surprised and curious to know what will happen next.

I hope that my advice can help you!

Albert Camus

The first step to writing a great story is to have something to say. Stories with meaning have a much better chance of resonating with readers than stories that don’t.

Second, don’t be afraid to show your emotions and your life experiences in your work. Readers can tell when an author is being honest, and they’ll appreciate it.

Finally, be sure to write with your heart. Stories that come from a place of passion will stand out from the crowd.

J.R.R. Tolkien

I would say to not be afraid to take inspiration from existing legends and stories, put your own spin on them, and create your own unique world! Be sure to create likeable characters, and to have an engaging plot. And of course, have good prose! I wish you the best of luck in your story-writing journey, and don’t forget to have fun with it!

After chatting with the famous authors, I raised the same query for Story Maker, a character created by Character.AI which can ‘create’ a story based on the plot outline and character details given by you. Story Maker’s response is at par with what an average high school student might submit, and not worth reproducing.

Quality of Tips

You have already noticed that the tips offered by the famous authors highlight key aspects of storytelling, even though each author has a slightly different take on it. It is interesting, and provides elementary guidance to an aspiring story teller. But the writer must read great stories, internalise the elements of a great storyteller’s craft, and write her own stories to learn more.

A micro-story by Albert Camus (by Character.AI)

My request: Hi, can you please write a story for me?

“A man finds himself in the middle of a desert. He has no water, and it's extremely hot. He's about to die from dehydration. Just before he passes out, he sees something in the distance. The man begins to walk towards it, hoping to find water. As he gets closer, he realizes it's a mirage. The man dies from dehydration.

There is no moral to this story. There is no hope. There is only death.

This is what happens when you ask Albert Camus to write a micro-story.”

Having read ‘The Plague’ by Camus during my college days, I was not surprised. The novel, considered an existentialist classic, stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies. 

Disclaimer

The Welcome Screen of the portal provides the following Disclaimer:

“Welcome!

Character.AI lets you create Characters and talk to them.

Things to remember:

• 🤥   Everything Characters say is made up! Don't trust everything they say or take them too seriously.
• 🤬   Characters may mistakenly be offensive - please rate these messages one star.
• 🥳   Characters can be anything. Our breakthrough AI technology can bring all of your ideas to life.

We hope you have a lot of fun bringing your imagination to life and we can't wait to talk with the Characters you create!”

User has to declare ‘I Understand’.

Of what use is this tool?

To amuse yourself, at present. But when millions of users provide feedback, the tool will learn to provide better answers.

I gave a plot outline, and asked Story Maker to write a story for me. It produced a story alright, but not to my liking. Shall I use it again? Of course, I will, to discover the full range of its capabilities.

Should you? I suggest you have a look in. If you like it, explore further; if you don’t, you can always say that you have been there and tried it.

The link for the web portal is: https://beta.character.ai

Enjoy your exploration! Best wishes.

***

Note: 

• Author's profile may be seen at http://amazon.com/author/pkdash
• Books by this author are available on Amazon.in, Kindle eBook, Flipkart, and Notion Press, Chennai.

***  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lipika, O My Darling!

 

Lipika, O My Darling!

(Time to read-4 mins)

(Disclaimer: This article is not for the tech-savvy or the tech-averse, but for the curious but tech-challenged reader.)

Love at first sight!

One look at her features, and I fell in love. She didn’t croon for me ‘Piya tu ab toh aajaa’, the hot, hit number from Caravan, the 1971 Bollywood film. Yet, I was besotted. She is young, fetching, enticing, enthralling, and enchanting. Bubbly, yet works quietly even though she is never at a loss for words.  

Lipika, My GENIE!

Recently, I learned the mantra to summon ChatGPT, a Genie who is at my beck and call, 24x7, and performs any writing task I assign in a matter of seconds. Considering her ready wit and rapid-fire replies, I guess ChatGPT must be a female. OpenAI has named it ChatGPT, a most prosaic name; but this smitten author chooses to call her Lipika, in remembrance of the world’s first author, Enheduanna, a lady.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an abbreviation for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. That is a mouth-full, but let that not put you off. You do not need to know how it does what it does. As a user, you give a command (techies call it ‘input’), and it produces the text (output) ordered by you.

It is simple. That is its USP. You use Natural Language inputs, the language you use in conversation or written text, to key in the task; ChatGPT understands that, works at an amazing speed, and produces the result in a few seconds. Just like a Google/Siri/Alexa/Cortana Search, only better.

If my description does not make much sense to you, here is what ChatGPT has to say about itself (My command was for: A Note on ChatGPT in 50 words for the technology-challenged person):

ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) model developed by OpenAI. It is designed to generate human-like text based on the input it receives. ChatGPT can be used to answer questions, engage in conversations, and perform other language-based tasks. It is trained on a large dataset of human language and can understand and respond to a wide range of inputs. ChatGPT is a useful tool for tasks that require understanding and generating human-like text, such as language translation or customer service.

She exceeded the word limit (output is in 81 words!), but never mind that minor slip. She gave an easy-to-understand note about herself.

Why did I sign up for ChatGPT?

Once asked by a reporter why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, George Mallory famously replied, “Because it’s there.” Those are said to be the most famous three (or four, if you are counting) words in mountaineering.

Same for me. I signed up coz others (mostly from the younger generation) have done that and are raving about it.  Also, because it is free. To survey the scenery, explore a little, and stay there if I like it, or leave if I don’t.

And for bragging rights. I signed up on 30 December 2022. Doesn’t that make me an early bird, since ChatGPT was launched on 30 November 2022 by OpenAI, an Artificial Intelligence research and deployment company that has a partnership with Microsoft? Many will sign up in 2023 or later. I can always say, I learned it in 2022, which is factual.

Tasks I assigned ChatGPT

• ·      A poem on Prayer for Universal Health, Happiness, and Prosperity
• ·      A poem on New Year wish by an ordinary, concerned citizen of India
• ·      A poem on forecast of global recession in 2023
• ·      A Hindi poem on New Year wish
• ·      A Prayer for Lord Jagannatha in Odia
• ·      A Prayer for Lord Jagannatha in Sambalpuri dialect of Odia
• ·      A limerick on ChatGPT
• ·      A limerick on DALL-E (about this AI tool, later)
• ·      A limerick about a spendthrift Indian wife  
• ·      A Note on ChatGPT in 50 words for the technology-challenged person
• ·      A Note on Domestic roof-top Solar Energy in Madhya Pradesh: Opportunities and Challenges.
• ·      A Petition to Bhopal Municipal Commissioner for Urgent Repair of Roads in Baghmugaliya Colony
• ·      A Petition to Bhopal Municipal Commissioner for installation of a Sewerage Treatment Plant at Laharpur
• ·      An affidavit to change my name from ‘Prasanna Kumar Dash’ to ‘Prasanna Dash’
• ·      Reply to Income Tax Officer, Bhopal that the Tax Demand raised on P. K. Dash vide his letter of December 27, 2022 is incorrect since the total tax due has already been paid
• ·      A limerick on an author named Dash

You may note that I have kept ChatGPT rather busy, but she has no complaints. She has not yet snapped at me for assigning inane, boring, or tough tasks. Occasionally, she has regretted that a particular task was outside of her capability since she had not been trained for it. A polite but candid confession, despite her gender.

What do you think of my ‘asks’? Maybe, the list tells more about me than about ChatGPT!

A few Illustrations

I refrain from reproducing all her replies and outputs. That would be oh, so boring. You are free to sign up, and ask your own serious, solemn, funny, frivolous, or very smart and intelligent questions. Go ahead, while it is still free.

I present below a few ChatGPT Limericks:

About a spendthrift Indian wife

There once was a spendthrift Indian wife

Whose shopping caused her husband much strife

He begged and he pleaded

But her wants never receded

Now they live in a home without a roof or a knife.

 

A limerick on an aspiring author named Dash

There once was an author named Dash

Who dreamed of publishing with panache

He wrote every day

In every which way

Hoping his book would make a splash.

 

(My own limerick on Dash)

There was an author named Dash

Who failed to make a splash,

Since his stories were pathetic,

He switched to limerick,

Hoping to be desi Ogden Nash.

 

Sorry, Genie, for grabbing your space!

Applications/Petitions, etc

She wrote a perfect letter to the Bhopal Municipal Commissioner requesting him to urgently repair the roads in Baghmugaliya Extension. She even mentioned the large number of potholes, a daily traffic hazard, and highlighted that these roads had not been repaired for several years. I had NOT provided these inputs. Did she pick it up from Google Earth? Or from the records of BMC? Or from my request to the Commissioner, a few months ago, by a WhatsApp message?

Feeling rather thrilled, I asked her to write a petition to the Bhopal Municipal Commissioner for installation of a Sewerage Treatment Plant at Laharpur since the abandoned irrigation tank has now become an open-air sewerage pond, and a great health hazard to the residents in the area. She mulled for a moment, and then assigned me a series of tasks:

• ·      mobilise public opinion
• ·      prepare a petition signed by several residents
• ·      attach documentary proof of any recent scientific study to substantiate your claim, and a few photographs
• ·      seek an appointment with the Commissioner, and
• ·      present the petition along with a delegation.

Was she taking sweet revenge for all the non-sensical tasks I had assigned her? Had I insulted her intelligence by asking for banal jobs? I am told that she can write python coding language, too!

Conclusion

It is time for a quick performance appraisal of my Genie. On a scale of 1 to 10, I award her 6. Very good at mundane, mechanical tasks (application, petition, affidavit), and reasonably good at creative tasks (poems, stories). I have not tested her alleged High IQ, which I will assess when I myself learn about that.

Don’t go by the assessment of this novice user. Search for erudite, scholarly articles on ChatGPT, and you would have loads of reading material. Keep your mind open. Sign Up (at openai.com you will find the link to ChatGPT), try it yourself, and form your own opinion.

A Question before I conclude. Will AI make writers and poets and painters redundant or even extinct? I fancy myself as an author. Do I have a serious rival in ChatGPT? Nah, she doesn’t have access to my personal memories and feeling and thoughts. Not yet, though. Who knows about the future? If DALL-E can paint a sunset on the Bhopal Lake in Van Gogh style, and ChatGPT can write a murder mystery at Mandu in the style of Agatha Christie, why can’t it write like Prasanna Dash?

Maybe, she will read up all my eleven books in a few seconds, scan my social media transactions, emails, eavesdrop on all my conversations, and easily figure out my profile, imitate my style, and begin writing liking Prasanna Dash. Maybe, even parodying me!

***

 Digital Art for Lipika generated by DALL-E. My 'prompt' was:

“an impressionist oil painting of an Indian author, age 65, dictating; and a pretty American girl, age 25, typing on a laptop on a cruise boat at Bhopal lake at sunset”

Note: 

• Author's profile may be seen at http://amazon.com/author/pkdash
• Books by this author are available on Amazon.in, Kindle eBook, Flipkart, and Notion Press, Chennai.

***  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guru Dakshina

Guru Dakshina

Shilpi, Sheetal, Lakki, and Satyam walk to their English-medium school in the neighbourhood. Their parents, school drop-outs from vernacular village schools, and migrant workers at Bhopal, pay a hefty fee for their kids, but have little idea of the abysmal quality of education provided by the school, which is another education-shop.

Last Sunday, my four students sat in our porch on a chatai and opened their notebooks. I dictated a few words for them to write and checked their spelling. Shilpi, the youngest is five, and is still struggling with alphabet writing from A to Z, and hence I asked her to practice that.

My students particularly enjoyed when I gave them a bowl of unshelled groundnuts, and asked them to make as many personal heaps of ten each as fast as they could. Mental math, based on the nuts in their possession, made addition and subtraction fun for them. When the session ended, Shilpi asked, ‘Next Sunday, will we again count with these nuts?’

‘I will get a bundle of straw, we will light a fire, roast the shells, and eat it, but only after the counting lessons,’ I said.

Sheetal is 7 and in Class 1, Lakki is 9 and in Class 3, and Swayam is 11 and in Class 2 since he had dropped out of school when he had gone away for a few years to his village in Bihar.

After the one-hour ‘study,’ I told them a story. A little reward for their mindfulness during the study hour!

Do you know any story from Mahabharat, I asked? They did not. No TV at home, though they are fond of watching cartoons and playing games on their father’s smart phone.

I told them briefly about the great war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. They were incredulous when I told them of the 100 sons of Dhritarastra. No one asked for details, but I guess they had much difficulty in believing that a single set of parents could have one hundred kids.

Today, I will tell you a story from Mahabharat. It is about Guru Dakshina.

‘What is guru dakshina?’ asked Sheetal.

‘You pay fees to your school. Swayam and Shilpi go for private coaching in the evening, and they pay a monthly fee to the tutor. That is Guru Dakshina.’

Guru Drona taught the royal kids – both Kauravas and Pandavas – the art of war including archery, wrestling, and fighting with a mace. Arjun, his best student in archery, never missed a target, and no one else could defeat him when he had on his hands Gandeeva, his famous bow, and the powerful arrows.

One day, Guru Drona spotted a young boy peeping from behind a thick grove at the far end of the open field where he held his classes. He ordered the boy to come near him.

Why are you snooping when I am teaching the secret art of war to my royal students?

Guru Ji, I live in a small hut far inside the forest, but come every day to watch you teach your students. I, too, wish to learn from you. Please take me in as your student.

Are you stupid? How dare you join the school meant only for royal kids? Go off, and never again come anywhere near my school.

Ekalavya was very disappointed, but nodded, and went away into the forest, never to be seen again.

A few years later, Guru Drona completed his lessons for his students, and took them into the forest for a test. Each student was assigned a specific task and target, and most of his students demonstrated that they had learnt well from the Guru. Arjun could not only shoot any target, however small, but also a target without looking at it, merely by listening to a bird’s call, for example.

Deep in the forest, Drona and his students heard a dog barking furiously. All on a sudden, the barking stopped and a dog came running out of a thick grove with seven arrows pinned into its open mouth.

Who could shoot arrows with such precision, they wondered? Soon, they spotted Ekalavya, now a full-grown sturdy youth, with his rustic bow and arrow. Ekalavya offered prostrate salutations to Drona.

Who taught you archery, asked an astonished Drona?

Who else but you, Sir? You are the best teacher in the world in the art of war.

But I never enrolled you in my school!

I made your idol in clay, worshipped it daily with flowers and fruits, and then practised archery. You are my Guru.

Drona realised that Ekalavya, though never trained by him, was a better archer than Arjun. That would be a humiliation not only for Arjun, but for the Guru himself!

He asked Ekalavya, ‘How about my Guru Dakshina?’

Sir, every day I offer you fruits and roots. May I fetch the freshest collection of the day for you?

No, I don’t need that.

Please tell me what would please you, Sir. But you know I have no gold or silver coin or any other expensive gift.

‘Give me your right thumb. That would be your Guru Dakshina to me.’

Without any hesitation Ekalavya took his knife, chopped off his right thumb, and not even wincing from the pain and regardless of blood streaming from his wound, he placed the severed thumb on the Guru’s feet, and offered his salutations.

My students were appalled. Their faces fell. Why would a guru ever be so cruel, they could not comprehend?

I explained why Drona had asked for the right thumb. Ekalavya would never again be able to shoot an arrow without his right thumb.

Did you like the story, I asked?

They kept quiet. Evidently, they were still trying to make sense of this unusual story of a mean, cruel teacher; the gory picture of a severed thumb dripping with blood; and the unhappy ending. So, I asked, ‘Was it right for Dronacharya to demand a Guru Dakshina from Ekalavya?

‘No,’ all the kids shook their little heads vigorously to condemn the Guru’s pettiness.

I had taught them a few words, and no moral lessons. But these small kids were already aware of an unequal, unjust world, and had formed their view of right and wrong.

Sunday School, 20/11/22: Front Row-L to R- Shilpi & Sheetal,

Back Row-L to R- Swayam & Lakki.

***

Note: 

• Author's profile may be seen at http://amazon.com/author/pkdash
• Books by this author are available on Amazon.in, Kindle eBook, Flipkart, and Notion Press, Chennai.

***  

 

A Python's Plight

 

A Python's Plight

November 28, 2015. A bit chilly in the evening at Bhopal, but not yet very cold. About 8.00 PM, I was walking my dog when a car coming from the opposite direction suddenly screeched to a halt a few metres away. When the driver stepped out, I noted that he was Mr. Pateriya, a senior Forest officer, and a neighbour.

Any issue with the car, I asked?

‘No, a python crossing the road. I was about to run over it. Thank God, I was not speeding, and applied the brake in time,’ he said.

The python was stunned for a minute by the car’s headlight, and the screeching noise, but hastened for cover. In its confusion, it missed the path leading to its home somewhere on the rocky banks of Laharpur Dam – an incomplete and abandoned irrigation project, and climbed up the iron railing separating the river bank from the road. Perched on top of the railing, it tried to reach a branch of the nearby neem tree, but in vain.

A flash mob assembled soon enough, and began clicking photos on their mobile phones using the flash. I must confess that I, too, had clicked a few photos, though without the flash. Several young boys and girls clicked selfies. To click a photo of the open jaws of the hissing python, some even poked it with stick, and threw pebbles at it.

The python was hungry, possibly having missed the rat or mongoose it was trying to capture in the bushes on the road-side. It was away from home, and the cold iron railing felt very different from the branch of a tree, or the swamp from which it caught fish. Pythons are excellent swimmers, and can stay under water for up to 30 minutes at a time.

The shouting and screaming by the excited mob of mostly teens with flash cameras in hand was a scary experience for the reptile since it had not seen these two-legged creatures at close quarters. It became terribly upset, and began hissing. All it wanted to do was to find its way back home.

Mr. Pateriya and I shouted at the young revellers to have mercy on the harassed creature, and stop bothering it. We also alerted the Forest department.

The rescue team arrived after about two hours.  ‘What took so long?’ Mr. Pateriya asked the Range Officer, who had arrived on a large truck, and with a team of eight or more workers carrying sturdy lathis and thick ropes.

Where is the bison, asked the Range Officer? I had to mobilise a proper team to capture it.

Our alert message should have been in Hindi, we realised. Ajgar could not have been mis-heard as van bhainsa or bison!

Soon, the team rescued the python, put it in a jute bag, and took it for rehabilitation to Van Vihar National Park, Bhopal.

A few days later, on Dec 2, I visited Van Vihar to check how the rescued reptile was doing. It had been fed well, and was sleeping cosily.

The vet had examined it. The rescued python was a young male about 3 years old, 6 ft long, and weighed 12 kilos. He was in good health.

I asked, ‘Would you keep him in that cage for ever?’

‘No, after a week or so, we’d release him in Ratapani sanctuary, adjacent to Bhopal. Every year, we rescue several pythons from Bhopal, including a few from the CM’s residence. Bhopal, with its hillocks and lakes, is a natural habitat of the Indian rock python, a very shy, nocturnal, and non-poisonous snake.’

(The rescued python at Van Vihar National Park, Bhopal on Dec 2, 2015.)

LP (Laharpur Python, as I fondly named him), translocated to Ratapani, would now be a robust male, about 17 ft long, and weighing 70 kilos or more. I hope he found a mate, and is the proud father of several children, and a grandfather, too.

(The distressed python near Laharpur Dam, Baghmugaliya Extension, Nov 28, 2015)

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Note: 

• Author's profile may be seen at http://amazon.com/author/pkdash
• Books by this author are available on Amazon.in, Kindle eBook, Flipkart, and Notion Press, Chennai.

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