Veena Nagpal

IN SEARCH OF FREEDOM

April 17, 2023

Birds build nests but don’t cling to their confines. Only humans, having mastered the art of high-rise nest stacking in claustrophobic condos, delude themselves they’ve finally got themselves a ‘life’. Every time I leave it all behind, every time I drive out into the countryside I feel freedom rise tingling...

CHAT GPT: WRITERS’ ALLY OR ADVERSARY?

April 3, 2023

The whole world and its great grandaunt is agog with excitement at the arrival of the new wonder kid on the block, Chat GPT. So what is Chat GPT? For those who are yet to try it, Chat GPT is the latest text generation model from Open AI. As of...

FIVE SCARY ‘DELICACIES’

March 20, 2023

love experimenting with new foods – in fact my food choices once left me thoroughly pickled on Poetta beach in Cagliari, Sardinia, but that’s another story. Yet there some bizarre, almost scary foods that even I would balk at, so if you are of a squeamish disposition, stop right here....

ENSLAVED ELEPHANT

March 14, 2023

Watching ‘Kartiki Gonsalves’ Oscar winning documentary about the beautiful, almost filial bond between Bomman and Raghu, the elephant who follows him around, with his trunk wrapped around his hand, was like balm to my soul, because I have also seen Mike Pandey’s highly disturbing ‘Shocking Cruelty to Elephants – Vanishing...

ELEPHANT TALES

March 13, 2023

Watching Kartiki Gonsalves’ Oscar nominated documentary about the beautiful, almost filial bond between Bomman and Raghu the elephant who follows him around with his trunk wrapped around his hand, was like balm to my soul, because I have also seen Mike Pandey’s highly disturbing ‘Shocking Cruelty to Elephants – Vanishing...

THE NIGHT WE ALMOST MET A WATERY GRAVE

March 13, 2023

It happened at Puerto Rico – part of the group of islands in the Caribbean Sea to which also belong Cuba and St. Kitts. There had been no hint of what was to come even a day before when our ship was routinely discharging cargo. The day’s work done, that...