Vikram & Betal

Looking out for something light and fast to read after all those case readings which always leaves one perplexed...thought of Vikram & Betal triggered in...so just googled across to read some stories of one of my most liked telelvision series of short stories-- Vikram Aur Baital (Vikram and the Vampire) ....those good old days :).....anxiously waiting for the program on television with an uncertainity of whether electricity would be there or not.

Google did not gave any link to full list of stories so turned to Project Gutenberg which helped...justed keyed in Vikram in title word search and bingo.

Here is a very brief introduction to the book: King Vikram is entrusted with the task of fetching a vampire that hangs from a tamarind tree. Having brought down the vampire and slung it onto his back, Vikram is on his way, when the treacherous creature begins to speak. He tells Vikram a story (25 stories in all, eleven of which appear in Burton's book) and asks him a question at the end of each. The conditions are that if the king opens his mouth to answer either from vanity, or conceit, or from the vampire's treachery or from a moral duty, the vampire would leave him and go back to hang upside down from his tree. Only if the king remained silent out of humility or ignorance would the vampire accompany him to his destination. And so the tales begin. Time after time, Vikramaditya cannot help but answer the vampire's mischieviously designed queries. Time after time, the vampire, in an explosion of triumphant laughter, gives him the slip. Time after time, Vikramaditya pulls him down again and sets off on another journey, on another story. More here.

Origins of V&B :
Brihat-katha, written in the 5th cent BC in the Paishachi dialect.

full version of 11 stories in pdf.

I always love knowledge imparted in the form of a story telling......though MBA also does that in form of case studies but the complexities are much higher and without the solution part....only the problem part stated mostly....solution can vary as there are always many possibilities of next action and thats where you got to apply whatever you have learned in that particular MBA module. Sometimes interesting but sometimes huuf damm confusing....