About

A physician, Dr. Tapendu Basu, pen name Gandharva raja, grew up in India exposed to the country’s rich cultural and linguistic diversity. He is a member of the Academy of American Poets and Maryland Writers’ Association and lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

He assumed the name Gandharva raja after he wrote Epic Mahabharata, A Twenty-first Century Retelling of the Indian Epic.

In one episode of the epic, Gandharvas are pillaged by Duryodhan, King of the avaricious Kurus, while camped for a festival. Gandharva raja – Chitrasena – deals them a much-deserved thrashing till the five Pandava brothers, the good guys, come to Kuru’s rescue. Arjuna and Chitrasena are reconciled and become good friends.

In that section of the Epic, the Gandharvas are described as able to magically appear and disappear, to go to heaven in human form, and return to earth. Musicians and magicians, Gandharvas float in the sky like clouds, and on earth are fierce warriors. He thought it would be fun to be all that. Hence the pseudonym.