“What we learn from histroy is we don’t learn form history”
-Steve Waugh (Out of my Comfort Zone).
History is perhaps the most dreaded and detested subject among students.Like every other kid I had my own history of encounters with History,the subject.We used to have lot of serious discussions on “Why we study History?” and I must say we were strikingly close to establising “We hate History’ club(We didn’t have orkut during those time for creating the community by the same name).I still remember how I passed history exams during my good old school life.My friends used to say your score in the examination will be directly proportional to the length of your answers and the number of sheets you have filled in the exams There by I have had my share of experience of writing crap in history answer sheets so as to fill as much pages and cross atleast passing marks so as to get prompted from anciant history to medeival history in next standard without going though the pain of anciant history all over again.
Yet a part of me was still in love with History.Perhaps a lot of credit goes to my history teacher whose name have been erased from my memory into oblivian and all I remember now is his surname starts from “F”.During one of his traumatic examinations he had a question which had taken me by surprise and my late night slogging in anciant history didht have a readymade answer to it.He asked in his very first question ,“Why do we study History?”.I really don’t remember what garbage I wrote as answer or at one level ,I don’t want people to know what I wrote ,but the answer which he gave forever itched in my memory. He said ,”The reason why we study Histroy and it is so important, is it makes sure that present and furture generations doesn’t make the same errors which were made in past generations during the period of human evolution”.Over the years of my own evolution I learnt that there won’t be any time in my life where I would be having oppurtunity to commit some historical errors(How cool will it be?) but what pulls me towards histrory is pure curiosity and I must say there is something very fasinating about it.Histroy to me is very real and somehow it helps me to get away from this virtual world of computational evolution of which I am a very small cog.
Well I heard about ‘Story of India’ from one of my collegue during one of our discussion and I remember seeing it for brief time in Discovery channel when I was on course with the process of channel surfing. In this landmark six-part series for PBS and the BBC, Michael Wood embarked on a dazzling and exciting journey through today's India, "seeking in the present for clues to her past, and in the past for clues to her future". I started with the first episode with a little doubt in mind that, how it would be to see my own country through the eyes of others, but all I can say is I was absolutely enthralled by it. This series is a brilliant and unorthodox cinematographic account of India (which also includes what are now Pakistan and Bangladesh) and its entire history from its prehistoric times, through its ancient civilisations, the invasions of the middle ages and the later arrival of the Moguls to the East India Company, superseded after the 1857 uprising by the ninety years of the British Raj and thence the 1947 independence and partition to the present day. I have to confess that I am ashamed a bit about my own ignorance of my own country. The facts and history including small details on way of life of ancient India have truly awed me.Micheal Wood, what can I say about this guy,was abosultly brilliant in all the episodes and perhaps nobody could have done justice to this except him.You can see his inquisitiveness in all the episodes and the way he narrates the story shows is passion ,honesty and love for exploring facts and history of India.
Atlast I would like to end this post this with small excerpts from an article which he wrote for TIMES when this series was about to be released in BBC.
“There is so much to see in India that you would need several lifetimes – no wonder the Indians believe in rebirth. People tell me that I must be tired of the country after a dozen visits in the past 18 months, some of them long and gruelling journeys. But the opposite is true. I have come to love India and admire its people even more. To paraphrase Dr Johnson, if one is tired of India, one is tired of life.”
For full version of this article,click here.
More on this to follow soon....
History is perhaps the most dreaded and detested subject among students.Like every other kid I had my own history of encounters with History,the subject.We used to have lot of serious discussions on “Why we study History?” and I must say we were strikingly close to establising “We hate History’ club(We didn’t have orkut during those time for creating the community by the same name).I still remember how I passed history exams during my good old school life.My friends used to say your score in the examination will be directly proportional to the length of your answers and the number of sheets you have filled in the exams There by I have had my share of experience of writing crap in history answer sheets so as to fill as much pages and cross atleast passing marks so as to get prompted from anciant history to medeival history in next standard without going though the pain of anciant history all over again.
Yet a part of me was still in love with History.Perhaps a lot of credit goes to my history teacher whose name have been erased from my memory into oblivian and all I remember now is his surname starts from “F”.During one of his traumatic examinations he had a question which had taken me by surprise and my late night slogging in anciant history didht have a readymade answer to it.He asked in his very first question ,“Why do we study History?”.I really don’t remember what garbage I wrote as answer or at one level ,I don’t want people to know what I wrote ,but the answer which he gave forever itched in my memory. He said ,”The reason why we study Histroy and it is so important, is it makes sure that present and furture generations doesn’t make the same errors which were made in past generations during the period of human evolution”.Over the years of my own evolution I learnt that there won’t be any time in my life where I would be having oppurtunity to commit some historical errors(How cool will it be?) but what pulls me towards histrory is pure curiosity and I must say there is something very fasinating about it.Histroy to me is very real and somehow it helps me to get away from this virtual world of computational evolution of which I am a very small cog.
Well I heard about ‘Story of India’ from one of my collegue during one of our discussion and I remember seeing it for brief time in Discovery channel when I was on course with the process of channel surfing. In this landmark six-part series for PBS and the BBC, Michael Wood embarked on a dazzling and exciting journey through today's India, "seeking in the present for clues to her past, and in the past for clues to her future". I started with the first episode with a little doubt in mind that, how it would be to see my own country through the eyes of others, but all I can say is I was absolutely enthralled by it. This series is a brilliant and unorthodox cinematographic account of India (which also includes what are now Pakistan and Bangladesh) and its entire history from its prehistoric times, through its ancient civilisations, the invasions of the middle ages and the later arrival of the Moguls to the East India Company, superseded after the 1857 uprising by the ninety years of the British Raj and thence the 1947 independence and partition to the present day. I have to confess that I am ashamed a bit about my own ignorance of my own country. The facts and history including small details on way of life of ancient India have truly awed me.Micheal Wood, what can I say about this guy,was abosultly brilliant in all the episodes and perhaps nobody could have done justice to this except him.You can see his inquisitiveness in all the episodes and the way he narrates the story shows is passion ,honesty and love for exploring facts and history of India.
Atlast I would like to end this post this with small excerpts from an article which he wrote for TIMES when this series was about to be released in BBC.
“There is so much to see in India that you would need several lifetimes – no wonder the Indians believe in rebirth. People tell me that I must be tired of the country after a dozen visits in the past 18 months, some of them long and gruelling journeys. But the opposite is true. I have come to love India and admire its people even more. To paraphrase Dr Johnson, if one is tired of India, one is tired of life.”
For full version of this article,click here.
More on this to follow soon....
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