Anything Everything

History is a very vast subject. As a school boy, I hated history for making me memorise scores of important dates, and was lured (or, wonder-struck) by the beauty of science. But now, as an engineering graduate, I developed an interest in history. Why? Because, only now did I realise the true potential of the subject. Also some portion of history has an esoteric nature that dragged me into it. History is not just about the various dynasties, kings, their reigns and all. It is the key to many unsolved problems of the present and the guideline to the future. I am deeply interested in how pioneers through their sheer intelligence invented the various gadgets. But, I'm not interested in technical history alone.

As a subject history is taught poorly in schools. Most students hate it, or think it as a waste. This is because, we are forced to study what we don't like. I've no interest in the various dynasties that fought against one another for power. But unfortunately, that's what they teach at at schools. (Why can't they teach history of science?) But, everyone of us will have an interest in history of some kind.

I've heard somewhere that history is written by the winners, or written for them. It is obvious. Most kings have a royal historian to note down the important events during his tenure. Will he write the “true history” or the one distorted to please the king? This is the reason history has a lot of voids in it. This is a very convenient feature that permits individuals or groups to fill these voids in the way they want. In a way, history is 'a set of cooked up stories'. We are often baffled by the contradictions in history. The history we hear is often written on the basis of witness accounts or hearsays. But there are true to the core accounts of many events, written unbiased by free individuals. Facts are usually suppressed to save the “men at the top” or exaggerated to please them. Even now, day today news are distorted to do the same. If this is the case in a free, democratic set-up like now, it would have been worse at the times of arrogant, dictator kings.

History is a mixture of truth and untruth. Don't just mug it up. Analyse the data in front of you, ask your logic whether it is true. If so, double check it and digest, the same way a crime is solved. If we don't filter fables out of facts in history, we will be teaching hoaxes to the budding generation