Historians!!!!!!!?????!!!!!!!!

There are times when we look forward to some special occassions or events and feel we can learn so much from this! This is such an awesome opportunity! But at the end of the event, you feel disappointed at how lousy it turned out to be and how disappointing it was. One such event for me was the National Seminar organized by Dept of History, Pune University. There was such an enthusiasm and zest regarding this seminar. The co-ordinator Sir had asked each and every student for volunteering, the whole department had been cleaned and made posh. Even the fans were cleaned from inside out, huge banners were put up at the entrance and in the lecture halls, students were asked to dress appropriately because "Historians" from all over India were to come to present their paper in the Seminar. So all in all, every one was waiting for the Seminar to commence. 


Finally the mighty day of 23rd February arrived. On the 1st day, there were almost 6 Ph.D. holders who presented their paper to the audience. I would not call them "Historians" as they did not fit my definition of "Historians". I will dwell on that concept later, after I have done describing about the Seminar. Coming back to the topic, Ph.D. holders had come from Orissa, Mumbai, Nagpur, Rajasthan, New Delhi, Pune and Belgaum (Karnataka). All in all, there were almost two dozen Ph.D. holders who presented their papers in the span of 3 days. According to me, the first day was not so bad. They presented their paper and yes, my mind did drift away many a times but I thought it was my fault as many a times I have been called Impatient and Fickle minded. On the second day, I did a resolution with myself that I will concentrate completely and try to listen to every word they read as the information can be useful for me in near future and after all, it is good to know new stuff. ALAS! My resolution remained just that, Resolution. I could not put it into action how much ever I tried. My mind just did not want to listen to those papers. At one point of time, it even told me, these papers are so boring. I am getting so bored of History. My mind was having mind of its own. It refused to listen to my brain. Finally, I got horified of my own thoughts and decided by lunch break that I have had enough. If I want to get back to loving my own subject, I had to get out of this Seminar, which is exactly what I did. After coming back home, I learnt more in half an hour than I had learnt sitting there for 4hrs, though I did nothing more than working on my project. On the 3rd day, I merely went as it was last day and I had given my word to Sir about volunteering and I did not want to break that. (Techincally I breached the so called word when I decided to leave the half of the second session, but thats inconsequential.) Thankfuly, 3rd day did not have 10 or so papers but just 4 which I again tried to listen with great concentration. The day ended with Valedictory function and that was the end of the National Seminar.


Now comes the big question, why did I get bored of the Seminar when it was about History and What was the topic of the Seminar? The topic of the Seminar was "History of Marathas- New perspective." There are many reasons on why I did not like the seminar. First and foremost, I did not find any "New Perspective" in the papers presented. Yes, there were few, who tried to look at Maratha History through a different angle such as Art and tried to define it but other than that, rest were just trying to throw the light on the subject which were neglected. Every Ph.D. holder called themselves Historians but they did not have the necessary qualities required of Historian. Formost of it, they brought religion and regionalism in their studies and when the audience objected to it, they did not take criticism in healthy attitude. They acted defensive against the caste or region. This showed they lacked objectivity and the foresight required for any Historian. Second, they were not aware of the conditions and the situations of the world. I can remember atleast 2 Ph.D. holders calling Africans as Negro, which as we all know, is as horrifyingly derogatory term. This fact is known by even 16yr old kid living in the age of computers. Ignorance of this fact by Historians showcase their limited vision. Thirdly, all the papers presented were too factual. They were just facts, uncovered from unpublished documents. There was no different interpretation of it and no theories put forward through those facts. Historian's main job is to interpret the events that took place and understand the reason behind it, which was never accomplished by these Ph.D. holders. Now my questions is- How can they call themselves as Historians? 


The so called Historians, who had come in this Seminar, had a narrow minded approach and did not bother to look outside their realm and comfort zone. In my words, they assassinated History. I am even inclined to think that, because of these kind of "Historians" the subject seems so boring and lengthy to the masses. I am not blaming all the Historians out there. But from what I have seen so far, Indian Historians need to think about their mindset and about their work ethic. Ph.D. is not just some degree, it is a doctorate and it should not be taken lightly. Being an Historian, is not an easy accomplishment. It requires tremendous knowledge and effort on the part of a person. He should not only know his own subject but also possess the knowledge of the whole wide world because Whatever Significant Happens Today is the History of Tomorrow. 


"For Historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future." --Cervantes

Tracing History.

Many people have debated about the Definition, Origin and the Scope of History. According to E.H.Carr,who has written "What is History?", "History is nothing but representation of the facts of the past, through an Historian's mind and imagination." This covers the definition but what about Origin and Scope of History as a subject? 

Some scholars say that History covers only Political history. For example, the Greek scholars definitely thought that "History is of only elite people". At that point of time, when Herodotus said elite people, he meant 'people who ruled the lower classes', 'people who had power.' But at the same time he also said, "Poetry is better than History." Here, he is keeping literature at a higher level than History. According to me, this shows how narrow the outlook was when it came to History. The scholars preferred imagination to the actual facts. Poetry or literature is nothing but actual facts after all. But, we can not forget that Greeks were the forefathers of History. They not only made History but gave recognition to the subject through the word "Istoria", which means Investigation. They could not have been more accurate. Looking at it with today's perceptions, one can understand the vastness and depth of the term "Istoria." Whereas on the other hand, Indian comprehension of History is completely different. In Ancient India, History was not a specific science, there were no dates, no chronologies and no family histories. The main source of Ancient Indian History is not documents but the archaeological event. For example, Indus Valley Civilization. Yes, they do have some texts but scholars are far from deciphering the script which existed then. This is in contrast with the Egyptian civilization. They have stone tablets as well as monuments and there is a definite chronology. 

As we move to medieval period, the understanding of History changes. There was advent of Christianity and Islam into the world and accordingly History also underwent a serious change. It became theological and philosophical but it did not forget its "political" roots. Throughout the medieval period, it stuck to political changes undergoing the world. But at the same time, slowly it started taking into consideration the other factors. Writers of History, started to fathom that only political changes are not the sole factor. For example, Crusades. Crusades are one of the bloody fact of Christian Church history. It was mostly "Religious"  type of history but it changed the political conditions in the medieval world. It became one of the most important factors. The second example I can think of right now is of Reformation, again a political agitation but changed the structure of the world which existed then. History became more broader and started to adapt.

While coming to Modern Period, we can see the table turned completely. More so in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first and foremost of it, according to me, was Industrial Revolution and French Revolution. Industrial Revolution because History gave importance to the science, which was considered as Taboo by church and was not a part of Political history of Europe or the world. French Revolution, though considered as Political revolution, a rebellion against the system, the main cause of it was problems of peasants or the more specific term for it is "Bourgeoisie". It was more of a class struggle. It was then followed by American Revolution, Russian Revolution and so on and so forth. The French revolution brought social factor into History and it did not end here. It was followed by scholars such as Ranke, Karl Marx, R.G. Collingwood, Foucoult, etc. These people brought forward the trend of Materialistic History and Scientific History. They made History a science which encompasses every significant event which takes place around us. They pushed forward the factual basis rather than imagination. 

This was how History was considered to be a science at the same time humanistic. And this also shows that History covers almost every branch, not only humanistic but also scientific. In a way, it includes everything which is significant and that is the most astonishing side of History according to me.


Thank you for reading.

History is a mighty dramas, enacted upon the theatre of times, with suns for lamps and eternity for a background.  ~Thomas Carlyle

P.s. Remarks and criticisms will be greatly appreciated as I am still an amateur. 

~Armageddon~

Imagine the scenario- Its Dec 21, 2012 early morning. As soon you are awake you are hit with a thought which has a force of a Tornado- What if today everything stops? What if I don't get to see the sunrise of tomorrow? What if there is no heaven but only hell for all of us sinners? What will happen to me? What will happen to humanity? I am very sure these are very few of the questions which will cross our mind on the day when all is suppose to "END". Some of us will be looking forward to the adventure of it and many of us will think- This is just a normal day. No big deal. It is not going to happen anyway. But the main question is not if it will happen or not, rather the question according to me is- Why did it ever come up? And how did it originate? And these questions I will be pondering upon today in my post.

The End of The World seems very familiar now. We have been hearing it since past 2-3 years continuously. Its been bombarded on our ears again and again through various channels such as media, social networking, documentaries, etc. etc. The purpose of this bombarding was to aware the masses about what is going to happen. But weren't we told of this end before? Wasn't it mentioned previously? As a matter of fact, it was. The mention of Doomsday exists in each and every religious text. In this post I will not be covering every religion but world's 3 main religions- Christianity,Islam and Hinduism. I will try to uncover what Doomsday mean according to these 3 religions.

According to Christianity, Battle of Megiddo will bring an end to all. According to some premillennial Christian interpretations, the Messiah will return to earth and defeat the Antichrist near the plain of Megiddo. This is mentioned in old testament. And then the Devil be thrown into a pit and everything will be destroyed. The Muslim version of Doomsday is more or less same, just a changes of phrases here and there. For example, instead of calling it Armageddon, Islam calls it Qayamat and it has been mentioned in the Quran. This covered Christianity and Islam. Now remain Hinduism. This is a complete different version. Hinduism has 4 yugs. Satya Yuga, Dwapar Yuga, Treta Yuga and Kala Yuga. And during these 4 Yugas slowly the importance of Truth declined. Finally in Kala Yuga everything will turn haywire and there will be havoc everywhere. Each Yuga are suppose to last for 2000 years and Kala Yuga is already stated to have started. So when is the exact end according to the religious texts? Why no-one has ever mentioned concrete dates?

Now coming back to the concept of 2012. All of us know that Mayan calender ends at 2012 and hence scientists and historians all over the world think World will also come to an end because Mayans were very talented people. But what if Mayans could not see World beyond 2012? What if they could not read the stars? I am aware that I am raising more questions in this post than answering them but there has been so much controversy and speculation around this topic that I am not sure who or what to believe. There are also countless predictions on the END. The world famous Nostradamus has also predicted about end of the world. But it was suppose to come in 1994 then 1998 and then 2000. What happened at that time? We are still here right? Nostradamus himself wrote that his prophecy go only as far as 3798. So does this mean World will end in 38th Century? I don't think so. But there are other theories too such as Solar Blast. Now this is something which is not at all vague and kind of interesting. We all know that Sun has black spots. But what we don't know is, these black spots are storms on the Sun and these storm emit high radiation along with lava and other harmful substances. When it hits our Earth, generally Earth's magnetic field protects us, but the storm which will take place around 2012 will be stronger than before and we do not know if Earth will be able to sustain it. This is science based theory and most concrete of all.

This was of course a brief idea of what awaits us. What is my view in all this? Well, I am more of a carefree attitude. I heard one quote in a documentary which said- Earth is not going anywhere. Earth was here even before we came and it will continue to do so. This is what I think. Countless of species have come and gone but Earth hasn't moved at all. There are examples of Dinosours, Cambrian Explosion and other such things. The same way, even we will be wiped out. Is it related to some religion? I don't think so. Its more of a course of nature. What begins must come to an end. Will it be tomorrow? Who knows? It might be. Or it might even be 1000s of years from now on. Predicting future events and actions is not something to be taken lightly as we define the future. Our actions shape the future. Hence we should be sceptic about all that we hear. What does it all tells us at the end? Live your life to the fullest, Who knows what tomorrow might bring?

The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

Richie Rich through Begging!!!

Its been ages I have updated the blog and today, finally, I found the appropriate subject. Yeah, I know, its been a long time and I can't say that I wasn't free to update the blog but I can certainly say that I had not found appropriate topic for the blog. But today I decided to write what I saw when I had been out to temple. If you are a citizen of India, or even if you aren't, what do you see when you first enter the temple? The answer to this question is very very easy; we see Large number of Beggars sitting in front of a temple in a straight line. Its as if they have made a long queue and are waiting for their chance to come as to when God will shower them with lots of money, food, fruits, basically, whatever they can get. But do they actually get their chance? Does God shower them with blessings? Here is the irony, more than showing us his love, he shows them their love. Now most of the readers would think, why would she say such a thing? Aren't we suppose to show pity towards them? Help them in whatever way we can? These are some of the questions I will be answering today in this post.

This is the most common picture we see on our roads, bus/railway stations, temples, almost everywhere. And we immediately feel sorry for it. But is it worth feeling sorry for? According to me, absolutely no. And the reason is, at the end of the day, whatever they earn or beg does not go in their pocket. But rather it goes in the pocket of a thug or contractor who have hired them. They have their own associations and did you know, you can't be a beggar until and unless you register in one of the association. Then whatever a beggar earns throughout the day, almost 70% of it goes to that contractor of the association. Almost all of us must have seen Slumdog Millionaire and 80% would have said- nah, this is not the condition in India. Foreign people like to put us down and thats the reason they have showed this condition. But trust me when I say this, that is the real condition. Infants are stolen from govt hospitals everyday. They are given to girls or young women or kids on rental basis. Because when you see a baby, your heart melts and you end up giving more money. Some of the kids are even mutilated so that they will get Pity Money.

Now this is one side of the story. What are the actual statistics? India's capital, Delhi, alone is the home for 120,000 odd beggars. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of beggars followed by Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal and Rajasthan. These are the statistics of 2010, before the CW games. After reading all this, readers will be thinking, why would anyone want to become a beggar? It must be because they don't have any other choice. You are certainly wrong here my friend. Because they are doing it as it is easy money. They just have to sit there, ditch their self respect in a nearby bin and act as if they don't know anything in the world. Wham! They get the money. Who would not want that? Here comes my today's experience as a proof for this. I had gone to Shani temple and it was very crowded. The queue had come on the road. And beside temple queue there was other line of people sitting. Ya, you guessed it right. They were beggars. But I was shocked to see them. Because all were dressed in fine clothes. Bit dirty if I say so. Almost all of them were aged below 50 and some of the men were even drunk. They had bags n bags full of eating goods. And as it was auspicious day, people kept on giving them more and more. They were all healthy, some of them even fat to tell the truth. Then why were they begging there? Because it was easy to beg than earn their food. I have few pictures which i took today. Hope it gives my friends a clear picture.

The lady you see on cycle here is pretending to be handicap and those packets of biscuits they have gathered just in the evening. Even though that lady in pink can see the goods displayed she is giving more items to them. Whose fault is it then? Sadly, I find the fault is with us. If we do not encourage them, they will end up working and for those who are truly in need, they have shelter homes and we are there to help them. Begging sadly has turned into a business now which has to come to an end but sadly its Vicious Circle of Poverty which will take all the efforts possible.

I must bring an end here as time for me to hit the bed has come. Though I haven't covered all the aspects of poverty and beggary, I hope readers have got my message.

Men are made stronger on realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own arm. ~Sidney J. Phillips

Presence of God

Does God exist? If he does then where is He? These are the questions which are faced by humans since eternity. And these are the questions I will try discussing in my blog today. But first of all the most important question is what is God? Is it an entity or is it just some source of energy? Is it some alien controlling whole universe or is it the power within us? The circle of questions goes on but we are not at all near to finding an answer to even one of these questions than we were thousands of years back. The only thing which has changed is we do not relate natural calamities to “Wrath of Gods” like before.

So what does God actually mean in my eyes? For me, it’s rather a simple concept. I believe in Hindu mythology that there is someone out there who is looking out for us. She/he is taking care of us and controls all the things that happen in our lives. But I have no idea who that “Someone” is. At the same time I have had many experiences regarding one particular god which is Ganesha- The elephant god. Whenever I have prayed to him, my wishes have come true and my many fears, for example fear of darkness is almost gone since the time I have started praying. This might be coz of faith. I chose to have faith in Ganesha and it in turn rewards me with peace and happiness. Faith can do wonders as we can see from the examples around us. Faith can be again in any form. It can be faith on oneself or faith towards others. Faith cannot be defined but rather experienced. This is how I see God but what about others? How do they see it?

For many people God is right beside us and helps us in any way he can. This I want to tell through a para from the book “City of Joy”. …… “A blind man about 30 was squatting in front of a kid who was a victim of polio. He was speaking to the boy as he gently massaged first the youngster’s needle-thin calves, then his deformed knees and thighs. The boy held on to the man’s neck with a look overcome with gratitude. His blind companion was laughing. He was still so young, yet he exuded a serenity and goodness that was almost supernatural. After a few minutes he stood up and took the boy delicately by the shoulders to get him on his feet. The latter made an effort to support himself on his legs. The blind man spoke a few words and the lad put one leg in front of him into the murky water that swamped the street. Again the blind man pushed him gently forward and the child moved his other leg. He had taken a step. Reassured, he took second. After a few minutes they both were making their way down the middle of the alley, the little boy acting as guide for his brother in darkness and the latter propelling the young polio victim forward. So remarkable was the sight of those two castaways that even the children playing marbles on the kerbstones stood up to watch as they passed.” This according to me is the perfect example of finding God in day to day life. You can take lesson from this as well as feel happy that they found each other. This incident shows clearly that God is Humanity, which is very hard to find in today’s world. No one bothers about anyone and everyone is busy in their own lives but on the other hand there are people who would leave everything aside just to help others. They are called Messengers of God.

But at the same time we cant deny that there are people who are called Worshippers of Satan. For what reason? Why someone would call some person such a horrific term? May be because of the deeds they do. May be because they don’t believe in Humanity. One such example I can think right now is of Holocaust. What did Hitler and his followers gained by killing millions of innocents? Was he so blind that he forgot what is it to be a human? These are some questions I do not think any one can answer. But does this mean God does not exist? No, according to me, it simply means God is testing us. He is testing how strong we are, if we learn from our mistakes. First World War was not enough for man that he had to fight Second World War. To make mankind understand graveness of the war, God had to take drastic measures. And I think Humanity has learnt from it. May be not on the smaller scale but definitely on the bigger scale. Those who do not believe in God will never understand what I am trying to say. They will come up with all kind of valid counter arguments to this post. And I am sure I will not be able to answer them. After all, I haven’t seen God. But I sure have felt him within me. And anyone who has faith has felt him. Faith is an answer to many of the questions.

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. ~C.S. Lewis

Perspective Truth

Today's blog is about truth and how it differs from person to person. Now you will say, truth is truth and how can it differ? But the fact is, though the truth does not differ, people's outlook towards it differ greatly. Their perspective is never the same. Of course, here we are not talking about our day to day doings but rather the bigger picture. For example, take Newton's third law of motion. It clearly states that "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." For a non-physics student the statement itself will be enough but for the student who studies physics, the statement will bring all together different meaning which non physics student will never understand and get more and more confused. So what I mean to say here is, though the statement remains the same, the perspective definitely changes.

Now, there is one more thing about truth. It brings many things with it. For example, Controversy. When someone decides not to believe in something and tries to prove it wrong it becomes a Controversy. The struggle between Truth and Lie. And while doing this journey many other things come up which makes the whole thing more confusing. To make myself clear I will give an example of Aliens. According to me Aliens do exist but according to some they do not exist and hence the controversy regarding existance of Aliens. This has given rise to many sub issues, such as Area 51, Alien Abduction. I assume, everyone now knows the truth about Area 51. If some of the readers are not aware then the truth is It was secret military base of America during the Cold War and to keep it as a secret American govt started the Alien rumour of Area 51. This of course is the brief version.

The other topic of Alien Abduction is whereas a very vast subject. Again, here the perspective of people changes dramatically. The Alien Abduction cases came into limelight in 1950s and 60s. They took place even before that but the event did not get the fame required. Many people believe that Alien Abductions do take place, all you need is Imagination which is the key to all answers. If you dare to imagine then it will happen to you too. Kind of like existance of God in my view. If you believe in God, you will believe in his strength and his position in your life. So, if you believe in Aliens, you will be able to see them. On the other hand, some people take the path of science. They want to see everything as Logic. They want the proof of the Alien Abduction existance. If there are any cases, they would rather do thorough analysis of it than believing in it blindly. I put myself in the second category of people. I do not want to believe it because I feel its all for the fame and publicity. At the same time I would not ridicule it knowing there are many secrets in the Universe which we haven't explored yet. There are many unexplained things on Earth itself which we haven't uncovered.

The moral of the story is, truth can be twisted in anyway we want. It all depends on the perspective of how you look at it. What someone sees as complete truth might be half truth for other. The reason I dwell on this topic is because in this past week I have had many conversations about Alien Abductions and existance of Aliens and many such topics. The truth remained the same, everyone believed that Aliens are out there, somewhere. But the way everyone put it differed very much. So I just thought why not chose this as my next subject. I hope I haven't done a job of sloppy joe and succeeded putting forth what was in my mind. But the truth is- I am confused myself.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

Laughter

According to Doctors, one of the best ways to increase our life span is to laugh daily till our stomach hurts. Smiling or laughing affects everyone around us. When we see babies, the initial reaction is to smile. That is because babies reflect pure happiness and feeling of being content. So, smiling is connected to being happy and who would not want to be a happy person? So, here I am today, trying to spread that happiness among my readers. I will be telling funny experiences which happened to me and my friends. Some were extremely embarrassing whereas others were downright hilarious. I hope I succeed in making you smile.

One of the best things about being clumsy is, I end up falling each and everywhere. So most of my funny moments are where I fall or spill or in the worst case make others fall (Thankfully, the third case hasn't happened yet). When I was staying alone in Bangalore, I had to eat lunch at college from Canteen. Getting the plate from crowded canteen wasn't a problem for me. The main problem for me would arrive when I would sit comfortably at one place to eat. Because I don't remember even one single day when I did not spill anything on my tshirt or jeans. And the incident would not end there but continue with me cursing everyone around me including the person who made the lunch. And my poor friend Divya would bear all this in the name of friendship. Sometimes, I wonder how did she tolerate me those 3yrs in college? Because my clumsiness does not confine to spilling. I can not drink while I am walking. So if we go to buy Hot Chocolate or Coffee then I would walk 2 steps and stop to drink. The distance between the Kiosk and the classes was quite a bit which would end up us being late for class almost everytime. The rush and the sound of bell would always speed up the heart rate and the fear of missing our attendance was so great that many times I would just gulp my coffee and run to class. I would always ignore the burning tongue, because nothing was more important to us than getting attendance.

Once, I had gone with my best friend for dinner to a Chinese restaurant. We sat beside window thinking we will get nice cool air and good view. As soon as we ordered our dinner, I felt someone dancing on my lap. I looked at my best friend thinking it must be one of his funny trick. But he was so engrossed in the menu that there was no possibility he would pull of such a trick. I lifted the table mat and when I looked down, I got heart attack of a life time. What I saw on my lap was 1 huge rodent jumping from here and there and quite enjoying himself. Thank God that I did not scream but I jumped from my seat and started hopping around. When my friend saw the rodent walking away from me, he howled with laughter and no person could stop him afterwards. I was so shaken and tried to tell him that Dancing Rodent was quite scary but no force of nature could stop him from laughing at me. Finally even I gave in and joined him in his laughter.

The other incident took place when I was shifting from PG to my home in Pune. It was a really rainy day and me and my friend hadn't eaten for whole day amidst packing. It was almost 7 in the evening and we decided to have lunch plus dinner outside. It was a rainy day and whole floor had gotten wet. I was careful while walking but being me I slipped. The way I fell was so comical that I went high in the air and came down with a crash. Even the dog, which PG owners had got scared and whimpered away from me but all the other spectators started laughing so hard and doubled with laughter when I said- owww my back is paining. Only Shadow (the dog) came near me and showed any concern. Rest all were busy laughing.

These kind of small incidents have occupied my life almost at every stage. Specially the spelling mistakes I make while typing will haunt me forever. Once while speaking to my brother I typed Renukai Bhalerap by mistake, since then my life has become a hell rider. Because my brother has made sure everyone comes to know about this typo and now they all call me as Kai or Bhalerap. They have gone as far as to say that we will even open a wikipedia name by this name. Now, even I wonder what my actual name is. These examples will go on and on. I hope I have succeeded in my endeavor to make you all smile atleast a tiny bit. To conclude this post, here is 1 joke and a quote about laughter which i liked.

Best Diplomatic lines for the person you Hate- Its not that I hate You but lets just say, If you were on fire and I had water, I would drink it because of my thirst.

Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects. ~Arnold Glasow