History Asphyxiated!!

Learning or reading history just for the sake of it is probably wrong..one is supposed to read between the lines there..to assimilate the past doesn't mean to blindly remember the dates and the years but to know why these dates and the years are worth remembering.....neway retrospectively though telling history just for the sake of it would in my opinion be the right thing to do....i mean lets face it ..the manner in which history is told or the tone or the way of telling all these things make a difference in interpreting it..the point is not whether they make a good effect or bad the point is they destroy the main essence of learning history...u gotta make your own interpretations of things... i mean reading the allies' orchestrated books about Nazi psychology would hardly aim at capturing the real picture of the party( guess it would be more gruesome than normal beings like us could handle neway :P but still....)

So its probably the moral or ethical or whatever responsibility of the guys who have the liberty to decide what history to tell others ,its definitely for them to be more impartial...im not talking about the NCERT debate over their recent history book syllabus fiasco..hell nobody learns history from school books neways....

Couple of weeks ago i was in Delhi seating literally in the "middle of the Red Fort" surrounded by the grandeur of Mughal empire the "Diwanni-E-Khaas" making me just realise the meaning of the word "surreal" , heavenly. The much hyped light and music show was finally about to commence(just 20 minutes late..... no sweat :P).This is surely the center of India's history....the place still crowned to be the highest echelon when the Prime Minister gives his speech every Independence Day....What i expected was an unbiased,well documented story of history..but what followed was a total letdown here are few things that i found really disturbing -

1. No mention of Akbar...come on guys fine he wasn't a typical Mughal king ...he had Hindu and Rajput friends ,had quite an eye for the future....and he didn't kill that many people just for not being islamic....so you just delete the greatest Mughal king huh?

2. Shivaji sidetracked completely...i mean this is getting too much.....the Red Fort wasn't only about the Song and the dances and the Shayari ..hell it was a capital of a huge empire..doesn't history necessarily involve ups and down....

3. And the most disturbing fact..Nothing about Sadashiwarao Bhau Peshawa or even Ahamadashah Abdali...SHIT this is the limit..i mean wasn't the great battle of Panipat fought for the sole purpose of protecting Delhi from Abdali??It claimed millions and not just men.....But no the show spends 30 minutes of its 45 sickeningly about the Begmas and the diamonds (which were stolen later by Abdali himself) and the madira and how difficult it was to bring all the marble from Persia....wow this is history of Red Fort huh??

And the worst part is i could point out these things just because i know a little bit about Maharashtra's history....what about the Rajput's and the Jat's ...i mean whats the aim of giving such a lopsided view?? do they really think people don't know the enmity that existed or that a realistic account of history for once would be a political mistake??probably...people would rather shirk away from the truth than facing it....no problem i might also do the same thing who knows....
but for God's sake please let ME make that choice!! let me walk out....maybe indians just might prove to be better at handling the bloody past than everyone thinks.....

The End of a Great Era...........

OK one fact before i begin anything.................
IM THE GREATEST FAN OF HARRY POTTER ..............................(means i'm probably one of the millions who think the same :P..LOLLLZZZ......)

I live HP,I talk HP, in short HP is in my blood(sort of like the Quidditch in harry's i guess...)

Anyway,
Rather than talk about the 7th book, since a few of my friends are still in progress, I have some thoughts about the series in general.

The thing that has most impressed me about the series has been the complexity. Characters aren't completely good or evil.(Move over फास्तर फेने ) Harry gets whiny and angsty, Ron is a bit of a jerk throughout the series. Fred and George can be disturbingly cold and calculating, Wormtail is more pathetic than bad, Draco is pitiable with hints of a truly ominous home life, etc. Too many books and movies, for kids and adults, shy away from complexity, as if we wouldn't get it if they didn't attached big "GOOD GUY" and "BAD GUY" signs to everything. The success of this series proves to me that people, especially kids, don't need things dumbed down like that.

I also really like the realism of it. Yes, the magic is outlandish, and yes, Hermione explaining the background of everything via "Hogwarts: A History" is frequently contrived, but for the most part the characters and their interactions with each other are very real.(Yeah this is the first time in my life that im criticising something remotely related to Hermione...never again though surely.......Its an unbreakable vow then.. ;P) I'm sure that everyone read some portion of Harry being locked in the cellar or his room by his family, or being ostracized and feared by his classmates, and didn't relate to his isolation on some level. Everyone, particularly at this age, feels alone, and Harry's story captured that feeling very well, even if in more extreme circumstances (hopefully!) than most of us have been though ourselves.

I'm incredibly impressed with J.K. R's attention to detail and patience. Hints are dropped and important points set up books in advance, and while I know there are some consistency errors here and there (with that many pages total in all the books, there would have to be!) she did a fantastic job of making all seven books a consistent whole. I mean i still remember the evening before the big day confidently agreeing with Praju that "all the questions from the first book are now definitely answered !!" Shit..... can anyone BE more mistaken(as Chandler would say ..... :P)


You know i don't even mind mocked for being so much into children's books ,the truth is HP series is not childrens' and it takes an adult to realise that(:P).........

The Beginning

Let there be a blog and there was one...:P wow i wish it was that simple.well.. still, here goes nothing............

i find myself thinking, the only difficult fact about blogging is you get a feeling that you are sort of talking in front of invisible crowd...i mean i would rather prefer to have a look at their frowns rather than typing myself away into nothing neways if i start looking at it from a different perspective then it seems to be a good thing... yesss.... i can finally blabber about nething without caring a bit what the git in front of me thinks about it......kewl thought actually ..and its this tinsy little thought that finally made me write a post here (i had actually created this blog like a month ago but just couldn't bring myself to type down anything)

its like being taken to a GIJOE shop and told that i HAVE to buy something...i mean come on can't i just look around relishing the position of power that i can have whatever i want,the anxious look on the shopkeeper's face dreading about what the hell this guy wants, the moment you decide what u want the ball's no longer in your court.......

neway i'm not good with similes (or was it metaphor......forget it) and definitely not with philosophy and stuff (i guess its easy to find what you are bad at rather than what are you are good at :P)

well i don't know in what exact context the verb 'blogging' is used i mean now that i am starting a blog should I expect to receive a card saying 'happy blogging!!' or something ;P
well here's my neologism(don't worry about the word its the GRE aftermath...we all suffer from it...it'll wear off in a few weeks though :P )....................
its Salil's blog - Blog at your own risk....