Culture on my musings

The Gray Opinion

Harshal Suryawanshi — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 16:01:00 +0000

We are a generation which has been fortunate to be the most connected in our species’ history. The sheer number of platforms available at our fingertips to express ourselves overwhelms me. Maybe that’s why I have been content with only Facebook and WhatsApp till now.

But I think even that may change now. Nowadays whenever you open Facebook, all you see is people expressing opinions and people getting married. Although I like to do the former and am ready for the latter (just letting the universe know, in case if anyone is interested 😜) it has started becoming a little unhealthy. Now I am not saying that people should stop posting what they think/believe/agree with (or getting married for that matter). With everything going on in our country, there is no dearth of important topics that need to be debated. It’s heartening to see people investing themselves in the really important issues pertaining to our country. The generation before us used to read the newspaper and then comment on the situation of the country while sipping tea. We have more power than them. We post stories, infographics and retweet our feelings while having green tea. But I think we haven’t matured proportionately with the advancement of the technology. So the combination of efficient and engaging communication with our still maturing mindsets has whipped up a cloud of toxicity which has started affecting our personal lives.

We have become so Black & White in our views that we have no room for Gray. We can’t listen to the others’ voice in the din of our loud statements. And even worse than that, sometimes we can’t hear the other side because we just don’t want to. I remember when I had an assured and stable access to internet (perks of getting a job) initially, I used to love reading news on internet. Now why was reading news on internet more fun than reading it in the newspaper? The difference was the comments section. I used to spend more time reading the comments section than the actual story. Reading people arguing on some controversial story, understanding the mood of the discourse and getting different takes on the same story was what made it more interesting. But now even that pleasure has been taken away thanks to the IT Cells of the political parties and people just verbally abusing each other. During those initial days I had come across an article which implored people to read more literature which actually disagrees with their viewpoint. And that has been my guiding light to arrive at any conclusion on any topic. Spend some time understanding the situation from the other’s perspective.

But I think not everyone was lucky to have read that article before they got used to the internet. The biggest pitfall of internet in general and social media in particular is that we usually surround ourselves with people or posts which support our viewpoint. This creates a positive feedback loop where our beliefs get reinforced over time since there is hardly ever any voice of dissent. No one dislikes a post from a friend where you don’t agree with the content but we will almost definitely like the post from a friend where we agree with the views. And so everyone thinks that they are right. Sometimes some topics are such that it is almost impossible to decide what is right. But we are in a age where being right is the only option, whether it is an exam or social media wars. A personal example about this is the Sabarimala case. I have been very fortunate to have friends which have a differing opinion on many matters and it is always insightful to have discussions with them. So when the case was being heard in SC to decide on whether women should be allowed to enter the temple against the age old established tradition, I was ready to write about what I felt was right. I had decided to put down my thoughts at night when I would return home from office. I was returning with a colleague that evening and I had a feeling that she would have a differing opinion than me. So I asked her about her views on the topic. She was Team Faith, saying that if an overwhelming majority of people believe in those traditions then we should honour them. I was in Team Equality, where I was of the opinion that those traditions are man made and should be subject to change as per changing times. At the end of our spirited conversation I was still convinced that I am right. I came home and didn’t write anything, not because I had doubts but because I was just plain lazy 😛. The next day I came across the editorial page in ‘The Hindu’ where the columnists expressed differing but equally convincing views on the topic. The ‘centre’ view in that op-ed created enough doubt in my mind that I dropped the idea of writing on the issue. In this case if you look at the situation from different viewpoints, we can’t definitely comment on who is right and who is wrong. Some situations are just messy, we need to understand this and sometimes all we can do at the time is hold on to your views but also acknowledge others’ viewpoints.

Currently, based on half-truths, fake news shared somewhere on social media we are ever ready to defend our half cooked beliefs. We haven’t got the time, will or maturity to read the source material and then form our views. We don’t have patience to listen to others’ views. I wish we try to put ourselves in others’ shoes more often and not let our views/opinions be a barrier between our personal relationships. It’s OK(in fact more than OK) to have a friend who doesn’t share the same views, opinions or beliefs. If they have something to say give them a fair chance and if still you are not convinced, you continue with your own views. But we all need to learn to be friends even though we don’t see eye to eye on everything.

Ramayana

Harshal Suryawanshi — Sun, 04 Aug 2019 13:37:00 +0000

When I was studying engineering, we learnt in one of the subjects that a less probable event conveys more information. ‘The sun rises in the east’ - hmm… ok… everyone knows this… so what? See what I mean, zero information. But when you read ‘Click here to know xyz about Nick Priyanka’s wedding’, now that’s information (according to news outlets) since the probability of a common person knowing that xyz is miniscule.

Disclaimer: The subject only dealt with quantity of information. It didn’t have any theory on the quality of information. (although I wish it did, so that I could use it to purge my news feed).

Anyways, I am writing about probability of events because often in our lives, rare events or one-off moments are the ones which make the most impact. An unplanned trip to Lonavala will be the one of your best outings (despite a lack of candid pics which you pose for). An unexpected act of kindness remains etched in your conscience changing your outlook towards people. Just the memory of that fleeting look from someone special still makes your heart race even after all these years.

One such unexpected but memorable event that I witnessed was on the occasion of Ram Navami. There’s a beautiful place called ‘Shilparamam’ in Hyderabad which is known for handicrafts and other things. (I really had to scratch my head to describe the wares that are sold there and all that I could come up with was handicrafts. That’s how bad I’m at shopping.) Long story short it’s a famous joint for shopping. But it also has a cultural centre associated with it which hosts events like classical dancing among other things.

All my visits to Shilparamam till then were in the capacity of a ‘reluctant observer’ tagging along with some friend who is going shopping there. On the evening of Ram Navami too I was fulfilling my role dutifully going to Shilparamam with my friend who wanted to buy clothes for family. Now I am not a very religious person and I had no clue that it was the day of Ram Navami. Anyways, after entering the complex we heard some classical music and since we had some spare time we went towards the direction of the sound to see what’s going on.

We arrived at an open air theatre and saw some dancers who were enacting scenes from Ramayana on the dais. We decided on enjoying the show for a while before moving on with our main mission(mission impossible for me). The song-story was being narrated in Telugu, the local language and I had absolutely no idea what was being sung. But I didn’t need to - since the whole thing was also being narrated in another language - dance.

Now I have read Ramayana numerous times since my childhood. I used to go to my ancestral village for summer vacations and the dominant form of entertainment were FM radio and old cassette players. But when the electricity is on a hike, or there is that typical summer afternoon lull, I used to read whatever I find. There were only a few book to read and the copy of Ramayana was my favourite one. I liked the story of Ramayana so much that for subsequent years, even if there was anything else to read I would re-read the familiar story one more time.

And now that I have grown up, living hundreds of kilometers away from my village, those memories had receded to a dusty corner of my brain. But seeing the old favourite story being enacted right in front of me brought all those memories rushing back. The story of Shabari, who had tasted the wild berries herself before presenting them to Ram & Lakshman to ensure that they only get the sweetest of them has always been close to my heart. She seems to me like a mother wanting the very best for her children. But on that day the elegance and expressions of those dancers portraying the same story added a new dimension to the feelings that Shabari’s story elicited. Similarly the occasion when Bharat meets Ram in exile, and returns with his ‘paduka’, their brotherly love was portrayed beautifully. The anger and anguish on Lakshman’s face when Sita throws wild accusations at him because he refuses to leave her alone at the ‘ashram’ to go look for Ram, or the fight of the brave Jatayu with Raavan and his pain when he is wounded felt so realistic. I can just go on and on and yet my limited vocabulary and even more limited imagination and flair could not be able to capture the experience I felt on that day.

While leaving the performance, I was thinking that it was amazing that I could enjoy and understand that performance even though I was in a region which is quite different from where I have been brought up. And that was possible because no matter how much our differences appear stark and obvious in terms of language, customs, food and other countless things, under all that bewildering diversity there are a few common fundamental threads that have tied us all together for centuries. And that’s a comforting thought to have in this increasingly globalized, connected but in a sense also a very divided and lonely world.

I have always had trouble contemplating the divine, but the art and talent that I saw on that evening was nothing short of divine in my book. And not just because it was so damn good but also because it has the power to bring all of us together, to be the invisible thread that brings all the different coloured flowers together to form a beautiful garland, to serve a higher purpose, to be a better person, to be like Ram.

Shiv Jayanti – Paying an Apt Tribute

Harshal Suryawanshi — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 05:08:00 +0000

The present age is often termed as the media age. There are numerous tools at our disposal that cater to our need to communicate with each other. Freedom of expression has become our second nature. In fact we rarely think about what we speak. Freedom of movement is exercised by millions everyday. And many of us are not even aware that we have ‘Freedom of religion’ because rarely anyone has to exercise it consciously. But imagine yourselves living in an age where these freedoms don’t exist. Where hunger is prevalent and people are starving. Where people have to pay ‘jizya’ to go to pilgrimage sites. Where people are not free to celebrate festivals and worship their Gods openly. This was Maharashtra before Shivaji Maharaj. Its said that, ‘The darkest hour is just before the dawn’. The arrival of Shivaji Maharaj was the first ray of sunlight tearing through the heart of surrounding darkness. Shiv Jayanti is the celebration of the birth of a Maratha King in simple terms. But in reality it is meant to celebrate the end of the darkness. This is the day when you end the darkness of ignorance and try to enlighten yourselves with the knowledge of the life of Shivaji Maharaj.

Shivaji Maharaj was born in the Bhonsle family to Shahaji and his wife Jijabai. Shahaji Maharaj was a Maratha general who served The Adilshah of Bijapur. The seeds of Swarajya were sown in Shivaji’s heart and mind by his mother Jijabai. She was a patriot and devout Hindu who was pained to see her country suffer the tyrannies of the Deccan Sultanates. She nurtured the dream of Swarajya in her heart long before the birth of Shivaji and she realized that dream by raising her son to be a proud, capable, just and courageous leader. At the age of 16, Shivaji captured the fort of Torna and ignited a small flame of hope amidst the seemingly perpetual darkness of foreign rule. The dream of Swarajya had started to materialize and in a few years its expanse had captured the imagination of the populace. During the course of his life, Shivaji Maharaj had triumphed the odds stacked against him numerous times. One has to only read about his encounter with Afzal Khan, the defeat of Shaiste Khan and his daring escape from the clutches of Mughal Badshah Aurangazeb to get an idea. In his quests he was aided by many brave soldiers and generals who only had their valour, loyalty and love to offer. There would have been no Shivaji if there was no Baji Prabhu to defend Paavan Khind until his last breath. There would have been no Shivaji if there was no Jiva Mahala to save him from the sword of Sayyed Banda. There would have been no Swarajya if there was no Tanaji Malusare who cared more about winning Sinhagad (the Lion’s Fort named after his sacrifice) for Swarajya than his son’s wedding. Shivaji Maharaj was not the king of the territory he ruled, he was the king of the masses he loved and protected, and who loved him back with equal fervour.

His life is a roadmap for people of all generations, of all faith. But we have reduced it to flashy messages, patriotic songs and powadas blaring on the loudspeakers on his Jayanti, and heaping garlands on his statue. Bal Gangadhar Tilak had started this practice of celebrating Shiv Jayanti publicly to inspire people to overthrow the shackles of foreign rule. India is an independent country now; we are the guardians of our own fate, our own future. But the spirit of Shiv Jayanti must live on. It must live on in our deeds, our thoughts, our speech, our literature. We should start by reading Shivaji Maharaj’s biography. See how he treated people. Understand how people around him affected his life. Learn about his struggles. Feel his difficulties. And then try to imbibe some of his qualities, try to follow his footsteps. Life of Shivaji Maharaj is full of anecdotes and examples from which we have a lot to learn. The focus and dedication of Shivaji Maharaj when he was learning swordsmanship and other martial skills is an inspiration to any student. The skill and perseverance shown by Dadoji Konddev, Raje’s teacher, is a shining example for all the teachers. Every mother should look up to Jijabai who raised her son not only with love but discipline too. Jiva Mahala and Baji Prabhu are epitomes of friendship and brotherhood. If you are a diplomat Shivaji’s statesmanship has a lot to teach you. If you are a HR manager there’s a lot for you to learn from Shivaji’s administration. Whoever you are and whatever you do, you will find something worth learning, worth following, worth teaching from this king who still dwells in peoples’ hearts.

Today, elections are contested on the promise of Swaraj. People expect the government to provide them everything, which ranges from a job to a clean street. But people forget that the definition of Swaraj itself means that people themselves are part of the government, and it is as much their responsibility to keep the streets clean as it is of the government’s. Only political class isn’t accountable to bring about Swaraj but it is on each individual to follow the principles of Swaraj and safeguard it. Imagine if Jijabai had just kept on complaining about the atrocities that the people of Maharashtra suffered. There was no need for Shivaji Maharaj to conquer forts on hilltops, to fight to free his land, to suffer hardships at his age when he could have easily spent his life in luxury. Hadn’t they decided to act upon the circumstances, the injustice and the challenges they faced, we probably wouldn’t have been able to write or read this article freely. So let’s try to build upon their legacy instead of showing our cosmetic patriotism and respect by merely sending and receiving catchy messages. Let’s strive to make Swaraj a reality. Let’s try to be responsible, proud and cognizant people. This, will be the apt tribute to our great king Shri Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Jai Hind.

The Reason I Travel

Harshal Suryawanshi — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 18:15:00 +0000

Recently one of my friends posted a question on FB as to why do you travel? He got many responses to the question including mine. Many of the responses had the common thread of exploration, perspective, life is short etc. Even when I was writing my response I wanted it to be brief, but ended up writing quite a few lines. Many days have passed since, and I have visited some more new places and gained new experiences. But it is not always about the pleasant experiences and beautiful locations. Sometimes you are stranded at a bus stop and meet some unpleasant people or have the beautiful image of the place that you have in your mind, destroyed by the ground realities. It is at these times I think to myself, why do I do this? I know this sounds corny, but such questions inevitably occur when you are waiting for the train for 10 hours. (I reached 6 hours early and the universe rewarded my overzealous punctuality by delaying the train by 4 hours. I finished a novel in that time, cleared the candy crush level that I was stuck on for months, had conversation with twins from Bengal who were pursuing MBBS in Bangladesh and destroyed some pigs in Angry Birds who seemed angrier because of the delay.)

So why do I do this? The answer that I gave to my friend’s question was this:

“To get perspective…We read so many things, fictional, non fictional…It gives me a background to whatever non fiction I have read be it historical, geographical or any other thing…when I visit the place suddenly the temple architecture that I read about in school textbooks or the wars that were fought on the forts come alive….You also get to experience the unexpected which broadens your mind and makes you more humble…Also I like to be left alone with my thoughts, that’s why I travel alone most of the times…frees me from the constraints of our time like social media, negative news and such…And finally, there are so many beautiful places to be seen, it feels a waste of life if I don’t visit at least some of them.”

Now since this is FB, we all try to be an pompous ass. From heavily ‘beautified’ photos to ‘vadhiv’ photo captions, FB is the place where everyone is supposedly living their dream. And I was no exception here. The answer I gave isn’t necessarily untrue, but it glosses over many aspects and just presents a one-dimensional, pleasant and perfect image.

Initially when I started to go on outings it was always with a group of my school or college friends. It is that time in our lives when you will blindly follow the group, even though it is towards the lecture hall (this probably - just - might be overstretching a bit). For those of us who were damned to pursue engineering, the decision is groomed long before we even know what is engineering (As a kid, I used to think engineering means building train engines, since that was the only engine I knew. I am actually surprised to not get it completely wrong). There was always someone in the group to suggest the outing and since there is never a shortage of bikes for the college kids, we would literally kick off our adventure. These trips were something out of syllabus (feels weird writing ‘out of syllabus’ with a positive connotation) for us who had arrived at engineering by following a very structured path. At this point in my life, the reason for travel was just fun and the company of friends. No hashtags, no philosophical thoughts and none of that perspective bullshit.

But life is not always about roses and unicorns. Sometimes you have things to deal with, thoughts to process, which require calm and quiet. So I went searching for places, where I will be left to my own devices. I would find some obscure hill on Google Maps and just take off there early in the morning. If I was fast enough, I would watch the sun rise through the light fog, perched on the top of the hill. There would be no one there to disturb me, and I would realise that there aren’t many thoughts to process after all (The dominant thought at those times usually was - “Why the hell did you wake up so early, idiot?”). But even amidst my sleepy thoughts, I liked the loneliness, the peacefulness of it and the sunrise. These are the times when I am travelling not because I want to go somewhere, but to get away from everything.

The book “India: A Sacred Geography” by Diana L. Eck has had a great influence on the selection of my travel locations. I came across this book somewhere around 2015 and liked it very much. There’s a map given at the beginning of the book showing all the major pilgrimage places in India. The book gave me another lens to look through while visiting places of religious significance which people might miss when they are just following the “15 places that should be on top of your list” fad. I tried to cover all the locations shown in the map which were nearby to where I was living at that time. But this was a whole new ballgame since these places were quite far and there were no bikes. But then the ubiquitous Indian Railways came to help, and I found that most of the places are easily accessible by public transport. And then I was introduced with one more aspect of travelling - interaction with strangers.

I am not very keen on talking with people (although I know some who wish that I shut up, at least once a day). But I think this is one of the most humbling and enlightening aspects of my travels. This is something you can’t plan and you have to deal with the situations as they come. When I look back at the places that I have travelled to, most of the memories that I am able to recollect are about the stories that these people lived.

I met a French woman, travelling from Khajuraho to Varanasi in sleeper class. The train was stranded just before Varanasi for more than two hours. Without any official explanation as to what was happening, the foreign tourists in the compartment were getting restless. So this French woman started talking with me about why the train is late and soon a conversation started flowing. Finally when the train reached the station, I helped her navigate the chaotic railway station. While we were alighting the train, I asked her where are her other friends to which she replied she was travelling alone. I was astonished to hear that. I usually went alone on my trips and people used to be surprised that I was travelling alone when they came to know about it. But it is a different story for me because I know the language, the culture and the implicit Do’s and Dont’s in India. But for a foreigner to manage solo travelling with hard to understand English accent in India, without any hotel booking or tourism package tour, was admirable and little frightening too. Until that point a slight sense of false pride, hubris had crept into my nature. When people repeat the same thing over and over you kind of believe it to be true and I had started thinking that I am doing something extraordinary when I travel solo. But those simple soft words shredded my ego to a million pieces. I saluted her silently from my heart to have that courage and passion to travel solo in a foreign land. Finally she negotiated with the rickshaw drivers outside (she was really good at bargaining, one more thing I admired about her) and we parted our ways after a goodbye handshake.

Then at Chitrakoot, I met a young rickshaw driver who must have been around 18 years of age. I had started walking to the places of interest there, but after some point I realised that it is impossible to cover all the places on foot. But since I had already covered a fair distance from the main town, I was not getting any rickshaw. Finally at one of the sites on the banks of river Mandakini, I found this kid willing to offer a ride. The auto was already booked by a family for sightseeing, so after taking a verbal NOC from the family I was able to travel in the rickshaw, sharing the front seat with this kid. And so the journey started and I was able to see the remaining beautiful places there. The last place that we visited was ‘Gupt - Godavari’ a cave which has a small stream flowing through it. It was really good, wading through the cold water and seeing the caves from the inside. After paying the respects to the deity there, me, the kid and the family came downstairs to have some evening snacks. The head of the family, a middle-aged person offered us snacks. While eating he casually asked this kid, “What is your caste?” I was shocked to hear that. Never before I had heard someone ask so openly and so casually about anyone’s caste. The kid too in reply told his caste coolly as though it was a normal conversation. The question itself didn’t contain any malice nor the answer had any hint of anger or shame. The incident didn’t bring about any change of behaviour from anyone for the remainder of the trip but I just couldn’t shake the feeling of uneasiness that I felt on that day till today.

I have met people offering me a ride, becoming my tour guide for a while by their own accord and people who have trained monkeys to climb on the pilgrims back and exhort money for the peanuts that have to be offered to the monkeys to get them down. I have met an elderly woman walking with me to show me the bus stop and tell (more waving and less telling) me the bus timings because I couldn’t speak the language of her region and on the same trip I have met a man who refused to help because I couldn’t speak the language of the region. I have heard people talking about the holiness of the Ganga water and the pujas and prayers they do everyday and have seen the same people pocket my mobile phone which had slipped out of my pocket in the rickshaw. I have had people denying me a place to sit even though they could easily manage it and people who have shared their food with me overriding my nay saying. I have met fellow travellers who have left well paid jobs to do farming and others who have braved the tents and the mosquitoes to follow their passion of travelling. I have heard life stories of people emptying their hearts to me, probably because it is easier to do that with a stranger and have unexpectedly met old friends to spend the rest of the day recounting memories and watching the sun set.

Again, it all seems great to read, but this is the accumulation of experiences over thousands of kilometres and many years. You are going to realise that we have formed many notions about things without ever stepping out of our district or state or region. And when you get out many of them are just going to turn out to be false notions. You are going to meet many bad people and some good ones. You are going to have few good experiences and some bad ones. But not every trip has to give you that perfect moment or that great story. You just have to let it come your way and keep walking to your destination…

Without any expectation…

The Baba Bashing

Harshal Suryawanshi — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 13:56:00 +0000

The ‘babas’ and ‘imams’ and ‘priests’ who call themselves the incarnations of God or claim to speak His word, I always ignore them. The things they speak ring hollow in my ears. My brain is a pretty standard one and it doesn’t like complicated things and elaborate ’truths’. It always tries to find a simpler explanation and that’s why I just try to be a better person. That is enough for me rather than devoting myself to someone to feel closer to God. Being a better person is a huge task in itself, which will never be complete in one’s lifetime. No matter which God you believe in or whether you believe in the concept of God in the first place, you still will be making a positive change just by keeping your moral compass pointing in the right direction. So whenever news of such pretenders getting booked for some crime appear in my news feed I just scroll on. After all someday they have to face the music. You can’t fool everyone all the time.

But then you get up in morning and you read the news of followers of these pretenders attacking the public places, railway stations, news crew, police and whatever they can lay their eyes on. Then you can’t ignore these pretenders and their power and influence. A flash of anger goes through my brain, reading about the brazenness of these followers, their utter disregard for the law, property and people and more importantly the reason for their rampage. But the anger lasts only for a second, after that I just feel sad…sad about the fact that these people are so angry about the perceived offence to their ‘God’ that they become blind to the God among the people that they are beating up. They fail to see the God in the crying child caught up in this environment filled with violence. They even don’t recognise the God that resides in the rape victim who got justice when the court convicted the pretender.

One can argue that they believe that the court has delivered a wrong decision and that the pretender is innocent. But the court has no vested interest in declaring the pretender guilty. It has given its decision based on the proof and testimonies presented to it. And as we know the Indian justice system will mostly err on the side of caution. If there is a doubt about whether the accused is guilty or not he will almost always walk free. And even if you believe that you are wronged by the lower court you go the higher court. But the violence perpetuated due to your belief is not justifiable under any circumstance. What kind of a belief system is this where you are blind to everything else except your Godman. I can understand that people want to feel close to God, serve Him in some way. But then do exactly that. Why do you need these Godmen, these pretenders to feel close to God? You have your scriptures, you have your holy books, go and read them. at least you will learn more about your religion, your God. You want to serve God, serve the people in need instead of serving at the feet of these crooks.

One source of this problem that I can see is that in this fast world we want instant results. Who is going to come home from work and read those big religious volumes. It’s better to buy a 10000 rs ticket to get a darshan of xyz baba and tell him our problem. He will suggest a simple solution to go to xyz shrine or ask to eat rasagulla everyday for a month. It’s an instant solution to the problem. By some co-incidence if the said solution really makes a difference people start to blindly trust the words coming out of the baba’s mouth. No matter how learned you are, people will keep their brains locked somewhere deep in darkness, and follow the idiotic things that the baba says. They will sway to the chants in the gathering, they will flock to theatres to watch his movie no matter whether it makes sense or not and finally if the need arises they will take weapons in their hands to protect the honour of their ‘God’. Anyway no one has said that rational thinking and education must go hand in hand. We might be top engineers and executives, but when it comes to these babas, we are no more rational than a chimpanzee. More than anger at these pretenders commanding such power by exploiting the sentiments of people, I feel saddened and pity for the people who have become followers of these stupid people. It’s not that these babas are very intelligent or they are master strategists to influence masses, but it’s just that people behave idiotically when it comes to matters of faith. That is why some clerics and mullahs are able to convince muslim youth to go wage jihad against the infidels, that is why a decision against the Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim leads to death of 31 people, that’s why when police come to arrest Asaram Bapu they face a wall of people ready to die for him.

Stating problems and discussing them is an easy thing to do. But finding the solution is the real ‘problem’. In this case, I think it’s not that complicated. All we have to do is think rationally, whatever is being said by anyone try to weigh it on the scale of rationality. Yes things pertaining to religion, faith and God are usually thousands of years old but if a thing is good and true it will always pass the test of rationality even in the present times. I am not a very religious person nor am I an expert in religious studies or any other subject for that matter. But no matter which religion you follow or which God you believe in, I am sure that the ultimate goal of all of them is to make you a better human being. But hey don’t just blindly read this and agree/disagree with it, otherwise I am no better than those idiots who fool people…

History

Harshal Suryawanshi — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 14:43:00 +0000

The first thought that comes to my mind when I read or hear this word is about school. I was formally introduced to history in my Third grade, I think (my history is very weak hence the uncertainty). And I hated history soon after our first encounter. History, a subject which deals with things which are (usually) old and ancient, surprisingly brought many new things in my life, like the realization that there are questions which have to be answered in more than one line. Till then I only knew ‘Answer in one line’ type of questions but the dawn of History introduced me to ‘Answer in brief’ type of questions which had a page long answers. One more interesting thing about these answers was that though they say ‘Answer in brief’ there was nothing brief about the answers for me. One page answer - that was ‘huge’ for me. Hence the word ‘brief’ became synonymous with ‘big’ for me. It took me some years to realise that it actually means quite the opposite. So that was my first impression of history.

Soon I had grown accustomed to history and its peculiarities like long answers, dates, people, and ‘Arrange in chronological order’. Being a fairly good student I overcame my dislike for the subject and attacked it with gusto by mugging up whatever it threw at me. I maintained my good grades and advanced to next classes. The history too advanced and now there were bigger answers and more people to study about. But hey I had figured history out so it was no more a big deal. Although History and I travelled on a gloomy path, there were some moments of respite. The first was when we studied history about Shivaji Maharaj. The reason that History didn’t bother me much at that time was because Raje’s life was more like a story than a sequence of chronological events. Even today the stories of the History textbook are etched in my mind although I can’t remember a single date when a particular event took place. Raje’s oath of establishing ‘Swarajya’ with just a handful of Mavalas, capturing his first fort Torna, the first real threat to Swarajya - Afzal Khan, the battle of Pratapgad and victory of the Marathas over the huge Adilshahi forces and many events after that created a movie in my mind so enchanting, that I forgot my resentment towards history. The second respite was the history about World Wars. Here history became a war movie in my mind. Two camps fighting one another for supremacy. Their relations with each other, their vested interests, their greed, cunningness made it such a realistic picture that I didn’t mind to write some pages about it in my answering book. But apart from these two exceptions, history and I went along our gloomy path which finally ended when I passed my Tenth standard exams.

After Tenth I opted for the Science stream which gave me an opportunity to study science and maths which I loved (notice the past tense) till tenth standard. Also this meant that History had become a part of my history (felt like poetic justice to me). The next six years (12th + B.E) I never thought about history, not once. After by B.E. I worked at TCS for a year. I was in Trivandrum for my training. People from various states of India were there. It was a very novel experience for me, to be among people from different geographies, and hence different food habits, different languages, basically different everything. During our interactions I noticed that everyone was very proud of their own states, customs and heritage.

I always liked reading, nothing specific though. Just whatever fancied me I used to read it, be it a newspaper, fiction, non-fiction etc. In TCS we were spending our whole day in computer labs. We used to (try to) do some project work and then the rest of the time was meant for reading tutorials about JAVA, HTML etc. online. Well since we all are never good at doing things that we are supposed to do I used to spend time reading Wikipedia. Although I hated history I liked geography very much. So I started with Pangea, super continents, New Zealandia, and many things that I can’t recollect now. While reading geography I didn’t even realize when I had started reading history topics. Geography has had a profound effect on our history. While reading about the plate tectonics, Gondwanaland, I was directed to Indian subcontinent, the rivers of India, Indus river, Indus valley civilization, Aryan invasion theory and so on. I then keenly read about the evolution of different religions, cultures, traditions, in India, different dynasties and empires that rose and fell. I revisited the history taught to me in school. The Gupta period, the Mauryan empire, the Shakas, Kushanas, Pandyas, Cholas, Vijayanagar kingdom, Delhi sultanate, Mughal empire, Maratha empire, British India, World Wars and so on. This time history never bugged me at all, because this time I was under no obligation to remember the dates and the chronological order of the events. I read them like stories, true and glorious stories written on the canvas of time itself. I saw history in a new light and I liked what I saw. History 2.0 was awesome.

Reading all that information also gave me an insight of the events of the present. I was able to better understand the beliefs, cultures, of my colleagues and friends. I was able to understand their pride for their states, their regional histories. I was able to understand why a person from Midnapore (West Bengal) looked up to Khudiram Bose. It helped me to better understand my country and my countryfolk (countrymen would have been gender biased hence the folk part. Hey, I still remember some of what was taught in Business skills in TCS). I said that geography shaped our history, but history is not something that goes down so easily. History levelled the score with geography when it reshaped the world map. The partition of India creating India and Pakistan, the complex borders of Jammu and Kashmir, creation of a Jew state amidst the Arab countries, war of 1971 and creation of Bangladesh are some of the punches that history threw at (political)geography.

History which was a subject with boring lessons in school, has now become a collection of life lessons for me. It has changed the way I perceive the world. In times where there are controversies day in and day out, learning about our history may help us to form an educated opinion about matters based on knowledge, rather than what you are told or what you believe. History is the guide along the way which will show our present the way to a better future.