Historical Fiction

I started the year with Kiran Nagarkar’s “Cuckold” and last month I finished “Raider’s from the North” by Alex Rutherford. Both of them were fictionalized history. I have never enjoyed reading history so much.

Growing up I hated history and kept it away from me till 2 days before the exam. History was equal to until the bell stuck for the exam to start and your teacher warned “If you do not put the put the book down we will not allow you inside the exam room”. It was also about dividing the portion between us or hiding the “nandlal dayaram kunji” – those small books which can disappear between folds of school dress (especially girls) or hidden in the bathrooms or passed around the exam room. God bless the publishers we managed to pass Xth and after that I never looked back literally at the past. Yes, It’s funny but the kind of pressure which we kids used to go through was traumatic.

But reading these books and few others which I read some time back gave a new dimension to history. If I could turn back the clock I would have dropped Science and chosen History. The past always appeared to be a mystery to me and as I grew up there were so many bubbling questions in my mind – How did the civilizations form? Where did the kings & queens disappear? Why do we have war? Even today the various cultural and historical aspect of various countries fascinate me and I love seeing movies from across the world or reading books by authors across the world because they unravel the mystery.

Reading these 2 books, made me realize how fascinating Indian history can be and how interesting it can be made for our children. Although teaching is my wife’s department – for a change I looked at my 6^th graders history book and saw 5 to 7 pages devoted to each civilization – starting from mesopatamian Civilization and ending with South Indian Kingdoms….On enquiring I was told that we will do only Harappan Culture (skipping Mesopatamian & Egyptian) this term and I could see scribbles & open and close brackets across the chapter with no’s written against each of them – which means only one thing that they are the answers of some specific questions. I guess that’s the only take away for my daughter.

Which makes me realize that things haven’t changed much since 19 81 = almost 30 yrs back, but then there are so many other things which have got added in their plate – Shiamak Davar classes, games in ipod, swimming (we never had a pool), Farmville, movies & TV time …….Will Harappan Culture hold forth…Sigh! Let me give it a shot.