History is 'History'?

01/03/2012-Thursday-20:00
Am a mechanical engineer, writing about history. I can already hear voices mumbling,"What does a mechanical engineer know about history to talk(or write) about?". An historian may not be a part of development in the engineering field, or a doctor may not be part of  development in world of art, and an artist may not be in the field of medicine and it goes on. But every one of us have a role in hisrtorical progression. May or may not be significant.

Centuries in 'historic time line' slip out like seconds. Just to get you a feeling, Blink your eyes, "Oh there!! harappan civilization just passed off, and hey there!!!..you can see budhha under that peepul tree over there". Its like that, nearly 4000-5000 years have passed since the inception of civilisation in India. But only few hundred people, including a bunch of kings, foreign invaders, some monks, British Viceroys, and some renowned freedom fighters managed to get their name printed in the history text books. And only a very few like, Budhha, Chandra Gupta Maurya, Ashoka,and Gandhi etched a place in the heart of people and managed to become milestones in the 'historic time line'.

 What made them to stand apart?. Eventhough they differ greatly in terms of time(what we call 'now generation gap'), as all three of them were not contemporaries, and even had an age gap of over 1000 years. They are like different rivers,which eventhough flows through different path, but finally flowing into one  great ocean. All three resorted to non-violence, at different point of life, by different ways, due to different reasons.
To hit the point in one word, "LOVE for all living things"(Not for human alone) is the essence of their life and the esscence of 4000 years of history. These were the last words of Buddha in his death bed, "All created things must pass. Strive on, Diligently".

ow..ow..there again, I can hear someone telling, "Hey man,its 21st century. Love, compassion, and truth are oldies. We are Gen-X." For all Gen-X's,"We should remember that Budhha was Gen-X for Harrapans, Ashoka was Gen-X for Budhha, Gandhi was Gen-X for Ashoka and like wise". As already said, we are just a wink in the history of time. Whatever we are proud of, like our technology, or the money we earned, or our knowledge, is actually nothing. We will just be a spec of dust in the sands of time. Our footprints lost among billions of similiar foot prints. Try to visualise, a history teacher of 31st century telling his students"....and the civilisation of 21st century was much developed that they had an International Space Station even at that time!". That is all we will be.  But Budhha and Gandhi will live in their hearts even then.

History has been misintrepreted over centuries. That is why, TV channels are interviewing film actresses and telecasting commercial movies during Independence day and republic day. History is much important than maths, science, and arts. If those three prepare us to look into our future, its history which....oops..am not getting words. More simply, eventhough we prepare more thoroughly for a  test, its the blessing of our parent and elders, and wishes from our beloved ones which gives us courage to face the test confidently. History is like that. History imparts us a moral insight and self-esteem to face the life.

To study history means to search for and discover the forces that are the causes of those results which appear before our eyes as historical events. The art of reading and studying consists in remembering the essentials and forgetting what is not essential."
And that is the way to learn history, more precisely history must be felt.


Science and maths churn us into professionals, but history churns us into human.