D I A R Y
Off The Life — My Friend Joins University
History — Historiography
Rura joined a history class today at the university and has been messaging me since the morning. He was extremely excited this morning. It’s a familiar story for someone going to college for the first time — expecting it to be fun, thrilling, and filled with beautiful girls like in the movies where college life is envisioned as a place teeming with beautiful girls — a realm for falling in love, for being the hero one last time, this is where life’s fun begins also ends.
He also wants to have a girlfriend but lacks the courage to say it. He’s so fearful.
Many girls talk to him, but he doesn’t initiate conversations. If a girl approaches him, he just ends the conversation abruptly.
I’ve observed two things: girls think he’s arrogant because he doesn’t start conversations even when they want to talk with him. But in reality, he’s so frightened.
So, he goes into class and keeps messaging me intermittently, giving me updates about the class, teachers, and students. He mentioned a few students who come from very far away and others who are older than him.
By 5 o’clock, he said that classes were over, and he’s now at home. I asked him what he learned today and how the classes were.
I have a keen interest in history, especially the story aspect.
In the traditional way, I find history a very boring subject. I think the main reason behind this is the textbooks. Textbooks lack any kind of emotion; they just state facts.
History can’t be taught like that. It’s not physics or math. So many students feel history is boring.
I feel stories are fantastic.
Rura said that history isn’t solely about tales of kings and queens; it encompasses every individual, from commoners to royalty. It’s the story of people, the story of time, the story of a country, the story of our world.
History is also the story about that tree that witnessed all the battles. History is the story of the whole social pyramid.
History is about the working class, about every common man. History is about the king’s army.
History is not just about the battlefield or who wins the battle; it’s about people's lives. History is not just about kings vs. kings’ wars.
History can’t be written just by logic. History should be written with proof. History should be written with emotion. History should be written like a thriller. History should cover the change of time.
But too much emotion shouldn’t be there because no one is neutral. Everyone is biased about something.
History writers are always biased. Some are biased toward kings, some towards the country, some towards people, and some towards culture. History writers influence their time. That’s unavoidable.
Now, Rura asked me a few good questions: why did English people come to the East and not the West?
It’s an excellent question. I’ve never thought about it. He said it’s because of the geographical conditions it’s more convenient. So, there’s a kind of interrelation happening with history and geography.
Geography mixed with history is called methodology. Nice.
When you learn from your friend, that’s the best learning. What your teacher cannot teach you, your friends can. Your friends can explain a very large topic in a small sentence.
Now, here comes the type of history writing.
Some said the colonialism rule is good. They said English people are very good people. So when they write history, that’s called colonialist history.
But there is another group who said no, English people are bad; they’re just robbing us, robbing Indian people. These people are nationalists.
And some other groups also say, wait, don’t write history about the upper class, higher status, wealthy people. Write history about the worker class, lower class of the pyramid. Write history about poor people. Those are Marxist.
This is called historiography — the study of writing history.
Indian people don’t know how to write history properly like in modern methods. They remember history through storytelling, folk tales, oral tradition.
They write history in poem mode in regional language. They are more biased. They glorify the king to godlike creatures. The story changes from people to people.
Rura said to me, ‘Do you know Indian history is written by English historians more than Indian historians? They actually show us the way how to write history. Then we have some brilliant history scholars, brilliant history writers, political writers.’
I think this is an excellent way to learn when you have friends who are studying different majors. Friends are the best teachers.
Rura is really excited for the next day’s class; he made some friends. He said one girl talked to him today, but he didn’t ask her name.
Because how do you ask a girl’s name?
Thank You.
Talking Bit To Stars
