Thursday, February 02, 2006

Warring History

It started a long time ago in a 7th standard history class.
North Indians (NIs) were Aryans, South Indians (SIs), Dravidians. Well and good, I was a Dravidian. At 12, it was only natural I ignored the ensuing lines.
A couple of years later, I found myself listening to this 'Persian Aryan' friend of mine. I was hardly good looking, I was told, what with my blunt nose, thick lips, brown skin and all. Somehow, peace prevailed .
10th standard. Again the same 'milk and honey', 'mosaic of cultures' ramble, topped up with the 'Aryan Dravidian' jargon. I didn't look like that short, dark, thick lipped description in my book. The topic had gained a pedestal alongside science. It was simply complicated.

Six years later...

History had long succumbed to itself.
I still was a Dravidian, but this time, with access to a blessing called the World Wide Web.
A moment of boredom...
The Google search engine on my Explorer page...
A flash of thought...
My phalanges drumming the keyboard....
'aryan', 'dravidian', 'history', 'ancient', 'india'...
Permutations and combinations...

And guess what...
I seem to have origins everywhere. Some Pagan tribe from Persia... The Pallava rulers... Fusion of the ancient Indian cultures... Modern history... Blah.. Blah... Blah.
Biologically speaking, my 'genes' incorporate three or more races in an undeterminable proportion...
The historical perspective is I'm a modern day descendant of some Iranic tribe which migrated to India.
What the hell...
No, not this time. I couldn't possibly let it happen again.
It's neither my looks nor an 'identity crisis'. Common sense has taught me better.
It's history I'm fighting. History, semi-factual, its myriad gaps brimming with imagination.

Hooray!!!! You heard that?
Yup, I won.

The strategy..... I just let history be.

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