A Look Back

My favourite book is Mr. Nehru's 'Glimpses of World History'. Even now when I stumble upon this book, I am transported back into the time when I first read it. When I was very young, only thirteen. And though the letters written by Mr. Nehru were meant for his daughter, they were pieces of writing that any child could have related completely with, even if that child in question was I.
Friday morning, when you wake up and realise that your office is later today than usual, and you chance to see a book that you haven't gone back to for ages. You begin reading it and it were as if you were sitting right next to the author. Seeing him tell his story. And you suddenly move back a hundred years in time. Well, about 86 years to be exact. 26 of the last 86 years in which I myself have walked this earth. Still finding my way. Not 'there' yet. But when you compare that quarter of a century to the time that has passed in human history, you are reminded of the smallness of you and the vastness that is behind you. You realise that you are a speck, perhaps less so in the story that has already taken place on this exclusive planet of ours. And all the images and pictures rush through your mind. From Socratese, Plato, Shakespeare, Alexander, Gandhi, Buddha, the Mongols, the Colonials to an infinite array of other people, names and institutions. What they did and what they achieved is the greatest story humanity can boast of. Man's progress through time. It's like the earth was showing off what pearls she has in her bosom. It's like looking into her and also a bit like you would meditate on your inner spirit, journey into yourself, into a place where there is both darkness and light, pleasure and pain, victory and defeat. And it is an adventure. A sort of adventurous education. One where there is action, drama, romance and everything else you can hope to see in a gripping narrative.
I have been unable to write lately. But I will try and reflect over what, according to me, is the best that history has offered. It will be a sort of time travel. And it will also be an opportunity for me to reflect over the lessons time has taught us. Unlike Mr. Nehru, I don't have any particular audience in my mind. But these posts are going to be meant for anyone who happens to chance upon them.
Until the next post...

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