Winds of change!

Since last few months (or is it since I touched the dreaded age of 30 ?) I have seen a marked difference in my reading habits. Like age, even that has matured:) Or maybe it's due to lack of wider choice in my present library which is so poor as compared to my earlier one. It's really hard to say. But albeit poor, my library has a collection of classics. There are rows of books with yellowed pages which are any true book lovers' delight. I have always loved reading fact better than fiction, the last fiction I read being Da Vinci Code and last episode of H. Potter. Pretty mundane and commonplace reading, ain't it? But wait, this has changed.
Since there is nothing particularly interesting to read at my library all I do is randomly scan the book shelves during my weekly visits. But during one such aimless mission I hit upon a shelf of books related to ancient history, India and especially auto-biographes which are indeed my weakness. I had discovered an old treasure! Over weeks I devoured most of the books from that shelf. Following is a summary of the myriad reading done in last few months. Surprisingly, I have read most of these seemingly boring books at un-earthly hours (around 3AM!) thanks to the vigil we have to keep for our sweet pie daughter! Here's the list for the record:
1. Life and times in British India : This book chronicles events and history from 16th century when British first landed on shores of India and until about 1857 when the Queen of England became true empress of the sub-continent. It explains the day-to-day life of Europeans in India during that period with real life stories.
2. Lives of Indian Princess: This book, written in the seventies is extremely well researched and contains first hand interview based accounts of he last few living prince and princesses from the erstwhile princely Indian states under the British rule where they describe the royal past and life styly of their "illustrious" families. It has many rare photographs, some as old as early 1800. It feels almost surreal to read the exotic lives which our ancient kings lived, but at the same time this book was an eye opener that Indian Princess were actually allies of the British and were responsible for their elongated rule in India and they deserved every bit of raw treatment they received from Nehru and Indira's Congress which snatched away their privy purses.
3. Baburnama: I pledge to give a reward to anyone who can complete reading this autobiograpgy of the first Mughal emperor, Babur written in 14th century!! Never in my life have I read a more boring book. The translator himself has written a note inviting readers to drop passages from the book if they feel sleepy:-) I promptly returned it well before its due date. But this book is the only surving literature from that era and describes in great detail day-to-day life of the Mughal emperor and his lineage of that bygone time. A true Indian treasure. The only other boring book which can compete this is Hitlers Mein Kampf!
4. Ancient Egyptians: This book chronicles the history of Egypt from 3000 B.C onwards and covers overview of all important Egyptian Pharaohs and building of Pyramids. I now know exactly who Tutankhamun (King Tut) is!
5. Ancient Indians: This book was another eye opener on the real history of ancient India. I have been raised in my child hood on a staple diet of Amar Chitra Katha, which I believe is the best kiddo book series. It introduced me to ancient, medieval and modern India very early in my life. However the series has a serious drawback that it is based on popular folklores rather than well researched historical facts. This is where Ancient Indians opened my eyes to the hard fact that our great country had lost it greatness as early as 300 B.C, since then it has been ravaged and ruled by foreigners. The last true Hindu king was Ashoka. The books covers summary of our ancestors from 7000 B.C onwards!
6. Ancient Romans: This book is not as impressive as the other two. But it served the purpose by introducing the Roman ancient civilization and their quite modern governance of that era which provided, roads, canals, national laws and even a senate!
7. High Adventure: This auto-biography by Sir Edmund Hillary describes his adventures in Himalaya including his and Tenzings conquest of Everest. It is written in great detail and you climb every step along with him on that behemoth while reading the book. Deep in my heart I have always wanted to be a mountaineer, but my fragile high altitude worthiness never allowed to me attempt that profession. My love at first sight for the mountains began in high school when I trekked 3500 mts Kedarnath peak. The scary Himalaya instantly attracted me, but that love was short lived because by the time I finished my trek and spent the night in sub-zero temparatures at the temple on the peak it was clear that my physique is not made for those altitudes. Though I am quite immune to cold climes, altitudes of over 3500 mts are different game altogether!
8. Our Everest Expedition: Ths book by Sir John Hunt, who was the leader of the expedition in which Hillary and Tenzing conquered Everest is another text book of montaineering. It teaches the planning and leadership skills required to climb such mountains. These expeditions can last for about 6 months from start to finish! So meticulate planning of about one year is a must!! The photographs and trekkers maps are invaluable and of antique value.
9. Ascent of Nanda Devi: This book, printed in 1936 and last issued from the library by someone in 1942 (before I issued it) is yet another text book of mountaineering and describes the first ascent of the in-approchable Nanda Devi by H.W Tillman and his team. From mid 1800 to 1900, Europeans spent lot of time surveying and mapping Himalayas which attracted many talented Alpine mountaineers who were hungry for high adventure. Tillman was one of them. His description of their 3 month trek to the base of the mountain is simply engrossing. The ascent was quite easy as compared to the trek. Nanda Devi was long considered un-reachable but Tillmans team found a way to reach the mountain and also climbed it. All these books introduced me to great mountaineers like Eric Shipton, Hillary, Hunt , Tillman who were real pioneers with lions hearts who dared to climb the Himalayan peaks which remained virgin for so many million years! A recent series on Discovery called 'Everest' which showed the most detailed videographed expedition under leadership of Russel exposes how Everest is now a tourist spot! With the kind of technology available any Tom, Dick and Harry can climb Everest these days. The likes of Russel are actually running a tourist company by helping a legless clmber, 70 year old man and a asthama patient to climb Everest using latest technology! The age of fearless and serious Himalayan climbers is long over.
10. Five past midnight: This book is written by one of my fav historical writers, Dominique Lapier (who wrote City of Joy and Freedom at Midnight) on the worst indutrial tragedy which occured in Bhopal on 3rd Dec 1984. Till date, all those responsible are roaming free and justice evades those 30,000 lives lost due to it. Its a very well researched book which raises goose bumps when you read the chilling accounts of people who died fighting for breath on that fateful night. My parents told me that just about a day after that incident we were on a train which passed Bhopal! What if we had been one day earlier? Probably you would not have seen this blog!

There are still many books waiting to be read from that shelf. But for now its goodbye and G'night

Signing off,
~Amit