Did Aryabhatta invent the zero? Is the Swastika a Hindu image? Who owns the biryani? Did algebra originate in India? Who gave cotton to the Chinese?
Amit Schandillia’s new e book Don’t Forward That Text, (revealed by Harper Collins India) reminds us of TS Eliot’s well-known traces, “between the idea and the reality falls the shadow”. For, the e book treads the shadowy house between pre-conceived historic concepts and actuality. The e book makes an attempt to translate historical past’s gray areas primarily based solely on “the spirit of enquiry” and credible assets, because the writer places it.
“You have to see things as they are without a value judgment and that’s non-negotiable. There is no black and white, there is no hero and villain, it doesn’t work like that. In life, bad people do good things and good people do bad things. This nuance has to be respected,“ adds the author firmly.
The book begins with a foreword by Devdutt Pattnaik. The mythologist remarks, “Through the haze of opinions, we have to work with facts, gathering them meticulously and studying them comprehensively.”
Amit’s tweets on Twitter are extensively shared — in every, he shares bite-sized info loaded with credible knowledge from historical past. Each tweet goals to unpack and make clear historic occasions or attributes which have been grossly misrepresented/misattributed in unreliable WhatsApp forwards, emails and memes. His new e book collates these bite-sized items of knowledge and makes an acute inquiry into the occasions of historical past which have largely been misconstrued or mistranslated.
In the e book, the writer questions whether or not Damascus metal was actually from India, the origin of the biryani, whether or not Vasco da Gama was the primary European to achieve India, and plenty of extra.
Amit believes that “an enormous accountability lies on the author as a result of the reader reads what’s written, so in case your subjectivity reveals in your writing that’s what cascades onto the reader, so it’s very essential“.
Although the writer has a background in computer systems and finance, he has authored an audio collection on Indian historical past known as India Uncharted. With this e book, Amit goals to make historical past as accessible and straightforward as storytelling.
Source: www.thehindu.com