Why do I Write History?
Marudhan | On H. G. Wells
A lovely article from today’s The Hindu Tamil, translated in parts,
for the benefit of a wider literary reading audience.
Well, Marudhan writes such intense, insightful and impactful short
literary treatises, and I’ve always enjoyed reading his writing!
So here goes an excerpt from his take on H. G. Wells –
Here
we go -
Why do I Write History?
Marudhan | trans: this blogger
‘I just simply won’t say that I write because I have the required
qualification and talent!’.
And well, again, ideally, it would be really nice to say that I write
because of my near and dear, known and unknown who come flocking up to me and
ask me to write!
But that’s not true!!!
Again, I can never say,
‘Well, folks, you see, I’ve done a lot of extensive research all by
myself and I’ve discovered a lot of truths. Only I could write that’.
Then, why? Why on earth do I write history?
You all know very well that I write stories.
If someone asks, ‘Do you know H. G. Wells’, pat would come the reply,
‘It’s that guy who wrote the Time Machine, right?’
How would you like it, if you had a time machine that transports you to the
‘time’ you loved, much like we have vehicles to transport us to the ‘places’ we
loved?
From this imaginative enterprise of mine, was born the ‘Time Machine’.
My
very first novel!
To write with such a beautiful blend of the real and the unreal has been my
full-time work!
However,
History is quite the opposite you see!
It’s NOT imagination!
History can NEVER tolerate even a wee bit of its fragrance even!
No way!
That’s because history is a record of what on earth happened, and
how on earth it happened!
Sitting under the shades of a lovely tree, and stretching out your
legs cozily, you may write down an entire novel quite breezily!
In contrast, however,
history will never make you sit quiet even for a moment!
Even to write one line, or one word, or just one ‘full stop’, you have to
strain a long walk all the way to the library!
There, straining your hands for hours, you should then fret and pore
and flip through the pages of literally hundreds of books!
Is this claim factually right?
Does it have evidence to support its claim?
Have researchers vouched to this claim?
Is the year, the date and the day correctly stated?
Every detail should be verified for its authenticity at least a thousand times
over!
A litterateur who writes on a time machine can never write on
history, as much a historian can never write on a time machine!
But…
Anyone can read anything!
I’ve loved all things that fascinated me, right from science to
history.
One day, when I was reading in like fashion, I got an idea!
Well, we’ve got a history for Greece!
A historical account for Egypt!
India, Turkey, Rome, England, France et al have their own historical
records as well!
But how good and how pleasant, how nice and how lovely would it be, if there’s
one book –
One book that narrates the entire history of humankind?
It should start right from the very beginning of the creation of the world!
How life happened, how humans appeared, how the early human dwelt in
caves, how they drew cave paintings, how they indulged themselves in hunting,
farming, building houses, how they created religions, built cities, battled
nations, developed civilisations etc.
Well, again, how good and how pleasant, how nice and how lovely
would it be, if all these things were sequentially narrated, in such
descriptive language, in such a simple style, in the course of just one book!
To fulfil this desire of mine, I requested the history teachers
known to me, to write one such book. They were agitated.
‘How do you expect me to write such a book’, asked a historian.
‘But, it’s only to you that I can rightfully ask? Ain’t it?’ I
replied.
‘Look buddy, I have studied and researched on America. How do you
expect me to write on the entire history of humankind?’ he replied.
Another remarked, ‘I can write on Greek history, alone, if you so desire!’
‘I can write on the Rise of Rome, and another historian could
write on the Fall of Rome, if you so desire… But that would take us around 25
years’, he remarked.
……
It was then, that I came to a conclusion!
Why can’t I write my own history the way I write my own stories?
Let the researchers write for other researchers.
A layperson such as me, why can’t I write for fellow laypersons
like unto myself?
I need not be anxious of committing any faultlines in my
narration, since I’m a novice, a newbie myself!
I need not be agitated on what others would comment on my work.
Hence, with boundless passion, resolve and excitement, I AM GOING
TO WRITE…
I’m ready to learn. Using that as my only qualification, I begin to write this
book now. You may count this book as a historical account written by a student,
if you so want to!
You may also count it as a painting done by a kid, if you so want to!
But...
When, it’s only the lay people who make history, why can’t a lay person
write the same history?
Marudhan may be contacted at marudhan@gmail.com
