history

class 8th.
probably first day of the academic year.
entirely new environment. we were all in high school now and we asked not be behave like "primary school kids". we were all teen-agers now(or would soon become)

first history class...
the first question teacher asked "what is history?"
no answer from us... all we were taught in primary was to study the notes given by the teachers and mug it and pour it out onto the answer paper on the day of exam. but this was not expected. what is history? there was no answer in the text book.

then the teacher said... "history is 'his and her story'. it tells us bout him and her, their life the, difficulties he and she faced, the way they overcame the difficulties. it tells us how we can learn from them. what we can do when we face similar difficulties etc etc"

that was a very good class as i remember. i like to read history. something about it attracts me. but i dont like to write a history exam. most of the questions asked in the exam have to do with dates, names, places etc etc which i dont think are as important as other aspects of history. when we have lesson about some national leader in the exam sure questions would be like "what was mr X s real name" or "when and where was so and so born" or "where did so and so complete his education from" and some other non sense...

what would make more sense is to have mention an incident which was of historic importance or which helped many people improve their lives or just helped someone to face a problem or change the way he led his life. for example the incident where gandhiji was thrown out of the first class compartment which led him to fight back, or the jalayanwala bagh missacre which changed bagath singh s life (in RDB they show him pick up mud mixed with soil from the jalayanwala bagh, which is true. he worshiped it). i feel that such incidents have more to teach rather than some dates which we are made to remember...