They were walking side by side, followed by a cold breeze. The streets were almost empty but they didn’t realise it as, at this moment, they were feeling each other’s company more than ever. Both of them knew that this was the time, it had to be said now. But who will go first?
“I… wanted to say something, actually wanted to ask something” said the girl.
“Yeah…sure, what is it?” Asked he, albeit surprised, as he was pretty much confident that he would be the one to ask her, for, among them he was definitely the talkative one.
She stopped walking and turned towards him. Now they were face to face. Nervously, looking down, as if reading something from her shoes, she started saying, “Have you seen those instagram posts, very bland, nothing distinct about them or we can call them not so aesthetic… But sometimes they have these long ass captions, which are actually very thoughtful, very deep. People scroll past them.” She finally looked him into the eyes, and asked “I’m kinda like those long captions. Would you like to read me more?”
It took a moment for the proposal to strike him. But as soon as it did, he smiled, as if shying away for falling in love once again with the same person. With great conviction in his eyes, and as much love as possible, he held her hand and said, “Of course, I am an avid reader.”
I was cleaning up my cupboard, of course after ages, and stumbled upon a file that I made in 6th standard for my Hindi assignment. Struck by nostalgia, I started turning its pages and realised that a few things just never change. One of them being my awful handwriting. Anyways, we were supposed to write five Hindi poems; apart from the ones that we had in our syllabus.
First three poems were common poems for children including my all time favourite, Phoolon se tum hasna seekho, bhawaron se tum gaana. I still remember this poem whole heartedly. The fourth poem had a rather mature writing style, with a sophisticated vocabulary. Beneath the poem was written the name of the poet; Vardaan by Rabindranath Tagore. Although, all these poems were very different from each other, one thing was common throughout the pages of the file so far; the remarks. My teacher had given a “good” for every poem. For the last poem though, was a “very good”. Whose poem was this?
I started reading it. It was a poem on water. But, I couldn’t finish it. I stopped reading it midway. It was bad, very childish and cringeworthy. There was no need to look for the poet because I knew, I had written it. Just what was I thinking? It was my first ever poem, and just terrible. The struggle to rhyme the last word of each sentence was almost peeping out of the page, looking me into the eyes and laughing hysterically. But still, my teacher had thought this poem deserved a “very good”.
Now that I think about it, what would have happened, forget a bad remark, if there was no remark at all. My first poem would certainly have been my last poem as well. For a 12 year old child that bland poem was her best effort, and she must have been looking forward to some sort of appreciation. That “very good” was the much needed appreciation for me back then. It’s not like I am a renowned poet now or something. I rarely write poems, and yes, I still struggle to rhyme words. But, what could have been the end became the beginning just because of a simple remark. And it is also true that two of the most liked posts on this site are my poems.
All of us have that one teacher in our lives who teaches us something so valuable that it takes us years to fathom its worth. Whether it is a classroom lecture, a remark on an assignment file or even a scolding, there is a teacher who teaches you lessons beyond the school curriculum. He was “that” teacher to me. He used to teach us Hindi, Sanskrit and everything out of syllabus. When we read the classic Andher Nagari play, he actually made us act it out in the class, saying that, “who knows, one of you might become an actor”. As peculiar were his ways of teaching, as abrupt was his departure from school. He just left the school one day and since then I haven’t had any contact with him.
His single remark encouraged me for writing at a time when even I didn’t knew I could do it. I wish I could meet him at least one more time. He might not recognize me, for he had many students. But I remember him, because he was that one teacher to me, whom I genuinely want to say to, “Thank you, Sir”.
In 1917 the British government issued the Balfour declaration, promising the establishment of a national home in Palestine for Jewish people. A year back they had secretly promised the French that they would divide the Arab teritorries and that the Brits would keep Palestine. Going back another year the British had an agreement with the ruler of Mecca that he would rule Palestine if he led a revolt against the Ottomans, which he promptly did. All of this happened before the Ottomans were defeated in the First World War, which means that the Brits promised a land, which technically didn’t even belong to them, to three people including themselves.
Spanish and Portugal Empires in the 15th century. Pic credit: Google
There are several instances in history when a country has claimed a land which they were not inhabitants of. Hundereds of years ago, even before the rise of Britain, as a superpower, two countries were fighting to claim the lands which they newly discovered and one person tried to resolve this conflict by dividing the ‘New World’ between these two countries. It was the Pope. 15th century was marked by great expeditions
15th century was the beginning of the Age of Discoveries. Europe was finally out of the shadows of the crusades, into the Renaissance period, rediscovering it’s culture, art and philosophy. During this time two of the most powerful European empires, Portugal and Spain were taking the lead in discovering new sea routes to map the world. One of the reasons for so many voyages in the 15th century was out of curiosity to discover new lands or to ascertain the fact that the earth was round. But, another important reason was trade. With several stories from travellers like Marco Polo about huge amount of wealth in the east, western Europe was now trying to find a sea route round the African continent to reach Asia. Although trading between Europe and Asia wasn’t a new thing, but with Constantinople, Egypt and most of the Middle East under the Ottomans, the land route became pretty difficult.
So, the Portuguese tried to go east and Spain which was a Christian empire under King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, went towards the west. A major victory for the Portuguese came in the year 1446 with the discovery of Cape Verde, which is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and also the westernmost point of Africa. This was the discovery that made people believe that they would be able to reach India, if they were able to go round Africa.
Cabo Verde also called Cape Verde.
Portuguese and Spainiards were doing there separate voyages pretty smoothly, till 1493, when Christopher Columbus returned from his American exploration. He was a Italian explorer who wanted to find a route to the East Indies particularly the Spice Islands (Indonesian archipelago), through sailing west. He first went to King John II of Portugal to sponsor his voyage but the King refused him. Finally it were the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella who sponsored his voyage. Though Columbus did discover new land, or shall we say new for Europe, because the land was already inhabited by people, it wasn’t the East Indies which he intended to go to. He landed at Bahamas, one of the islands in the West Indies.
Upon his return, Portugal and Spain entered into conflict to claim the newly discovered land. King John II sent a threatening letter to the Spanish Monarchs, reminding them of the Treaty of Alcáçovas signed in 1479 that granted all lands south of the Canary Islands to Portugal. The Spanish Monarchs knew that they would not be able to match the Portuguese in terms of military power, so they found a diplomatic way out of this conflict. This is where the Pope comes into the scene.
Line of Demarcation (1493) and the new meridian after Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) Pic Credit: Google
The Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella reached Pope Alexander VI, who himself was of spanish descent, to issue a papal bull– a public decree– called Inter caetera. This bull granted all the lands west of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues( about 300 miles) west of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde to Spain. This was called the Line of Demarcation. The bull did not mention anything of the Portugal lands, which made the Portuguese King quite unpleased. In order gain rights over the lands east to the Line of Demarcation the Portuguese King started negotiations with the Catholic Monarchs. Funnily enough, the next year, that is in 1494 the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Portugal and the Spanish Crown to move the Line of Demarcation 270 leagues west, without even consulting the Pope. It is bewildering to think that actual land, home to millions of people, was getting divided between two foreign empires like a piece of cake.
All these bulls issued by the Pope or the treaties signed between empires dividing the world might be just an interesting piece of history to ponder over now. But back in the day they were actually setting the stage for colonisation of these “undiscovered” lands.
Uff! It’s so depressing all around, they want me to bring in some “positive news” but is it really the lack of positivity and not compassion and empathy?
They want me to write about the raining sixes at boundaries, when people are dropping dead like flies
They want me to capture the holy dip at Ganga, when hundreds are gasping for breath at streets
They want me to talk about the wins and losses of the purported “festival of democracy” when crematoriums are announcing their own results
They want me to help them clean their timeline, when I know the next SOS call could be one of mine
They can keep their eyes shut through the day, but the crimson sky at midnight is enough to keep me awake
Perhaps late “human beings” wrapped in plastic bags are not aesthetic enough… But they were alive once unlike your moral conscience
Look around carefully, the times we are in even the shares on a call for help are signs of positivity whitewashing despair, censoring cries are mere distractions.
Random Thoughts 