One Year in Cornell and ………Meeting History

                       One Year in Cornell and ………Meeting History

The summers in Ithaca are a good time to reflect on your graduate experience. For me it’s a great feeling to reflect upon the events of past one year, spent in potlucks, gossips, case memos, stressful pre-exam nights spent in Olin and Mann libraries, and crazy internship hunts.

These days, often during my long, endless evening walks amidst solitary woods and fireflies of Ithaca in the foggy nights around the trails of gorges, I ponder over my first year in Cornell. In my quest to find out my achievements and experiences, I come across several things like a little artificial or natural twist in my accent, a good G.P.A, enhancement in my social skills, new fondness of operas and jazz, my capacity of doing weed and Jack Daniel’s intake but the most fascinating experience of my first year is my lyrical and almost ethereal encounter with the history of Indian subcontinent, central Asia and Middle East and Europe.

Since my high school days the history of the subcontinent with its episodes of silk route, Mughals, Kushanas and Parthian empires had almost a magical and mystical impact on my persona. I still remember that in my under-graduation days, how I had immersed my cognitive being in the thoughts of medieval battles, Portugese horse traders and Buddhist monasteries sprawling in the cold deserts of China and grasslands of Turkistan.

Here, after almost an era, I meet those vivid images of history. I shall begin with my brushes with India’s immediate neighbor Pakistan.  When I see my friends from Pakistan serenading the bollywood hits like ‘papa kehte hai’, ‘ koi kahe kehta rahe’ , I get a glimpse of what the sub-continent was before partition or could have been in the event of different historical course. Today my country men’s knowledge about Pakistan is confined to ISI, Haqqani networks, bomb blasts of Karanchi and Quetta Hafiz Saed, Benazeer Bhutto, Veena Malik and Rahat Fateh Ali khan. But, we should know some other stuff which is actually quite cool. When I see my friend Wasiq’s intense and proud feelings about his rajput ancestors, it introduces me to my home state of 18^th and 19^th century. When I got to know that, how distinct identities like Rajput, Arain( gardeners), Gujjar and Jat played an immensely important role in defining one’s social existence(even more than Shia or Sunni until recently) in Pakistan, I witnessed and felt the vastness and limitless expanse of the power of history.

More so, when I see my Pakistani friends using words like ‘Satyanash(destruction of truth in a very metaphysical sense; the word is a common usage among Indians)’, ‘Bharam’, ‘Lakshmi’, ‘Sadhu’, ‘Maharaj’, ‘Nach na jane angan tedha’, for a moment I am transported back to ancient India when Indian philosophy and logic were evolving through the great metaphysical tradition of Shastrartha. Some of them often give the smoke and fire analogy (the one which was originally given by the Naiyaikas in their syllogism.  I am absolutely amazed at the beauty and influence of the forces of history and culture.  The way my Pakistani friends use these words is very natural, casual, and unaware as if they have been using them for centuries without any religious or ideological qualms. It looks as if a typical middle class Hindu house wife is grudging about her mundane and boring routine.

These words like ‘Bharam’, ‘Satyanass’, ‘lakshmi’  and expressions like ‘nach na jane angan tedha’ have their roots in the linguistic theories and epistemology of  great Indian metaphysical schools. The words like ‘Bharam’ have their intrinsic origins in Vedanta and Upnishads. It literally means an illusion so it was a very important concept in Indian cosmology and theories of error. According to Vedanta, the whole cosmos is a ‘Bhrama’ which humans have due to beginning less ignorance.  ‘Laksmi’ was a very important concept in Madhva Vedanta. It literally means wife of lord Vishnu(One of Hindu trinity of gods) and metaphorically means wealth. The entity of Laksmi also assumes great significance in Tantrik literature. It’s not just strange but quite amusing and relaxing to see a burqa clad girl uttering these words in a very light manner. It gives some respite to the mind which has become used to Wahabi and Salafist violence on the local culture and traditions.

These words, in course of time came to be absorbed in the normal and casual conversations of Indian masses because of the strong philosophical impact of these religio-metaphysical traditions and intellectual movements had on the psyche of an ordinary Indian. These linguistic off-shoots are very symbolic and convey deep meanings and findings which lie in the domain of evolutionary psychology.

Once my Pathan tiger Rafiullah told me about the Sikh and Hindu temples of Afghanistan, then I met the times of silk route and  Ranjit singh . when, I was told about the tribal code of honor, I felt as if I was meeting the tribes of Ambhi, Oxydrokoi who gave fierce resistance to Alexander. For a moment I could imagine how grammarian Panini had composed Ashtadhyayi Vyakarana in the snowy mountains of Kabul. I could also see the Buddhist caravans spreading Buddhism and building monasteries in Gandhara.

These religio-metaphysical influences have had a tremendous impact on the psyche of people living in the subcontinent and even on the minds of people living in places as far as Afghanistan. These influences impacted the sub-conscious, shaped and  defined the social, cultural and political attitudes of people. Even now the effects of these influences can be felt in very amusing and interesting ways for instance, the Indian family killer soap ‘Kyonki Saas bhi kabhi Bahu thi’ was immensely popular in Afghanistan.  Rafi told me that the mothers would stop cooking when that serial was telecasted. Even the ordinary recruits of Taliban enjoyed the serial in their private moments. It’s absolutely surprising that a serial depicting a typical Hindu Gujrati family culture was so popular among traditional Pashtun mothers and sisters. My cool post-modern JNU and Stephanian classmates could never ‘connect’ with these soaps. This kind of ‘connect’ has its roots at a very deep, subtle and subconscious level. This happens when a subconscious is a result of long religious, cultural and philosophical tradition of 1000s of years.  All bollywood movies of Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan(who is known as Haji Jogan in Afghanistan) are very popular in Afghanistan.

When I came here I found it much natural, comfortable and easy to make friends with Pakistanis, Afghans rather than my own country men who came from extreme south Indian states like Tamil Nadu or extreme North-eastern states like Nagaland, Manipur etc.

My next encounter with history happened when my Kazakh friend Romanbek mentioned proudly about ‘Baboor’ and his achievements. So far I thought that Babur would be useful for a young student form Bihar coming to Delhi to prepare for civil service exam. I could actually feel myself with the Mughal armies, trotting with their, begs and Mirzas. In my friend’s horsemanship I could visualize the fierce Huns who invaded India and converted to Shaivism and can still be found among the rajputs. When he asked me to play ‘Dost Dost Na Raha’, ‘Jimi Jimi’ and danced for hours with his vodka to the mesmerizing music of that song, Rajkapur and the cold war days of Indo-soviet friendship showered on my poetic self a surreal bliss.

So, Cornell, I thank you for introducing me to my roots, culture and history in the most amusing, serene and enlightening manner. Now, I feel that I am better prepared to think about and address the concerns of political conflicts, religious conflicts and terrorism in South-Asia.