http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Momentary-thrill-of-dates/articleshow/4231264.cms
15/8. 26/1. Well these are not dates denoting terror strikes; these are watershed dates in Indian history. The first is our Independence day, the second Republic day. But given our propensity to ‘date’ every major event, it would not be surprising, 20 years on, to find all our epochal events as mere dates in our history books. *9/11. Now that’s the only date that still resonat*es. Say 9/11 and you can still see the twin towers coming down; you can still see those planes crashing into the buildings; you can still see half of Manhattan covered in thick dust. After that, it’s all a blur. Does anyone remember the date of train bombings in Spain and London? Does anyone remember the date of attack on Parliament, the date of Mumbai train bombings? The only date that’s fresh in our memory is 26/11. The day Mumbai was attacked by 10 terrorists. And now we have 03/03. Phew! That’s when Sri Lankan team came under attack in Lahore, an event being compared in its daring to Mumbai attacks. Another bombing or terror attack anywhere in the world will wipe these too from collective memory. And after some time, a bigger date will dwarf the previous one. Dates give a momentary thrill, not lasting history. It’s the events that stick. You remember Quit India, you remember Emergency, you remember reforms but not the dates on which these nation-changing events were announced. Remembering the turning points in a nation’s history as just dates is nothing but trivialising history. Even the deluge in Mumbai was known by its date for some time, but the date was soon sucked into the vortex of history, leaving us only with the deluge and a rain of images. No one remembers the date now, just the deluge is in memory. Life-changing events can’t be dumbed down to dates. The whole world remembers 9/11 because the whole world changed after that event. But the way we are going we will soon start ‘dating’ everything.* Dating is good for humans because it can lead to something but ‘dating’ history can only lead to a hollowness profound in its sweep* --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
