Knowledge Arsenal

'Rise of Empires: Ottoman' is a Netflix Docuseries about the Turkish conquest of Istanbul (then known as Constantinople). Here I am going to talk about the first season only. The reason I found it so enthralling was that this conquest was not just about battleground warfare but also dealt with the backroom politics and diplomatic manoeuvres of the 15th Century. It was a significant geopolitical event that altered the course of history for the next 500 years, not just for Europeans but also for the Indians. Earlier, when Constantinople was controlled by Romans, there was free passage for European traders to Asia and subsequently the Indian subcontinent. After its control fell into the hands of the Turks (also known as Ottomans), this free trade was no longer possible as they levied exorbitantly high taxes and duties. The price of Indian spices skyrocketed. This prompted the Europeans to find a sea route to India, which the Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama ultimately did in 1498. ...

'Lawrence of Arabia' is undoubtedly one of the most classic English films from the 1960s. I happened to watch this film last week with my father. Until then I had never even heard the name of this movie. It was directed by David Lean starring Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif and won many Academy Awards, including the Oscar in 1963. Anyone who takes an interest in history must watch this film. In short, it is to English cinema what Sholay is to Indian cinema! Being an Indian, I was never really a fan of the British. There is no denying the fact that they looted our country and imposed harsh laws on the masses for almost 200 years. But there is a lot that we can and should learn from them. England is a small island country with an even smaller population. Yet they managed to rule a large portion of the globe. There was an era when the sun never set in the British Empire. This film, which is about a British army officer, gives the viewers a glimpse of the global order during Worl...

Introduction If one has seen India in all its splendour and beauty, he/she might have noticed that a single God is worshipped in many different forms. For instance, if we take the example of Lord Vishnu, he has a thousand different names and is venerated in many distinct ways in various states of India. Similar is the case with other Hindu Gods. Source of the Image: Pinterest However, none of the Gods' stories is as fascinating as that of Lord Krishna . In Indian mythology, there is a beautiful story that explains the reason for His omnipresence in every Hindu tradition. The Legend Many years had passed since the bloody battle of Mahabharat had taken place. Vajranabhi , son of Aniruddha and king of Mathura, wanted to know how did his great-grandfather Krishna looked like. Everybody praised his glory, but nobody remembered how did he exactly look like. So he travelled from Mathura to Hastinapur , hoping to meet someone who could describe his appearance. Krishna had been a steadfa...

Probably everyone among us has heard about the proverb 'mad as a hatter' . However, only a few of us know the historical reason behind it for being so. This proverb originated in the 18th Century in England. Source of the image: www.alamy.com Back then, wearing hats had become a new trend among the British people. So, hat-making was a profitable profession at that time. Still, very little did they know about the potential occupational hazards that came with manufacturing them. Hats were chiefly created using mercury compounds like mercurous nitrate. The long exposure of the workers to the toxic fumes of these gases took a heavy toll on them. In fact, in many cases, it was lethal for the craftsmen. Source of the image:www.phrases.org.uk They were driven into complete madness and their behaviour was similar to that of a drunkard. Due to this, most of the people thought they were acting so strange because they were drunk. Thus, originated the proverb 'mad as a hatter'. Now...

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country last year, our government had no idea about how to deal with such a circumstance. Our newspapers were flooded with headlines like 'Unprecedented Crisis' . Perhaps it would have been prudent to analyse some instances from our history where people were in a moderately similar situation.  The 1915 Influenza pandemic that hit the Bengal province of British India claimed at least 12-15 million lives. At that time also there was a mass exodus of migrant workers and the citizens were thrown into utterly pathetic conditions. In the book 'The Age of Pandemics' , the author Chinmay Tumbe has verbosely described every pandemic that India has witnessed between 1817 and 1920.  Had our governments examined these occurrences, maybe we would have dealt with the pandemic in a better way. Thus, Martin Luther King Jr. rightly said, " We are not makers of history. We are made by history ". Source of Image: Google