It is indeed an irony considering the amount of trouble I gave my history teacher. Dont ask me if I had spared the others. They all hated me as much as I did them, except for my English teachers - who liked me always.
Some years back I was inspired by reading the Chronology of the Great Wars. Starting with the First World War and immediately trench warfare comes to one's mind. In contrast, the Second world war was a strategic battle between distributed empires. As usual, abruptly silenced after the Americans illegally used the atomic siblings to show who were the bosses in modern warfare.
Having read about the effects, it was time to explore the cause and so I got hold of a Mein Kampf book. Reading Mein Kampf gave an opportunity to understand the building blocks of a holocaust and what it took to create one. The actions were still not justified though.
Incidentally, a friend of mine borrowed the Mein Kampf and had offered me another book (which was actually a Birthday gift). The birthday gift ended up with me and that's how I came to know about the Anne Frank's diary - a related book on the holocaust. It was more than a survival guide. And as you near reading the last pages, it almost carried you to the actual place where Anne & families secretly remained hidden and eventually left your eyes moist.
Recently, the Bastille day was celebrated in France and the highlight was th
e participation of Indian Armed forces leading the pack. This very friend who probably knew more French than me and may have eaten more croissants than I, had a lot to tell about Avenue des Champs-Élysées. So watching the Indian forces march through the long road (figuratively its a long road) I decided to march on myself with some French revolutionary history.It all started due to a typical discrimination around the 1780s. The elite nobles and the clergy formed a mere 10% of France's population and they decided to impose Chidambaramesque taxes
on the 90% peasants. Contrastingly, the elite were exempt from taxes themselves. In effect, people who were hardly eating anything for a meal had to pay huge sums of money and agriculture/ poultry produce to the elite who did nothing but frame the rules.After a 3 course meal of Sama, Dana, and Bheda, Danda dessert eventually took control and the french revolution had begun. Guillotines were used like toothpicks and attempts were made to crush the revolution. But by now the revolution had become powerful and the ruling King Louis was executed. Neighbouring countries were now afraid of similar revolutions spreading out. Hostile reactions ensued leading to wars with Austria and Italy. France got badly defeated in the wars. A convention was now formed to focus on stabilising the economy. It all seemed fine for a shortwhile before the convention's leader got wary of anti-revolutionaries and in due course gets executed anyway.
Successive committees were created but only to be thrown over. After a few rounds of restructuring executive powers were minimalised and the Directory was formed. But it was another Cabernet Sauvignon in a new bottle. By then, the french armies led by Napolean were getting successful abroad.
Finally, Napolean leading a coup against the Directory, takes over the reins of France and there ends the French revolution.
Liberté, égalité and fraternité were born to ensure Liberty, equality and fraternity.
For several centuries to come, victory marches were made through the Champs-Élysées until the Arc de Triomphe, including after the Great Wars of WWI and WWII.
when i saw the pics of the indian forces joining this year's parade in the news, i too, was thinking of the storming of bastille... for someone who gave their history teacher a tough time, that was a nice interesting account of french history... :)
ReplyDeletewell, years of suppression or oppression will break free someday, and it began with bastille - the only irony is that there were only 7 prisoners at the time... :)
there are many things about france that i think are fascinating...someday,when i lay my hands on a schengen, i might get to walk the arc de triomphe,cruise the seine or go up the eiffel...till then,guess i have to be content with croissants(like your friend )!
but i happened to have a connecting flight from CDG once, and after walking around all the duty free shops, the souvenir hunter in me settled for a coffee mug...and was more than happy to peer down at a view of the eiffel once our flight took-off, and watched Ratatouille on board !
Yes - Indian parents are now doing the right thing. They shun IT completely. Several thousand IT seats are now empty. :( All of a sudden the US$ Green back tastes bitter.
ReplyDeleteCattle called students, now graze Civil and Mechanical Engineering fields.
Although your ad indicates as if India is a female chauvinist society - I would probably think it would have been this way.
Wanted Girl(s) for MLA boy with 3+ years experience. Clean habits. Wanted only in cases related to bootlegging, murder, extortion and land grabbing. Has connections with Bullet Sankar and Cycle chain Gopal. Interested parties may contact immediately!
Posted above comment on the wrong blog and wouldn't be able to delete it. :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my friend on any day will know better France and its history than I, including Ratatouille.
And by the way, the Eiffel tower, I hear, was probably the only popular monument which was not destroyed during the WWII. Its being said that Germany was always confident of capturing France and hence didnt want to destroy it at any point of time.
They also say that the Eiffel tip being visible from the planes and above the clouds would always give out geographical positioning of other locations to be bombed. So German Luftwaffe spared it.