A book that shows us that learning Indian history can be an entertaining and fun filled experience…
Getting acquainted with volumes in history written with a certain level of unbiased or balanced approach, right from the school days can always help a young mind to be more inquisitive and enlightened about one’s own past. But usually the drearily written school textbooks fails at this mission by giving the younger generation the feeling that History is a boring topic with lots of dusty facts and hard to remember dates and names.
‘Through Let’s Go Time Travelling, ‘Subhadra Sen Gupta‘ shows us that learning Indian history can be an entertaining and fun filled experience. This book, written with a generous amount of flair and outright wackiness can really capture the imagination of the younger reader and can kindle the spark of their interest in History. The author picks trivia and moments from the expansive ocean of Indian history spanning over many millennia, and then presents them as tiny fascinating capsules, which can be quiet charming for a reader who is waddling tentatively in to this ocean.
What makes this book really valuable is the fact that instead of choosing random bits of information from Indian history for piecing together such a volume, ‘Subhadra Sen Gupta’ analyzes some of the best, unbiased and well-written works on Indian history and summarizes key moments from them – spanning right from the early ages of 2600 BCE to 1940 CE – in a way which will connect with a young reader. The text, which is written in a style to spark the curiosity of a young mind, is further enriched by a series of splendid illustrations by Tapas Guha.
By assimilating information from books like The Wonder That Was India by A.L. Basham; India: A History by John Keay; An Advanced History of India by R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychaudhuri & Kalikinkar Datta; Indian Food, a Historical Companion by K.T. Achaya, the author reproduces a unique history narrative, which will gently introduce to the young reader the culture, art, craft, food, fashion and entertainment that prevailed as part of the daily life during those times.
This unique book – which takes the reader on a journey along the time lines of the Harappan Civilisation; the Mauryas; the Guptas; the Pallavas; the Cholas; the Delhi Sultanate; the Mughals and the period of British rule – can be a perfect curtain raiser for a youngster about Indian history and with the help of the list of Indian history titles that the author provide at the end of the book, the young reader can then further waddle the vast oceans of history with confidence.
