By PragyanSharma Polavarapu
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We generally like good classic English novels of old days like those of Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens ,Jane Austin, Sir Arthur Connan Doyle, R.L.Stevenson ,Thomas Hardy, John Galsworthy etc and poetry of John Dryden, William Wordsworth, Percy Bische Shelley ,John Keats, Lord Byron, Lord Tennyson etc-and also enjoy reading many good old American authors .Always first in all comes the great William Shakespeare for his majestic dramas written in majestic blank verse reminding of slow march of elephants.The style and beauty in above writings can satisfy even the new scientific age . Such books can create a new international reading taste among people of all countries.
Every person's touch with the English language starts with English rhymes in early school books and with later beautiful ptose essays and long majestic poems of great English writers read in college days. In high school (1950s)we had always a small piece from Shakespeare’s dramas. This reading habit continued with reading English newspapers, a habit in our house which existed for last 70 years . “The Hindu” and “ Indian Express” with their international pages, giving weekly reports from Europe, US ,Africa,Australia etc were mines of knowledge .Being immensely interested in international political events rather than in very slow national news , I glanced through the many political and scientific and economic and engineering journals in a big library which was luckily located near to our house.
In student community we can observe a great thirst for knowledge . In India there was awakening from centuries long slumber .Now people require modern knowledge and go to books , the online versions of books,journals and newspapers and the various encyclopedias--coming floating in the e/m waves with priceless old photos of famed people , famed historical places and geographical sites of great interest. There is knowledge explosion. The on-line things are really a new boon to students. If only the atom bombs let us live on this planet earth!
Students already possesss good and deep reading tastes in English –science, politics,economics etc. We have great books and online knowledge bases about India’s ancient most artistic ,literary and and philosophic traditions of 2000 years ago.All such books and reading material and online knowledge bases are available in English .Due to having such English-oriented reading tastes many people possess a kind of eagerness to know about land of England .
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There was a connection between India and England for 350 years from the times of British East India Company(EIC)-- the commercial association of “billionaire” merchants of old England formed with big support from the kings , rich noblemen,rich merchants and politicians . The reason for forming EIC was to get spices and silks from the eastern countries --- India , China and some far eastern islands . Even before EIC and since the Middle Ages( i.e. since 500-600 years) or even from earlier times, spices were sold in European lands at high prices like gold. The silks of the East and perhaps gold ornaments of India were in great demand among noble and wealthy families of England and Europe. The famed “silk road” was a centuries- old land route of thousands of miles . It required risky and laborious travel among mountains, forests and deserts but the huge profits coming to the western merchants and middlemen fuelled the trade for centuries. Very much later(in 1870s) the Suez Canal was opened and it cut the distance . The trade channels surely were windows on culture for both eastern and western people and provided a limited channel for communication between eastern and western societies . Eastern and Western cultures and customs were vastly different from each other.
Such was the ancient world –far different from the present age of skyscrapers, jet travel, computers ,digital phones ,i-pads etc . Matters in modern age move at speed of light . But still some people feel that only the Old World is good with conservative serious view of life, high morals and deep religiosity. In old days there was no pollution from CO2,SO2,chlorine etc. Radiation from radioactive substances was unknown. We have the great boon of modern science .We scientifically studied the “outer space” and already travel in it in a very limited way like boats crawling along coast of an unknown sea. We have the all- powerful computer which does even mountainous statistical work and book writing work in seconds . Such work took even weeks in old world.
But the new world is a world of uncertainity -- without a strong concrete base in morality and philosophy. The new world is a world of chemical pollution, atomic weapons radiations which attack the DNA etc.
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We have great mythological epics –the Ramayan and Mahabharath . The West too has two most beautiful mythological epics --the Aeneid and Odyssey. Those beautiful stories were familiar from school days --school level story books with color plates of Greek heroes and Greek gods. They too are like oceans of philosophy and poetry. Good translations of these ancient western epics were made into modern English by the great poet Alexander Pope( 1688-1744). It is interesting to note that most of the European peopoe except high scholars were not quite aware of existence of these beautiful western epics till Renaissance( 14th century AD ). After seeing the beauty of these epics people accepted those books as their precious property and precious jewels
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