Saturday, August 27, 2005

Alternate History...WTF!

The spark:

A few days back I was trying to search the web for eyewitness stories of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. I happened to reach a blog by Mr. Taylor , which had a post on Gandhi's assassination. Here's what the post said :

"Indian revolutionary Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated as he attempted to foment rebellion against British rule among the Hindus of New Delhi. Randall Stodderly, the British soldier who shot Gandhi, was arrested by Indian authorities, but when he was extradited to Great Britain, he was freed and feted as a hero."

Thinking it to be just a ordinary brief on Gandhi's assassination (which was not something I was looking for)... I was about to close the page and move on, while suddenly my brain forced me to ponder twice on this post. My head shook, my eyes widened while my mind came to terms with what I was reading.

Gandhi murdered by a British soldier??!!....because he formented rebellion??!...WTF!.....Without even caring to trying to think over what was written, I blasted off an e-mail to the author, begging to point his attention over his erroneous post.

The reply:

He replied within hours. This is what he had to say..

"This is an event in history that didn't happen - my site is fictional, not historical. Alternate history is a type of science fiction that sometimes takes real people and events and shows them slightly different (or sometimes very different). In that particular timeline, I believe, Gandhi, instead of embracing non-violence, had chosen the path of violent resistance to British rule."

The Aftershock:
I fumed endlessly. The next thing I was doing was googling 'Alternate History'. Many websites (if not hundreds, thousands or millions) were dedicated to Alternate history. I started thinking as to what kind of people would like to actually spend time writing Alternate history and then I was pitying people who spend time and enjoy reading it. If you are one of them. Please e-mail me!

Words from the wise me:

History is truth. I love history. It is exciting to read about how men, women, leaders and nations lived through the old era and shaped the foundation of the world that we have today.
I am no book critic. Nor am I a literary genius, but I understand what makes sense and what doesn't. And on any given day, reading about gandhi's life would give me a better literary orgasm than going through pages that describe Gandhi's transformation into a terrorist.
Alternate history is a lie, reading it doesn't serve any purpose and doesn't provide any breakfast for the brains.

On this day, I declare myself an 'Anti Alternate History' ian.

And to all you alternate historians....if you really want to 'alter' things, leave history alone. How about altering the present? Write about George Bush and Osama Bin Laden getting together, and having a coffee at the neighbourhood Starbucks and making plans about a ' Bush-Laden Center of Peace Development'.

Now that will be an interesting read eh?