History , my enchanting mistress.

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  25.                                     History , my enchanting mistress.
She weaves a web around me no matter I try to escape from her . I am legally wedded to English Literature , my first love .  But events or figures of history , past or modern , has a strange fascination for me : a strange awe . I have studied Indian History , English History , Islamic History (secured 130/200 in the CSS Competition) , American History (secured 70/100 in the same competition  . I learnt wide portions of American History by Nevin and Commager by heart while preparing for the said Competition) and a smattering of French History . Besides Current Affairs from the first World War .I felt the same awe while visiting the Pyramids in Giza , near Cairo , and watching the Sphinx. I read about important figures of the present era viz. Stalin , Trotsky , Princess Diana .  While serving in the Cabinet Division , I used to borrow volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica from the office library to browse  historical events and figures in my spare time.  While studying English Literature , or any Literature , Urdu , French or Russian  , too, you never escape from contemporary  history viz. Elizabethan or Jacobean; a description of the times .
The Crusades have been a favourite subject with me particularly the exploits of the Zingis , both father and son , and Salahuddin( English Saladin ) Ayubi . The Crusaders were also important for the emergence of Templar Knights . A few years , researchers in the west , such research are always conducted in the west , found scrolls from the Templar Knights , leading to the  Holy Grail .The Holy Grail has been fully explained  by Dan Brown in ‘Da Vinci Code’ . To those , who are unfamiliar with Christianity , ‘The Holy Grail’ was the relic of Mary Magdalene , the supposed wife of Jesus . Of course , it is against the belief of the Muslims who believe that Jesus was not married when he as
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lifted to heaven through Allah’s Mercy . He will return to earth towards  the end of the world.
Students of Journalism  are taught  five things where to proceed further  ;where, when , what , why  and how . While reading ‘Da Vinci Code’ , I made it a point  to read about Leonardo Da Vinci’s life . I particularly spent a great deal of time gazing ‘The Last Supper’ intently .
Shortly after finishing ‘Da Vinci Code’ , I browsed on the internet what happened in Paris that night when Princess Diana died . The more I dug deep that I felt vicariously that Princess Diana was the model for Sophie , the book’s heroine . Some pseudo intectuals write that Britain is the pet poodle of the USA. As a matter of fact , I did repeat it  last evening at a friend’s house . Rather Britain occupies a prominent place as the keeper of ‘The Holy Grail’ .
Having being a student of American History , I watched with interest the events as they unfolded  particularly after the Second World War  .The Truman Doctrine , the books written by Richard Nixon , the Carter Doctrine , the origins of the Bush’ family, ‘Obama’s War’ .  Freedom of information is really practiced there . There are  many articles on ‘The New World Order’ on the internet  particularly written by John Coleman   .

 I am also greatly fascinated by west , particularly the USA , in as much as one can browse  books to one’s heart content on the internet or get a copy of the book or a magazine through pdf which is not  always the case in other parts of the world .

Mahfooz ur Rahman
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Islamabad
July 8, 2013