I’m an avid reader and am naturally curious about how things work. I read all the time and my selections are based on what interests me most. I have found this to be a good exercise for the mind.
Over the course of time, the things that most sparked my interest were history and political science and geopolitics and economics; and, above all the personalities working behind the scenes.
History is a big thing for me!!
I began with my own country, how ancient India developed and expanded. I’ve studied books by a number of authors and I can tell you there’s a lot I couldn’t cover. Then there’s India after independence, how India interacted in an international environment and its impact on the global economy and politics.
As I learned more and more about India, I began to wonder how things were in other countries. And that’s when everything blew out of proportion!!
I realized that there’s no limit to knowledge.
I covered almost all articles about the history of the past century which is brilliantly well-documented. I am still amazed by the details given in some of the documentaries on National Geographic and the History Channel!!
Henry Kissinger’s essays on the formation of Germany and his magnificent explanation for the current state of affairs are true eye-openers. His supremacy in geopolitics is second only to Otto Von Bismarck. I have become a fan of Henry Kissinger himself.
Alexander the Great is my next recollection, he remains in the minds of everyone as an example of youthful leadership. There’s nothing I can add to his memory in this article; but in the future, I hope to write comprehensively on some detail of his life. That I believe is a worthy accomplishment for a writer.
History is inevitably coupled with geopolitics!!
It’s no wonder that a great naval commander as Alfred Thayer Mahan who navigated the seas could recognize first-hand the influence that the geographic location of a country has on its economic and foreign policy.
The far-reaching impact of policies enacted by Zhao Enlai, Deng Xiao Ping, Dag Hammarskjold, and Henry Kissinger can be traced by the ripples they create even today!! Listing their names brings to remembrance their efforts and accomplishments.
A clear understanding of geopolitics gave me an entirely new perspective with which to look at everything.
That was not all!!
Geopolitics has its roots in the need for money, and in turn trade. I drew my inspiration from the Nobel laureate, Dr. Amartya Sen.
Lastly, with each subject I researched, I found more and more personalities worth reading about. At first, my searches began with ordinary Google searches and grew into deep research into their work and projects they pursued during their respective careers.
Surely reading good books leads us to great teachers!! I have the privilege of being aware of the greatest minds in various fields and see how they poised through their affairs to shape the world.
Sure I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and hence a perspective on everything. And I think, that is the biggest gift of all. The sum of all my efforts!!
And I wish everyone experiences the same joy of knowledge and discovery as I have experienced.
As I continue to work now, I realize that the simple exercise that stemmed out of curiosity much earlier drives my future pursuits.
“The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it”.
As rightly said by John Ruskin.
