I had a conversation recently with someone who claimed to have ‘wasted’ her time majoring in history in college. When I smacked her across the mouth, stood over her and screamed ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK INDIANA JONES MAJORED IN? BUSINESS?!’ I think she realized the important place that history takes in our society.
All the same, I found her outlook unsettling. Perhaps what the worldwide students of history need is a new leader. Someone that can inspire them to reapply themselves to deciphering the lessons of the past, someone that won’t end up starring alongside a vine-swinging Shia LaBeouf, and someone that isn’t scared to talk to the media about hidden rooms filled with skeletons and treasure. Perhaps that someone is D V Sharma, of the Archeological Survey of India.
Following the recent discovery of a secret room with no entrance at the National Library in India, D V Sharma had this to say to the media about what might lie inside:
“It could be just about anything. Skeletons and treasure chests are the two things that top our speculations because it is not natural for a building to have such a huge enclosure that has no opening.”
Think about that for a second – a real life historian is being quoted in the media about a secret room that’s been walled up for 250 years as saying that ‘skeletons and treasure chests’ are their biggest leads on what it could contain. If this doesn’t give you a history-boner, I don’t know what would.
