Opening windows of imagination, students travel back in time

Exploring history

Put yourself in the shoes of historical characters, travel to a new city and write a travelogue. 

This is the brief given to those taking part in a competition designed by students of history department at St Stephen’s College for their two-day festival ‘Kaalchakra’ which began on Friday. 

Since the theme of the festival this year is ‘History and Journey’, the idea will be explored in the various activities of the festival.

“Write Your Own Travelogue is a new concept and completely in tune with the theme. The participants will get on the spot names of historical characters and locations, and they have to write an imaginary 500-word travelogue based on it,” said Surbhi, one of the organisers of the festival.

According to students, the travelogue can become really interesting if the writer puts some creative thought in it with a mix of basic historical understanding.

“For example, if we are giving Prithviraj Chauhan in Berlin, the participant should keep the historical essence of the time the character belongs to, and how Berlin would have looked then,” added Surbhi.

Historical charactersThe other historical characters and city combinations include Cleopatra in Moscow, Hitler in Tibet, Aristotle in Vienna, Shahjahan in Chandni Chowk, Henry the VIII in New York.

A participant, who could not reveal what she had written as the results are still awaited,  said she opted for Shah Jahan in Chandni Chowk. “It felt like time travelling,” she said.

Day two of the festival will include the keynote address by Prof H P Ray on “Narratives of Travel and Shipwreck in Stone” and presentation of papers on the same theme.