Lingering on the tombs

Have you ever tried to feed curiosity into a child's head and watch it convert into a dream that he truly wants it to happen? 

Have you wondered how he learns so quickly from everything and everyone around at such a tender age?

Have you noticed that these dreams vanish into thin air when they grow up and succumb to the surroundings ?

Have you made someone believe that these fantasies could actually be made real and pursued ?

When I was a child, my ambitions were as vast and panic inducing to my parents who first heard the word "Egyptology" from my mouth. During my school days, it started as a “cool” word to fill in the slam books and throw jargon to emphasize the enormity of it. I remember gaping at every golden lined photo from the Child Kraft books which had methods of embalming of a mummy. I always time travelled with the pharaohs and queens as I was reading these books.

 When the era of modern graphic movies opened up to us, "The Mummy" movie series captured my fantasies wilder and I was absolutely in love with everything I was seeing. 

During my teens, Harry Potter spread like fire empowering every reader’s mind with the concept of magic. Though I worshipped the seven books in Holy, I still considered the language and scriptures of Egypt even more magical.

Hieroglyphs seemed like what music would to others. Beautiful and elegant. And to add to the beauty of the language, it doesn't exist any more. This fact makes it more tempting. You will have to learn a language where you have no companion to help you read or speak. 

When I look around the modern day brands, I see names from Egyptian Gods. It must be really hard to dig deep into the chronology of Egyptian Gods and kings.

There are vivid images of golden and black statues surrounded in aura of mysteries in my mind. Imagine that you are unraveling world’s most fascinating and overwhelming history from Tutankhamen's tomb. You run your fingers through the paintings, scriptures and gaze at the magnificent architecture.

There is glitter in anyone’s eye when they see the massive Sphinx hugging the Pyramids. To study the Pharaohs who once reigned over territories. I have considered my self as the Cleopatra who let herself bitten by the wasp. I am intrigued by the fact that these have travelled even into Asterix and Obelix comics.

Over the period of life, I have matured to understand that childhood fantasies can’t be made into ambitions unless you are pursuing them at every step you take. We need to focus on things that seem feasible and achievable; more important related to us. I cant learn the culture of another country by sitting and breathing in another soil. I limited my interest for the sake of realistic goals by reading random articles on Egypt over the internet. But at the back of my mind, I still smile at all the things I used to imagine. Now, my dreams have withered and fallen like the autumn leaves. Worst, these have been forgotten and lost as I went on to pursue what every Indian parents wanted their children to do: an engineering followed by post graduation in MBA.

But, this contest I saw at Indiblogger gave me an opportunity to look into things that I thought never existed. I felt elated when I learned that I can actually acquire a degree in Egyptology !! There are quite few colleges in UK offering a three year full time and part time courses which give insights into Egyptian culture and language. The study is experimental and research oriented to help every student understand the nuances of history.

If I were to do a BA Ancient History and Egyptology, I would definitely attend Department of Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology at Swansea University Wales,UK.

My reasons are simple to make the choice of college, the campus is closer to the beach which makes it learning conducive and they have a collection of Egyptian artifacts. As described in the college website, they have the largest material and house around 3000 archaeological objects. This means, I need not travel deep into deserts to understand Egypt. Most of the universities also ask for additional language like French and German. Things seem to get even better as I have been inquiring for German language classes for a while. Also, for a student from International category, various scholarships are offered.

Someday, I will work upon the options and do a course to satisfy the creative aspirations that have been lingering with me for long. I do understand that all the degrees I have pursued may not be in use after a BA in Egyptology. But what gives more joy than to see a path clearly unfold just for you ?

Unlike the Harry Potter which is purely a fiction, I know that this ambition of pursuing a career in Egyptology is definitely NOT impossible.

Thank you http://knowledgeisgreat.in/ for the opportunity !

This article is for IndiBlogger "Knowledge is Great" contest.