UNITED STATES: The guest for this episode of Transcontinental Times’ 360-degrees Live Show is an author and public speaker. Sahana Singh is a history enthusiast, she has authored two books, both on the ancient Indian education system.
From an engineer to a passionate writer
Singh studied engineering at Delhi College of Engineering, which is now called Delhi Technological University.
“I wanted to emulate my father, hence engineering. So it ran in the family. Although I studied engineering, I have always loved writing. Whatever I saw around me, my thoughts, my feelings, would go into my diary. So that was my first love. I also love to read. And those days you could only choose one for your career, and I picked engineering,” Singh said.
“I came across the work of N.S. Rajaram and Dr David Frawley by luck, somewhere in 1997. And until then I believed that whatever history we were taught in school was the truth, but after reading their books I realized that a lot of history we studied in school was false. So I was intrigued and kept reading historical matters. Later we moved to Singapore, that’s when I changed my line to writing. I wrote for Asian Water Magazine, which was read by engineers. I wrote about water issues and management. I worked there for around 18-20 years,” Singh told Transcontinental Times.
The real turning point for Singh was when she moved to the U.S. and her daughter took world history as one of her subjects. Singh was shocked to read what those textbooks had to say about India. They contained only a few paragraphs that spoke about the low status of the women, caste system or the practice of Sati. She was disappointed to find that there was no mention of all that India has contributed to the world. This triggered her to write about India’s history so that children would know the true essence of India and hold value for the country. “In the process, I noticed that my work was received with open arms, and in no time I got deeper and deeper into history.”
“I spent a lot of time in the libraries. It was a backbreaking job because I was taking PDFs, photocopying the reference books, but being in the U.S. helped, their universities have really good books. I also spent time in the British Library in London, met new people, and Swamijis who are knowledgeable. I received a lot of information from them and recorded our conversations for my work.”
A lot of historical matter is available in Sanskrit or native languages so Singh said that English is very limited, “If I want to read more history then I need to learn Sanskrit or Kannada, my mother tongue. So there’s a lot of reading to do. This is only the tip of the iceberg that I have touched.”
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