I have question about Humans: My journey towards Anthropology

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I have question about Humans: My journey towards Anthropology

by

Sneha Utthasini (sem I, 2023) 



When everyone is almost ready to study their favorite subjects after crossing the HS barrier, a new government guideline was announced. It stated that honours are no longer for three years, rather it has become a course for four years. I thought that I fell in a great danger. I questioned myself another year extra? When I was thinking about what to study, Google showed me the way. When I searched in Google about the subjects one can opt for, I encountered an unknown subject of ANTHROPOLOGY. My eyes were stuck on this subject only. Something like a strange desire to know this subject better arose in my mind. To fulfill this desire, I took admission in the department of Anthropology at Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Government College which was located in Kolkata Newtown. When I went to college with my father on my first day, I really liked the green surroundings of the area but at that same time, I had a latent fear of how beautiful the subject would be, as I was going take up Anthropology. From the first day the professors of the college gave us a basic idea about this subject. I remember on the 1st day the Suman sir told us a story about “a countrymen called ‘NAIDNI’ in that country there lives a species called ‘NAMUH’ who get married, their birthdays are celebrated, they fight with the environment, they always have various festivals”. I was very surprised to hear the words of the professor. Immediately he asked a question “Have you ever heard or seen such a country or species before?” naturally we replied, “no sir, we had not heard” then he laughed and puta white spot under the country named ‘NAIDNI’ written on the Blackboard with a chalk and said, “Now read it reverse”. ‘NAIDNI’ became ‘INDIAN’ and similarly ‘NAMUH’ became ‘HUMAN’. what a strange incident... Sir then in the deception of the story he was telling us our own story? everyone laughed and sir said, “Anthropology is the study of human beings by making our familiarity unfamiliar”. From that day on, my desire to study anthropology grew stronger. It is a study of human beings… Immediately a question arrows in my mind and I asked myself do you want to know what is human?

To be continued...

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