Tuesday, June 07, 2005
today was amusing. in european history, we were doing basic european geography (following this sarky quote from braudel: 'geography proposes, history disposes'. cue eye roll.) and khurram husain was throwing random questions at the class; those rhetorical i-don't-really-need-an-answer-to-this question-because-nobody-knows-the-answer-to-questions-like-these. so.he asks aisee, offhand, listing penninsula sticky-out bits, 'iberia, anyone know where iberia is?'
before he can answer his own question, a boy wearing glasses and a checked shirt speaks up.
'spain'
husain nods, appreciatively, and carries on. (abhi no-one notices, smart hoga nerdy geography boy, chalta hai.)
'does anyone know where africa's name comes from?'
'a roman general called africanus.' (arrey wah)
talking about the mediterranean, husain mentions how no country's ever been able to gain control of the area, the last attempt being the turks fighting someone i've forgotten.
'anyone know when that was?'
up pipes same boy.
'1571'
now everyone is impressed, including the instructor, who exclaims,
'that's correct- how do you know all of this?!' (i mean, okay for iberia but 1571 and africanus? hudd hi hogayi)
without missing a beat, the boy fires back:
'age of empires!'
Mina at 6:03 PM
