Pyramids, sarcophagi, mummies... they're the stuff of legends. Which kid didn't want to travel the world, uncovering hidden secrets and discovering buried treasures? At six, I was no different. It was a step further for me, however. I not only wanted to be knee-deep in jewels and gold, but also furiously excavating a booby-trapped tomb, translating hieroglyphics, and showing people the beauty of the ancient world. There was even a point in time where I insisted that I be mummified when I die. I was obsessed with history and archaeology.
2004 might have been the best year in my life. For four years, my mind had been colonized by Ancient Egypt. Everything I did in school, after school, and by myself was related to it somehow. Well, it was history in general, but Egypt held a special place. If the TV was on, it wasn't on Nickelodeon, but on the History Channel (this was before the days of "Ice Road Truckers" and "Ancient Aliens"). So on one fine day in 2004, my parents surprised me with something - a trip to Egypt, this December.
You can imagine my elation.
Now, I'm not known for my expressiveness, and even less so as a child. Some might have pegged me for a spoilt brat when I didn't jump with joy or run around the house squealing. But my parents knew me well enough to know that on the inside, I had died and gone to heaven.
Come December, our army of eight assembled in Cairo. We were in the land of the ancients. Masr, as they would have called it. The next 10 days were a dream come true. Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, Luxor, Memphis. Boats, cars, buses. Museums, hotels, shops. Camels, crocodiles, cats. Pyramids, tombs, ruins, temples. Gold, jewels, amulets, necklaces. Mummies, mummies, and mummies.
The day we left, my heart broke more than any woman could have. I had visited the past and in doing so, seen a glimpse into my future. My future as an archaeologist, a historian, a lover of all things old. I was going back to America, back to school, back to numbers and grammar, back to Tamil class and cricket coaching.
But I brought Egypt back with me. At six, it had embedded itself in my mind. Now, it was in my heart. And even today, 15 years later, it hasn't left.
Things today, however, are quite different. I'm 21 now, fresh out of college. I can't travel to Egypt on a whim. Hell, I can just about get out of bed every morning. The dream of a life among the dead (erm... this sounds darker than it actually is) seems further and further away. Instead of a pile of books and documentaries on Ancient Egypt by my bedside, just a solitary laptop rests, its screen harshly illuminating the dark room. Of the 21 tabs open, 17 of them are related to job searches. I'm not on campus any more - no friends 24/7, no food at the ready, and most of all, the dearest Xbox isn't with me any more. It's not an exciting period of life.
So you can probably understand my euphoria when, at the annual E3 games conference in LA, a video game set in Ancient Egypt is announced.
My eyes are bugging out, mouth slightly agape. Here I am, sitting in front of a puny 13" screen, watching a video game rendering of Ptolemaic-era Egypt. The developer on stage is talking about new gameplay mechanics, updated draw distances, and technical improvements. But I don't care. I couldn't care less about any of this right now. This could have the graphical capacity of a potato and I wouldn't care.
All I'm seeing - no, all I'm feeling is that same feeling of awe and exhilaration as when I stepped out of Cairo airport in December of 2004. When the bumpy tour bus drove us out of the city and suddenly, like a tsunami breaching the coastline, the Pyramids of Giza emerged. When I skipped between the towering columns in the Temple of Luxor. When I entered the tomb of Tutankhamun and breathed in the air that had been sealed for thousands and thousands of years.
These few thousand lines of code reinvigorated a passion in me that I hadn't felt in a long time. I love history. I love archaeology. But it seems like the past few years had done its best to make me forget about this. Suddenly, I was alive again.
It has been drilled into our heads that television and video games are only good for dumbing down the mind. Maybe some of them are. But if a video game has the capacity to make me think, to draw my breath away, to allow me to relive my past and inspire me to pursue my dreams, and to - most of all - create magic... is it really a waste of time?
2004 might have been the best year in my life. For four years, my mind had been colonized by Ancient Egypt. Everything I did in school, after school, and by myself was related to it somehow. Well, it was history in general, but Egypt held a special place. If the TV was on, it wasn't on Nickelodeon, but on the History Channel (this was before the days of "Ice Road Truckers" and "Ancient Aliens"). So on one fine day in 2004, my parents surprised me with something - a trip to Egypt, this December.
You can imagine my elation.
Now, I'm not known for my expressiveness, and even less so as a child. Some might have pegged me for a spoilt brat when I didn't jump with joy or run around the house squealing. But my parents knew me well enough to know that on the inside, I had died and gone to heaven.
Come December, our army of eight assembled in Cairo. We were in the land of the ancients. Masr, as they would have called it. The next 10 days were a dream come true. Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, Luxor, Memphis. Boats, cars, buses. Museums, hotels, shops. Camels, crocodiles, cats. Pyramids, tombs, ruins, temples. Gold, jewels, amulets, necklaces. Mummies, mummies, and mummies.
 |
| The funerary complex of Djoser, near the famous step pyramid at Saqqara |
But I brought Egypt back with me. At six, it had embedded itself in my mind. Now, it was in my heart. And even today, 15 years later, it hasn't left.
 |
| The whole gang, assembled outside the Great Pyramids of Giza. Notice the blacker hairs and smaller bellies. |
So you can probably understand my euphoria when, at the annual E3 games conference in LA, a video game set in Ancient Egypt is announced.
My eyes are bugging out, mouth slightly agape. Here I am, sitting in front of a puny 13" screen, watching a video game rendering of Ptolemaic-era Egypt. The developer on stage is talking about new gameplay mechanics, updated draw distances, and technical improvements. But I don't care. I couldn't care less about any of this right now. This could have the graphical capacity of a potato and I wouldn't care.
 |
| Assassin's Creed Origins, set in Ancient Egypt Image courtesy of Ubisoft |
These few thousand lines of code reinvigorated a passion in me that I hadn't felt in a long time. I love history. I love archaeology. But it seems like the past few years had done its best to make me forget about this. Suddenly, I was alive again.
It has been drilled into our heads that television and video games are only good for dumbing down the mind. Maybe some of them are. But if a video game has the capacity to make me think, to draw my breath away, to allow me to relive my past and inspire me to pursue my dreams, and to - most of all - create magic... is it really a waste of time?
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