Copyright © [Surabhi Parashar] [2026]. All Rights Reserved.1
History, some people like it, but I am not one of them. My grades in the history class reflected my sentiment. The endless list of wars, dates, and the reigns of kings and dynasties can be quite boring, don’t you think? For me, everything changed when my dad became my history teacher in high school. Yes, I went to the same school where my dad taught, and yes, being a teacher’s daughter, there was often embarrassing. I had my fair share of awkward moments. But I genuinely loved the way he brought history to life through stories. He made learning feel easy, and honestly, I absorbed enough along the way to get through my exams without too much struggle. It wasn’t that I disliked the past; it just never felt human enough.
Recently, I stumbled upon two books that transported me straight to the 17th century. These books showcase history as a collection of lives once lived, and ordinary days stitched together under extraordinary circumstances. Meet the Georgians by Robert Peal and The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon are two very different books, and I enjoyed reading them thoroughly. One introduced me to flamboyant rebels, poets, and rule-breakers of a restless century; the other followed the quiet, relentless life of Martha Ballard, a midwife navigating frozen roads, fragile bodies, and the unspoken expectations placed on women in the 17th century. Somewhere between these pages, history stopped feeling distant and began to feel awkwardly familiar.
What struck me most wasn’t just how different their lives were from ours, though on the surface they were, but how powerfully individual choices shaped the world they lived in. Meet the Georgians makes this especially clear. Robert Peal doesn’t present history as a smooth, inevitable march forward; instead, he introduces us to eccentrics, rebels, and rule-breakers who nudged society in new directions simply by refusing to behave as expected. Mary Wollstonecraft argued that women could think for themselves long before feminism was recognized. Olaudah Equiano turned his personal suffering into a powerful message that changed public views on slavery. Even someone like Lord Byron, who was emotional and flawed, changed how people thought about art and self-expression. They were not perfect heroes; they were often impulsive, inconsistent, and sometimes reckless. Yet, they made a significant impact on history. Reading about these lives reminds us that progress rarely comes from perfection; it comes from people brave enough to live loudly, question norms, and leave a dent. If history has ever felt distant or dull, books like these quietly insist otherwise, and they are well worth your time.
When I closed these books, I felt the quiet nostalgia that usually comes from old photographs or period films. There was a longing for a life I never lived, yet somehow understood. Stories like Meet the Georgians and The Frozen River remind us that history isn’t distant or dusty; it’s deeply human and shaped by imperfect people navigating love, duty, ambition, and survival one day at a time. If you are not a fan of reading and would rather watch a movie, I would suggest “A Little Chaos (2014)” and “The Duchess (2008).” It is fun to watch 17th-century aristocracy dressed in wigs and powdered faces. For now, I hope you step into the weekend a little slower, maybe with a book, a movie, or just a quiet cup of coffee, and allow yourself the simple pleasure of drifting through time. Wishing you a relaxed, unhurried weekend ahead 😊.
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