History is always written by the victor

Imagine you're a police officer in the Colombian Police Force patrolling the highways. Increased narco-trafficking necessitated the government to increase surveillance. Suddenly, a large suspicious truck appears and you stop it to check for illegal drugs. But there's a twist, one of the passengers on the truck is the notorious drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar. He gets down from the truck and confronts you with a simple question "Plomo o Plata?" (lead or silver?). If you choose the former and honor your duty, you will be shot dead. But if you fear for your life and choose the latter, you will be paid a heavy bribe to let the truck full of cocaine pass. What do you choose?  Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug dealer born in 1949 in a small Colombian town called Rionegro. From his early teen years, his delinquency earned him a criminal reputation.   The lucrative narcotics business attracted him and he steadily established the Medellin cartel. He partnered with the Ochoa broth...

Look through all humanity: you’ll never find a man on earth if a god leads him on, who can escape his fate. Oedipus was born to Jocasta and Laius, the queen and king of Thebes. As an infant, he was abandoned by his own parents as a prophecy had foretold that the father would be killed by the son. A passerby shepherd took pity on this innocent child and took him to the King of Corinth, who adopted him. Several years passed, until one day the young Oedipus visited the Oracle of Delphi which told him, his fate. He was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Dismayed, he resolved never to return to Corinth.  FUN FACT:  the name "Oedipus" is believed to mean swollen-foot. He gets this name from the fact that his feet were anchored together when he was abandoned, which led to their swelling and hence the name. Meanwhile, the city of Thebes had been struck by a plague. A procession consisting of King Laius paid a visit to the Oracle of Delphi in search of a plausible solution...

Situated in the city of Pune, the Serum Institute of India is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer which helps provide the jab to millions of young and impoverished children at low affordable prices. In recent days, it has come into the limelight for mass-producing the COVID vaccine and exporting it to several third-world African countries for free. These philanthropic actions have brought the Poonawalla's - the frontrunners of this magnificent institute- praise from all over the globe. However, there's a unique story behind the advent of the SII and Poonalwalla's skill to make a successful business.  The Poonawalla's were heirs to a hefty amount of ancestral money. They owned large stud farms where they bred horses.  These horses naturally produced a serum that was effective in making vaccines. Several horses owned by them contributed to the production of the vaccines as the Poonawalla's sent the retired horses to the Haffkine Institute in Mumbai. But a pau...

Oskar Schindler- the epitome of magnanimity, the savior of humanity, and a man with no parity. Affiliated to the Nazi Party, Schindler saved more than a thousand Jewish lives- who were brutally persecuted by his allegiance- by employing them in his enamelware factory. Though he devoted his time to philandering and earning money during his youth years, the money was directed towards a noble cause. Ironically, after the culmination of World War II with German defeat, Oskar was pursued and the Jews were free.  Schindler grew up in a neighborhood where he met several Jews who were German too. Though he was a member of the Nazi Party, he could not tolerate the preposterous beliefs of the Party which categorized Jews and Poles as undesirable organisms. The black market and an enamelware factory contributed to his lavish lifestyle which one may also call hedonistic. Like the rest of the Nazis Schindler could have ignored or supported the eradication of Jews but he chose not to. Instead, h...

Mumbai has been a strategic and prosperous city for a long time. The city, which used to be an archipelago of 7 islands, flourished as a prominent center of trade during the Mughal dynasty. Now in addition to being a port city, Mumbai is India's financial capital with the Bombay Stock Exchange dominating the Indian stock market; the Indian film industry popularly known as Bollywood is located in Mumbai and it is the City of Dreams for a reason. Its pivotal location made it a sought-after city during the medieval ages. While it was under the jurisdiction of Nawab of Surat in the 16th century, the Dutch, Portuguese and British were ready as its suitors. The Portuguese were the first ones to make a move. As they resolved to expand their territory on Indian soil vigorously, warfare began. As a result, the Treaty of Bassein was signed in 1534 which ceded the seven islands of Mumbai to the Portuguese along with some other cities. The new rulers called this group of seven islands Bon Bahi...

Perhaps, the most haunting and sinister event of the 20th century, the Holocaust is remembered as a dark period of time wherein more than 10 million Jews perished in the name of "ethnic cleansing". Unprecedented ways of killing and human torture were applied systematically and so surreptitiously that the world only had a faint idea about it at that time and was mostly unaware and unsure about what was happening in the Nazi-controlled territories. Auschwitz, the center of the Holocaust became synonymous with pain. Although a large number of the members of the Nazi party and its affiliates were dedicated to this horrible task, one evil doctor who stood apart from all of them was Josef Mengele.  The "Angel of Death" became infamous for his spine-chilling methods of experimenting on living human beings and often times on the dead bodies too. Methods like abacination in which a hot iron rod was placed on a person's eyes were employed by him. Your fate was decided jus...