Man has always been curious about civilisations far, far away from his own earth. But so far, nothing has been found, although sightings of strange creatures and vehicles transporting them have been “reported” from time to time. They may, though, well be the imagination of runaway minds. Long ago, people walking past marshy villages at night saw what they termed “pisasu” (devil). It was not that. No way. When gases escaped into the air and mixed with oxygen, fires erupted. There have been so many similar conjectures. One came from Erich von Daniken in his 267-page, 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods, in which he averred that ancient men had established contact with civilisations far, far away.
Von Daniken, who died on January 10 at a hospital in Switzerland, became an overnight sensation and the darling of paranormal enthusiasts. Scientists, however, looked at his book with utter disdain. They termed its main theme—extraterrestrial beings influencing ancient technology—sheer nonsense. Von Daniken's work has often been called pseudoscientific and rejected by mainstream academics, who have said that some evidence spelt out in it is fabricated and faulty. They rubbished Von Daniken's assertions that extraterrestrial beings visited Mayan and Egyptian civilisations and taught them technological advancements, which helped them build fantastic structures like the pyramids.
Chariots of the Gods was a runaway hit, selling over 70 million copies in 30 languages, making him one of the most widely read authors. What is more, it got movie men to produce some brilliant fare. One of the first in this genre was E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. It is a story of how Elliott, a little, wide-eyed boy, befriends an ET that has been stranded on earth and helps it find its way back home. Well, can Bollywood be far behind? Aamir Khan's PK (2014) spoke about the same thing with the ET stranded and lost on earth till it is helped to find its way back. A film that lambasts blind religious beliefs in a satirical way, PK may not have been very novel, but it caught popular imagination with its nuanced narrative structure.
PK and ET have certainly kept Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods evergreen. And the 24 books with similar themes, which followed, catapulted him into literary heights. So what if Chariots went against science and logic? So what if many called it absurd? The work still remains very popular, and with Von Daniken's passing, the Gods may once again grace our bookstores.
