Adventures of the youngest archaeologist

Boys his age love fun-time with friends, playing games, looking for fun and thrilling activities. But at 16, Arsh Ali has already achieved many feats with his hard work, passion and determination.

Arsh Ali is India’s youngest archaeologist and has been part of many excavations till now. He had a solo exhibition to his credit at the age of four, and has given lectures in ancient and modern history to post-graduate students at Allahabad University.

Arsh’s first excavation was a great learning experience. “In 2016, when I was 15 years old, I participated in my first excavation program at a site named Binjore which is a Harappan site near the Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan. The institute of Archaeology and the Archaeological Survey of India had conducted the excavations.”

“I have been part of over seven excavations and exploration programs that were conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India as well as several state-controlled archaeological departments. I have been doing these activities for over 3 years,” he says.

For Arsh it was a dream come true to be a part of excavations and exploring new things. “Being a part of excavations and exploration programs is really a pleasure and an honour for a person who has a keen love for archaeology. Actually being on the field and doing what you have only studied in books till that time is very challenging. But it is also very exciting because you actually get to touch things from a different era. That experience is something you will cherish all your life,” he says.

What made him want to pursue archaeology as a subject of study was the fact that it is a subject that covers almost all fields of sciences and humanities. “If you want to be a good archaeologist, you really need to be good in all fields of learning,” he adds.

It was a tough task for Arsh to balance his school studies with his passion for archaeology and the work and hours it demanded. “Well, if you need to balance your school studies as well as your extra-curricular activities, you need to be well planned, well disciplined, and absolutely determined to do things with an unwavering focus. The thing that helped me a lot to balance my school studies and extra-curricular activities was support from my school. I studied till class 10 in City Montessori School, Lucknow. Then I joined National Open School for my studies in class 11 and 12, when it became extremely difficult for me to manage things due to my increased absence from class.”

Arsh feels lucky to have had the support of his parents. “The thing that is highly important is your parents’ support and enthusiasm for the things you wish to pursue. I feel lucky to have parents who did their best in helping me pursue my dream.”

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Arsh dreams that one day his actions will be beneficial for the world. He says, “I have only one dream — to gift this world something that will prove to be of immense help to each and every human being living on this planet.”