The Alchemist.

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it."

'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho, is actually an ancient fable about following our dream. It inspires every reader to never stop believing. This is the core of the book's philosophy and a motif that echoes behind Coelho's writing all through 'The Alchemist'.

The two-month long summer break from boarding school had just begun, and me being me, not exactly capable of spending the Summer like Phineas and Ferb, sat down, slowing vegetating away.

Glancing through the library at home, my eyes caught hold of a red book. How apt, now I think to myself. It was 'The Alchemist'. And from then on, I began to perceive life in a different light.

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”

This book had an enchanting aura in every word. 'The Alchemist' is a simple, motivational book, that bursts with optimism, and the unrelenting desire to feed the soul.

'The Alchemist' is a tale of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd, who wishes to travel and explore the diversities of life. When he sleeps in a ruined church, the strangest dream captivates his mind. He dreams of a child leading him to an immense treasure in Egypt. And so, the story unfolds itself with Santiago's adventures before us, and the incredible stories with each encounter. 

“All I know is that like Santiago, the shepherd boy, we all need to be aware of our personal calling.”
-Said by the Author in the Preface.

Santiago represents all of us. Every living, breathing and panting individual who has that inner drive for life. We all walk along this Journey called Life for the fulfillment of the 'Personal Legend'. 
The story is filled with prophecies, and is intricately allegorical. In his journey to the unknown and unseen lands, the young Santiago sees the greatness of the world, and along the way he chances upon many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a Camel Driver, a Crystal Merchant and an educated Englishman.

Santiago first learns about the Alchemist from the Englishman, as men who beleived that heating a metal for many years, would free itself of it's individual properties, and what would remain would be the 'Soul of the World'.

When the boy eventually meets the Alchemist, he confides all his fears in him on a moonless night, and tells him:
"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer."

And the wise Alchemist calmly tells Santiago, who tells us:
"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself, and that no heart has suffered when it goes in search of it's dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and Eternity."

At the end of the book, Santiago discovers that  'treasure lies where your heart belongs' and that the treasure was the journey itself; the discoveries he made and the wisdom he gained.

"There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the Soul of the Universe. The Soul of the World is nourished by people's happiness."

Photo Credit: http://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl

A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Inspired by the lines of a poem composed about Kabul by Saeb-e-Tabrizi, a seventeenth-century Persian poet, the title of the book was created;

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."　


"Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman."

‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini is a painfully explicit story that revolves around two women set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years. It is a remarkable chronicle of two generations over three decades during the destruction and ruin of Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Khaled Hosseini through this novel has allowed his readers a slight glimpse into the brutal reality of Afghanistan. His descriptions of the devastating lives led by the people of the nation are heart-rending, and their never fading hope to find happiness is inspiring.

When Mariam’s parents got her married to Rasheed, a cruel man who curbs her freedom and believes in the complete domination of women, she is abused physically and verbally every day. Laila, a very attractive girl, loses her family when rockets were carelessly and mercilessly showered at that point of time, and one destroyed her home, killing everyone in it.
Rasheed saves her from the ruins offers to marry her, because she had nobody to protect her.

"A man’s heart isn’t like a woman’s womb, Mariam! It won’t bleed, it won’t make room for you. A man’s heart is a wretched, wretched thing. I’m all you have in this world, Mariam and when I’m gone, you’ll have nothing. You are nothing!"

However, a tragic twist develops when Laila realizes that she is pregnant with Tariq’s baby, her childhood love. Unfortunate news arrive a Laila’s doorstep that Tariq had been killed in the war.
Mariam and Laila initially are bitter rivals fighting a feeble battle for the better favour of Rasheed, but we see the change in hearts and how their friendship blossoms.

"Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly."

Through his characters, Hosseini explores the fragility and the tenacity of relationships. Of relationships in every form. He illustrates the hope of the success and the dread of failure, which each relationship comes wrapped in. He skillfully exemplifies emotions ruling lives, and emotions ruining it.　
Khaled Hosseini has this incredible capacity through his serene writing to bring to life his much-loved Afghanistan and through this the reader witnesses the escalating crumbling of the country through his words. His words even momentarily bring alive the famed Bamiyan Buddhas which were destroyed by the Taliban, now lost forever.

‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is about love, hope and the unexpected discovery of inner strength. And above all it is the touching tale of a beautiful bond between two women who, though unrelated by blood, are intimately related by circumstances.

Photo Credit:http: http://www.bordersmedia.com/feature2athousandsplendidsuns/

Tuesdays With Morrie.

“Love each other or Perish.”

I could begin with the expected.

The expected being, “So, I read this book recently…”

However, the truth is, it is anything but recent. I read ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’by Mitch Albom in 2008, when I was in the 11^th Grade, and yet every day I find my thoughts wandering to the teachings of Morrie Schwartz.

The book, so beautifully written has to be appreciated by everyone. And by appreciated, I mean, every literate person must read it, and every illiterate person must hear this story.

Morrie Schwartz, an old professor of the author, Mitch Albom, is forced to forfeit dancing, his favourite hobby, because he has been diagnosed with ALS, a debilitating disease that leaves his “soul, perfectly awake, imprisoned inside a limp husk” of a body.

And so the story revolves around the Professor and his student meeting up once a week, every Tuesday, to talk about the things at really matter in life. About Life, Love, Marriage, Happiness and eventually Death.

“All we know that this Life ends in Death,

What happens after that is known only to the Uncommunicating Dead.”

So now I ask you.

What would you do if you knew that your time was nearing ? That your time to say Goodbye was as close the last leaf falling in November ?

Travel the World ? Fulfill your Bucket List with your Best Friend ?  

Well, Morrie did not exactly have these options. He needed to stay where he was if he wished to live. He needed his medication.

However, in that period of time, when he sat idle with a blanket to warm his legs, he passed on “The Meaning of Life” to one man, who then lighted our lives by sharing it with the world.

“Death ends Life, not a Relationship”, Morrie once said. He cries unashamedly and encourages Mitch to do the same.      

Morrie has this strange acceptance of his death, and he earnestly tries to console himself of the fact that he is dying by saying “enjoy being a baby again”. 

In the initial stages of his disease, Morrie is fearful that he would become so dependent on another person that he would be unable to wipe himself. Towards the end, his fear turns into a reality.

“The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

The life lessons taught to us by Morrie are irreplaceable, and the depth in every word whispered wise beyond our lives.

He says, “Part of me is every age. I’m a three year old, I’m a five year old, I’m a thirty-seven year old, I’m a fifty year old. I’ve been through all of them, and I know what it’s like. I delight in being a child when it is appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it is appropriate for me to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age up to my own.”

At Morrie’s funeral, Mitch recalls his promise to continue their conversations in his mind. Mitch had assumed that it would be very awkward, however when the time comes, he realizes that it comes naturally that he had expected.

In Mitch Albom's other book, 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven', a line exists, "All endings are beginnings. We just don't know it at the time."

His teachings will never turn obsolete, as they have been framed eternally for the world to experience.  Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz together compiled this book as their ‘Last Thesis’ together.

Photo credit:http://sarahzaytoun.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/tuesdays-with-morrie.jpg

The Beginning.

This never ending debate in my somewhat insignificant mind when set beside the geniuses of the past and the present, if that day ever shall come, has been prolonged far too much and I decided that it had to end this afternoon.
Prcocastion is the Devil in disguise. And how perfectly fitting for an idle mind like mine, for you see, I tend to procastinate to it's maximum. Hence, the reason why this blog took it's tick-tocking time to ever start up.
Well, here we are now. All set.
At first, I wondered. A Social Cause ? Euthanasia is printed and published almost everywhere right now. Pretty simple, I had assumed. but my assuption lacked intensely. I needed something more personal so that I could write or 'blog' on with easier reflexes.

*Light Bulb*
Why not write about the books I've read ? To state an opinion. Need not be accurate, besides, it is literature. Not exactly innovative or the brightest idea, but this is safe enough. (:

Let's read Fairytales and Never Sleep~