Books on my shelf

The first feeling I had when I read The Lost Apothecary – exceptionally mature. I never felt this way before with any other book, judgment was nowhere present. Yes, there was right and wrong and yes there was ugly and beautiful. But it was all built up in the cycle of karma in a matter-of-fact way. The actions you take, the decisions you make, will all end up in a situation. However, none of them makes you a good or bad person. I love the unfailing support each character had from the author as if they were all loved dearly.

An extraordinary tale about the lives of ordinary women, be it the Nella’s dreary, the budding promise for Eliza, Caroline’s haunting present, or the manifested life of Gaynor. Women were the bane and the blessings, and the anchor for the story. Wasn’t the author stressing the whole time, how the lives of forgotten people fascinated her? Finally, it ended up alluring me as well. History is not just about the famous names, but of the countless commoners who all lived the fascinating life curve. Every step we make changes history by a bit, the way Eliza’s mistake or Nella’s revenge did. Every experience we face moves us towards a crossroads of heaven and hell. Love the way this contradiction was shown through Nella and Eliza, Caroline and Gaynor. Eliza and Gaynor both embody ‘The road not taken by Robert Frost. And that made the difference in the end.

I was wondering the whole time, how the two worlds will come together. After watching so many Korean fantasies, a merging of the world wouldn’t have surprised me. But I am totally satisfied with the way it ended, just the way millions of lives of common women have ended in the present and past. Some ordinarily, some extraordinarily depending on what they believed in.

I knew I would like the book in the first few pages itself. It is a classic. My idea of classic literature is when you do not want to skip the pages but immerse in the web of imagination woven by the author. That is what books are for, to take you to another world. A surprising grasp of this essence of books by a budding author.

The only concern I had in the book, was that Eliza never sounded her age except for her confusion about the all-knowing facts of life. Her character would have been more authentic for me if she would have slipped sometimes into being a child. In Eliza’s character, I felt the author more than Eliza herself. Also, a little more than a hint was required on how Eliza escaped. The flight from realism to the magical road in the climax was too abrupt. Fortunately, magic happens in life, people even come back from death at times. But that part could have been fleshed out a little better. Apart from these minor flaws, I felt the book was a masterpiece. An incredible achievement, the first book turned out so well. I so look forward to her next.

Goodreads rating was 3.8 when I last checked. Guess the minor flaws turned major for a few. I recommend the book to those who want a good story to escape into, just like how Caroline escaped into Nella’s world. Once you are back you will surely appreciate your current life.

Tag: Books on my shelf

My take on it.

I am reading the book and I am thinking – Is it seriously possible to have so many incidents in your life? Isn’t my life pretty staid comparatively 😌 ? An unbelievable story. But what intrigues me most is the product of all those debacles – One of the most famous comedians. I have been a fan of Trevor Noah for some time now. His humor seems a unique mix of childlike and adult-like takes. His analysis and repartee, quite intelligent, are so evident in the book. Many comedians are known to have a painful background, most famously Charlie Chaplin. But what I like about Trevor’s story is that, nowhere, it seems painful. Every incident is narrated as if it is everyday occurrence. And isn’t that the beauty? Our life depends on the lenses we are wearing, a seemingly distraught event can be considered a lifetime tragedy or just fluke madness.

For this Mother and Son duo – the times of apartheid, poverty are all enterprising options to win over. The dream was never to be world-famous. It was always about finding the best out of any situation. Life depended on how every day is a survival but this survival need not be with tears, it can be fun too.

We can say a few people are destined to rise above the crowd. But seriously, someone who has such a knack for rising above every obstacle, won’t he rise in life?

Trevor Noah is a great storyteller, and the story is gripping from the start. In fact, there was only one chapter where my excitement fizzled out. The part with the cheeseboys lives – may be too much information for me to grasp there. But otherwise, it was an interesting flow of incidents presented in a quirky way. Not a laughing riot, but humor is interwoven everywhere.

The piety of Patricia Noah is really inspiring and especially when we read the last chapter on how rewarding faith has been to her. In fact, it is not just one incident, the whole book, the mother and son’s whole life is a dedication to faith. For me, the protagonist of the story is Patricia Noah. A mother who against all odds lived life on her own terms while inspiring her kids at the same time. I hope more and more people who learn to come out of adversity should share their experiences and inspire us.

“The Story of My Experiments with Truth” by Mahatma Gandhi is definitely not a literary piece. There is no flow in the thoughts, no beauty of the prose, and is too long for our generation. But isn’t it how life is – up and down, sometimes not making any sense especially when it is interrupted by a new thought. And long when every moment is significant.

All Indians are taught of Gandhi since childhood, which may be one of the reasons why today’s generation is not so keen on reading about him. But with so many great people like Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr singing his praises, I thought it’s time to give his autobiography, a try. 

Well, in short, it is about truth, as is evident from the name. It seems truthful of him, at least. No self-boasting or hiding information, just truthful, sometimes abashedly so. It is all his thoughts in his own words, and thus paints a vivid picture of him, his personality.

How ordinary becomes extraordinary.

So who was Gandhi, apart from the man leading India’s freedom struggle, and how did he become a Mahatma? What is the face behind the Mahatma? This book explains it all and in a much better way than the school textbooks. In fact, I am totally surprised by this book, the one thing that struck me most was how ordinary he seemed to be. The way he represented himself is exactly how we all think of ourselves. There was just one thing extraordinary about him that he was a man of determination. This one trait led him to paths, that ordinary people do not traverse. We all adjust and compromise and that is how we remain ordinary.

According to him he was not even a good barrister, not a great husband, and has been on the right path only cause of luck or God. It seems with just one virtue, his fetish for truth, he catapulted to the wall of fame.

There is a strange humility in his work, even the name of the book is humble – it is not his belief in truth but experiments. The weaknesses that he represented about himself, none of us will ever even say aloud. Who will agree to be a nervous wreck, enough to lose his first case disastrously?

This story is about how he overcame all his weaknesses and got full control over his mind. 

He seemed to be a man of extremes with every quality to an extent that can not be easily tolerated. Truthfulness that can never be practical. Stubborn to a fault. Hellbent on nursing people. In fact, he was always looking out for someone to nurse, as it made him happy. A stickler for cleanliness especially in communities. Whatever he did – he did to the extreme, taught to the extreme. I do not believe in extremes, but the truth is extreme people can only bring in revolutions and huge transformations.

Like our generation today, he would read of all religions and then follow whatever he likes. No wonder he got killed for such thoughts. It was a radical world then. Again the important point in his case is, he would follow the goodness from each religion. Don’t you think, if we follow even 5 good principles of any religion, we can become great humans? Alas! even that is a challenging task for us.

He may have started ordinary but by sticking to few fundamental principles of spirituality he became extraordinary.

What can our generation learn from him?

What I like about any book is what I take from it. In our daily life, we do not need to enter the political field or transform large associations. He started slow, it was a letter at a time to the relevant authorities. Even common people like us can accomplish such things. We may be ignored, or not. The idea is to persist. I have never been in favor of a violent protest but his path of silent protests has a ringing spiritual essence. Have you ever noticed, it is tough to ignore a persistent person? Fortunately, in our world of Customer Cares, e-mails, and Twitter, it is a lot easy to be persistent.

The other interesting point I learned from him is – when making a stand if you do not come across as a savage, it helps. The power of polite society as shown by Gandhi & Mandela is humongous. The more decent you are, the more numbers of society will follow you, and the more followers the more the immensity of its impact.

My favorite part of the book is the part in South Africa as till then he was a nobody, like billions of us. It was that threshold point, till where we can easily follow him.

A short book review

This book was not about self-aggrandizement, like other autobiographies. He defined his image as he sees in the mirror. Nothing more, nothing less. And of course, there are many lessons to learn here. I won’t call this an irresistible page-turner and it is definitely too lengthy, but for those who want to learn from great minds and who want to be inspired in life, this book is a must. And a great mind he definitely had.

Read it the way I do, a few pages a day, and get inspired.

I have done my own experiments with truth, which made me realize that truth gives us internal peace and spiritual power. You can also let me know in the comments if you have are interested to experiment with truth and non-violence. And what is that first step you would like to take on this journey?

I had heard of the ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda, many times before but never felt like picking it up. After all how interesting can a yogi’s life be? So my money and time was spent on other books but definitely not this one, not even if someone was letting it to me for free.

Then one day my brother told me of how this book was Steve job’s favorite. I had read online that Jobs came to India in his youth searching for mystical experience but was disappointed to not find one. I wondered, then why would he be so impressed by a book about a Yogi from India. It seemed strange and even more incredible was the fact that it was the last gift to those who attended his memorial. I mean seriously, how impressed can you be by a book to hand it over as your last gift?

Well, this was reason enough for me to check out the book. As soon as I read it, I felt grateful to Steve jobs for his last gift to me as well. I am not as grateful to him for my iPhone as I am for this book.

I read spiritual or motivational books very slowly, savoring each page. 5 to 10 pages at bedtime. No wonder it took me some months to complete it.

I won’t say it is some extraordinary book that suddenly changed my life or showed me paradise or gave the answers to all life’s questions. No, instead the way it impacted me was very subtle. It just showed me how there is something more to this physical world. There is now, this possibility of surpassing the ordinary.

I don’t know how it will affect a non-believer, I guess I have to wait for my brother to read it. But for a believer, it just crystallizes your beliefs in the supernatural. The idea of God, Energy, Meditation, Mysticism, Intuition, Miracles, and all similar supernatural beliefs become much stronger. And these beliefs are necessary for a magical life.

In this ordinary life, it is the belief in extraordinary that makes life seem beautiful. It’s like love, you suddenly start looking at the world with rosy lenses. Your expectations from everything and even from yourself change. I am still ambitious and still a regular employee, but now I no more believe in linearity. I now realize life is all about either exponential, linear, or a horizontal line depending on what you expect from it.

Has my life changed after the autobiography of a yogi, have I initiated on the yogic path? Not exactly. But now with a different lens to see life, many of my problems have evaporated. I now have more creative and impossible solutions at hand.

I was since a long time on the path of Law of Attraction, Meditation, and Positivism, this book just got me deeper and stronger in this direction.

Steve jobs had read it every year. I may not do that. But once in a while, I may open any page of the book to stay in touch with my newly founded beliefs.