Book Review of 'WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON'

Book- WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON

Authors- JOHN GREEN & DAVID LEUITHAN

Pages-308

BLURB-

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high-school stage.

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK-

To begin with the title, the title depicts a name and they are basically two names of two different person but ironically the name of both the individuals that the authors described in the novel is the same. 

The story goes along the narratives of Will Grayson who is straight, the other Will Grayson, who is depressed and Tiny Cooper (the world’s largest person who is really, really gay). Tiny is putting up a musical ‘Tiny Dancer’ for which he is very much energetic and optimistic about.

After reading the first few chapters I was so much confused thinking what was actually going on in this book. Because as you go on you will get to know there are two Will Grayson. And it’s difficult to keep a tract of who is who.

 It starts with them not knowing each other until their paths inevitably converge the night the first Will Grayson went to meet Isaac, his online friend but ended up meeting the Other Will Grayson(o.w.g)  and Tiny Cooper.

You can differentiate the two Will Grayson in this way. For one of them, the letters are small without any capitalization like-

me: i’m glad that you exist

tiny:  i’m glad to be existing with right now.

me: you have no idea how wrong you are about me.

tiny: you have no idea how wrong you are about yourself.

me: stop that.

tiny: only if you stop it.

me: i’m warning you.

While in the other Will Grayson, the words are capitalized, like this-

‘Five hundred channels and nothing’s on’

‘You get the day off?’ I ask.

‘I can always get someone to cover’ he says. ‘Always’

‘I’m okay,’ I say.

‘I know you are. I just wanted to be home with you, that’s all.’

I blink out some tears, but Dad has the decency not to say anything about it.

This is one way of differentiating Will Grayson from the other Will Grayson.

This generation knows the perks and curse of the internet unknown and fake social media which in the novel is pointed out. O.W.G(Other Will Grayson) is also shown how he ends up heartbroken knowing that his internet friend, Isaac was actually Maura. While the first Will Grayson’s love life is set up by his friend Tiny to Jane Turner.

Will Grayson after knowing that Maura was Isaac, stopped talking and paying any attention to her. although she came and begged and apologized to him, he didn’t pay any heed. But at the near ending of the novel, Will goes up to Maura and says that ‘look. i just want you to know that while i still think what you did was completely shitty to you, too. not in the elaborately shitty way that you were to me, but still pretty shitty. i should have just been honest with you and told you i didn’t want to talk to you or be your boyfriend or be your best friend or anything like that. i tried—i swear i tried. but you didn’t want to hear what i was saying, and i used that as an excuse to let it go on.’ ‘It wasn’t you I liked. It was Isaac’.

In this book, the authors used the trial and error thing so nicely that it really makes sense. In a part where the two Will Grayson were talking to each other, one of them says that ‘In my recent experience, I’d say hurt tends to drown out sorry.’ To which the other Will says that ‘I guess there’s a reason they don’t call it ’trial and success’.It’s just try-and-error’.

But then, somehow this trial and error is pessimistic and maybe that’s what it is most of the time. And that’s how you find ‘it’. Like try-error-try-error-it or may be try-error going on for 15 more times and then you get ‘it’. (it- meaning what you really want)

Tiny Cooper ties the lives of the two Will Grayson in the end which makes him a hero

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This book is a book about love in all its forms. About falling in love, about falling out of love, about loving your family, your friends, about realizing that love does not equal sex and its okay to love platonically; it is about acceptance, love for oneself. Even if you are a gay or the biggest fat guy.   

P.S- This book describes about the things a teenager guy faces being a straight or a gay whichever he is.

P.S.S- I can’t say whether you would like this book or not because it truly depends if you are able to understand the authors point of view.

Overall Rating: 3.6/5

Book Review Of- 'LIFE'S AMAZING SECRETS'

BOOK- LIFE’S AMAZING SECRETS

AUTHOR- GAUR GOPAL DAS

PAGES-208

BLURB:

While navigating their way through Mumbai’s horrendous traffic, Gaur Gopal Das and his wealthy young friend Harry get talking, delving into concepts ranging from the human condition to finding one’s purpose in life and the key to lasting happiness.

So whether you are looking at strengthening your relationships, discovering your true potential, understanding how to do well at work or even how you can give back the world, Gaur Gopal Das will take you on an unforgettable journey with his precious insights on these areas of life.

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK:

Well, to begin with Gaur Gopal Das, I got to know him from one of his videos which was shared by one of my friend on facebook. And that was how I got to know this man. His lectures are amazing and his speeches are graceful. 

‘Experience is not what happens to a man, it is what a man does with what happens to him.’ It’s how we respond that makes all the difference. If there is one possession we have that is the most valuable and can truly transform our lives completely, it is our free will. We are the authors of our own life stories. Challenges and difficulties may fall upon us, just as the monsoon rains fall upon our head. They just come our way and we must choose how to respond.  This book is a pure motivation book, you can also call it a self-help book. It not only teaches you about your situations of life but also motivates you to take a step of your own.

Each chapter in this book start with a quotation, and that is one of the plus points of making it more attractive. Attractive always doesn’t mean fancy words or sketches; simple words and brevity are attractive too.

The entire book revolves around Harry, his wife and the author himself. This book talks about privilege, miscommunication, anger, journey, gratitude, distress, worry, spiritual practice, speaking sensitively and many more.

One of my most favourite part in this book-

People want to be the best, sometimes at any cost. When there are limited recourses and many takers, competition is natural. This is found in all domains of life. From music to sport and even of owning possessions. Competition is a tendency that occurs in nearly every ecosystem in nature.

But human beings are not just another species. They have the ability to cooperate and subscribe to higher values such as harmony, loyalty and trust. We compete with people who have the same skills or outlook in life as us. An engineer competes with another engineer, a musician with another musician and a doctor with another doctor. When another person’s skills have no bearing on our life, we really feel threatened. But if someone can outperform us by doing better in what we aspire to do, the base tendencies of competition can settle in.

We should imbibe the thought pattern of self-competition, rather than feeling insecure about others going ahead. We should be striving to do our very best to realize our dreams about our future selves. Not only will this help is keeping the mind free from insecurities but also this will help in becoming a better version of our own selves.

This book also talks about  one of the Japanese concept of Ikigai, which is understood to mean ‘a reason to live’ or may be having a purpose in life.

The author points out one more concept in this book which is ‘The ice cream, and the candle’. The ideology behind ice-cream is that: enjoy your life before it melts. It symbolizes hedonism; to savour every moment of the life through personal enjoyment. On the other hand, the candle symbolizes to give light before it melts. Both ice-creams and candles melt, but their reason for doing so are completely different. The candle is formed from wax. Its very essence is burnt to give light for other people to see. This is the selfless nature of a candle.

Some of the things that we can learn from the book-

-Do what you wish for, even when you know there will be fingers pointed at you for that.

-Do what makes you happy because you cannot make each and everyone happy.

-Do what makes you feel complete, because it will give you satisfaction.

Some of the quotations I liked the most-

•          ‘Truth is, I’ll never know all there is to know about you, just as you will never know all there is to know about me.’
•           ‘Forgiveness is a deep and often obscure value to understand.’
•           ‘It is strange that swords and words have the same letters. Even more strange is that they have the same effect if not handled properly.’
•           ‘When things are beyond your control and there is nothing you can do, why worry?’
•           ‘Having a friend to listen to your problems and discuss them with you is the beginning of finding a solution.’

Life is a challenge and yes, it is us who are at the charge of our own lives. Discover the secrets of your life and learn how to find balance and purpose in your life. Nobody is going to live your life for you. Just enjoy your life before it melts away.

Love your dear ones and tell them how much you love them because you don’t have the entire life for confessing it. Life is now, life is here. So don’t waste it and savour each and every moment of it…

P.S.- I just told Rashi di that I want to read this book and now here it is, in my hand. Thank you so much for this book.

P.S.S.- This book is just as amazing as its title. Read the book and I bet you won’t regret.

Overall rating- 4.8/5

Book Review Of 'All The Bright Places'

Book- All The Bright Places

Author- Jennifer Niven

Pages- 392

*Trigger- The story of a girl who learns to live from a boy who wants to die.

The story starts at the Bell Tower of the high school Finch was studying in. Finch, full name Theodore Finch starts his day thinking Is it a good day to die? Every morning he wakes up, this is the first thing he thinks.

Standing as high as a narrow ledge of six stories above the ground, he was thinking if it’s the time for him. He opens his eyes and the ground is still there, hard and permanent. Standing on the ledge of about four inches wide, he saw a girl on the bell tower when the guy from the ground turned his head from Finch towards another direction. That’s all it took for him to change his mind. She was Violet Markey

Mr. Embry was the counselor of Finch. He called him Embryo, (not loud enough that it can be heard but yes, in his mind). At the beginning, Finch needed to go once a week to Mr. Embry but later on that turned into twice a week. Monday and Friday.

Mrs. Marion Kresney, school counselor of Bartlett High was the one to whom Violet needed to go every Friday. Although she used to go there, the things she spoke there was a complete lie.

In school, the news of Violet, who by then became the hero for saving the life of Finch spread like a wildfire. Although it was the other way round, but it became a sensational issue among the students and also the teachers who took it as the truth and no one corrected them.

Mr. Black teaches U.S. Geography and it was then he was taking about the ‘Wander Indiana’  section Finch raised his hand and suggested for something-A field trip to see the wondrous sights of Indiana. Mr. Black thought it was appropriate and gave the class a project wherein they have to make a report on at least two, preferable  three wonders of Indiana. And, they were supposed to work in teams. A team of two. When Mr. Black just finished his sentence, Finch raised his hand again and asked if they can choose their partners. The answer was ‘Yes’. And the next thing he said was I choose Violet Markey.

Finch tries to find Violet on Facebook. He went to Amanda Monk’s page first thinking he might be able to get Violet’s profile from there. And he pulls up her friend list, typing in ‘Violet’. Desperate to know more about her, he Google searched Who is Violet Markey. Instead of knowing more about her, what he pulls from the Google search is EleanorandViolet.com which lists Violet as cocreator/editor/writer. The next thing he pulls up from the search is a news article-

Eleanor Markey, 18, a senior Bartlett High School and member of the student congress, lost control of her car on A Street Bridge at approximately 12:45 am. April 5. Icy conditions and speed may have caused the crash. Eleanor was killed on impact. Her 16-year-old sister, Violet, a passenger in the vehicle, sustained only minor injuries.

After reading the news article, he sign up for Facebook just so that he can send he a friend request. When at night he logged in to Facebook, there was a notification. Violet Markey accepted your friend request. From that night onward they started chatting over the project they were into. The Indiana wanders.

Through the course of the Indiana wander project, Finch and Violet catched up often to decide the places they would like to make a visit for their report. And it was during that time they bonded well with each other. After the death of Eleanor, Violet was left broken. She thought it was her fault, the entire thing that happened with Eleanor. When Finch asked her to tell him about the accident, Violet told that, that night, Eleanor and Eli Cross had a fight after which they left the party. It was her who told Eleanor to take the A Street Bridge and then once they were on that road, Eleanor told that she can’t hold on and that was how it happened.

After they started with the project, Finch took Violet to places she had never been before. They went to a place where a giant chalkboard in which people wrote what they wanted to do before they die. Finch picked up the chalk and wrote ‘before I die I want to play guitar like Jimmy Page. Come up with a song that will change the world. Find the Great Manifesto. Count for something. Be the person I’m meant to be and have that be enough. Know what it’s like to have a best friend. Matter.’ After sometime, Violet placed her hand on the chalkboard and wrote ‘Stop being afraid. Stop thinking too much. Fill the holes left behind. Drive again. Write. Breathe.’ Violet used to write about the places they have visited in a notebook  and keep a note of the place they have wandered. All the places and along with it all the memories with Finch too.  

Finch was the guy who helped Violet to get into a car and then let her drive a car all by herself (because she left getting inside one after Eleanor died). Finch helped Violet to get a life of her own. Finch gave Violet a hope that life doesn’t ends when people do. Finch was a motivation for Violet that made her live her life. But what about Finch? Was it the same for him? The guy who wanted to die every day (the guy whose first thought used to be if today was the day for him to die), will he be able to survive the conditions of his life?

For me, Finch as a character was cool, crazy and always-there-for-you kind of guy who made me belief that Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect actually exists but then later on confessed that it was an April fool’s joke. I liked his sense of humor.

Finch’s parents were divorced a year back and Finch sees him once a week.  And the worst thing is his father is married to a lady who is half his age, Rosemarrie, and has a son who is so small that he doesn’t look like he is the child of his father. For him the time spent at his father’s new home where he lives with his new wife and his small son is the worst time for him.

If you note the thing in the book you will notice that Finch was depressed from the beginning of the story although the ingress of Violet in his life made him momentary happy, Violet on the other hand was depressed too, but Finch helped him to get out of that. Eleanor’s accident thing.

The saddest part in the book is the death of Finch. I wish I could have saved him.

The project of Indiana wanders remained incomplete when he died but Violet decided to finish the wanders and went on alone with the car of her mom.  When Violet completed all the places she needed to travel, in the last wanders, she got an envelope where her name was written on it ‘Ultraviolet Remarkey-able’. She pulled the envelope and took out three sheets of thick staff paper, one covered in musical notes, the other two covered in words that look like lyrics.

You make me happy,

Whenever you’re around I’m safe inside your smile,

You make me handsome,

Whenever I feel my nose just seems a bit too round,

You make me special, and God knows I’ve longed to be

That kind of guy to have around,

You make me love you,

And that could be the greatest thing my heart was ever fit to do…

You make me lovely, and it’s so lovely to be lovely

To the one love…

You make me happy…

You make me special…

You make me lovely…

At the end of the story, you will get to know that before Violet visited the places that were left by both of them to travel together, to make a report on, it was not the quest that was completed by Violet alone. Before Finch died,  he visited all the places they were to visit and left something behind so that Violet would get to know that he was once there.

 This book isn’t about just the story of Finch and Violet. It is a story of many of us.  It somehow teaches us that we are broken. We all are. At some point or other in life. We are shattered. We lose hope. But that’s life and that’s how we have to make our self strong  and moving.

P.S.- Thank you Angaihi for letting me read this book J

P.S.S- It is a great book but again, it depends on the taste of your books . (Don’t read it if you are depressed, instead of feeling good, you will feel more low reading the life of Violet and Finch)

Overall rating- 3.8/5

Book Review of 'Chokher Bali'

Book- Chokher Bali

Author- Rabindranath Tagore

Translated by Radha Chakravarty

Pages- 384

‘Chokher Bali’ as the title suggests means ‘grain of sand in the eye’. Being a Bengali novel, the title is quite captivating. In the story while Binodini and Asha became friend,  Binodini asked Asha what name she wanted to keep for their friendship. Asha named Ganga water, Bakul blossoms and several other auspicious items. But Binodini considered them as outdated and less affectionate. That was when she suggested ‘Chokher Bali’, a constant irritant as to name their friendship. Though it felt abusive to hear, Asha accepted this abusive term of endearment for the sake of their friendship

.

The story starts with Binodini’s mother appealing Mahendra’s mother to consider a match between their children. Both of their mother were once childhood playmates in the same village. After plenty of pleads by Mahendra’s mother when Mahendra’s refused the subject of marriage his mother became gloomy. To please his mother he decided to see the girl once and then refused himself from seeing saying what’s the use when he is going to marry her only to please his mother.  With a carefree mind, Mahendra’s mother fixed the date of their marriage and as the days approached, Mahendra became more and more anxious and just a few days before the marriage he declared that he can’t go through with it (he refused to marry).

Written more than a century ago I wonder how amazing a writer Tagore was. Going through his work for the first time I grew more and more drawn towards this book.

Bihari was Mahendra’s close friend. And as there was no alternative, Mahendra’s mother asked him to fulfill this duty of marrying the girl. But, joining his hands in supplication, Bihari told that’s the one thing he can’t do. Bihari considered Rajalakshmi (Mahendra’s mother) his mother and addressed her as Ma.

Finally, Binodini got married to a fellow villager from her birthplace (which was suggested by Mahendra’s mother). But not long after, the girl became widow.  

Three years later, Mahendra’s mother told him that, it’s her, people blame for not letting Mahendra to get married for the fear of losing him to the bride.  Mahendra laughed off the topic but he continued saying to his mother after a pause that a wife takes over a man’s whole life upon arrival and then the mother who has lavished so much care and affection on her son is forced to step aside.  He didn’t wanted to marry for the fear that his wife will supersede his mother.

Mahendra’s Kaki and his mother often had fights on small-small issues and the fact that Mahendra’s kaki had no one by her side she weeps her sorrows alone. Mahendra inwardly gets hurt when his mother taunts her and makes her feel ashamed.

Mahendra’s Kaki had an orphaned niece, whom she hoped to wed to Mahim (Mahendra) just with a thought that she would be able to keep her own sister’s daughter close to herself and see her happy. Looking at his Kaki’s face who was sitting by the open window of her room, her head resting against the iron grill, Mahendra’s heart was filled with pity. After the meal, he went to his Kaki to ask her if she would allow him to see her niece once. Annapurna (Mahendra’s Kaki) was amazed and asked Mahendra if he is inclined towards marriage but he said he has persuaded Bihari for the marriage.

Later, the two friends went to see the girl. Ashalata (Asha)was barely twelve or thirteen years old.

Mahendra who went with Bihari to see the match for his friend, liked the girl and persuaded Bihari to let him marry the girl. Bihari though, departed without raising any objections himself liked the girl and found no reason not to marry.

Later the unfulfilled desire in Kakima’s heart was fulfilled when Mahendra got married to Asha and she came as a bride of Mahedra in the house. Although Mahendra’s mother raised an objection saying that if he married the girl he will have no prospect of enjoying a relationship with the in-laws (since Asha was an orphan). But Mahendra resolved it by saying the he won’t regret the lack of social interaction with his in-laws but he really desires to marry the girl.

After marriage, Asha was found not to be well versed in domestic skills and thus her mother in law drained her energy in learning the daily chores of the house. Mahendra saw his wife everyday drained out after the heavy works of the day. Sometime he used to quarrel with his mother for letting his wife do such works. Mahendra took out time and made his wife learn how to read and write. Mahendra failed in his medical exam that year.

After the long span of verbal abusing by Mahendra to his mother, his mother decided to go to her birthplace for sometime where  Bihari accompanied her throughout her journey and stay. She arrived Barasat her birthplace where Binodini, the widowed girl came to mitigate and serve Mahendra’s mother (her Pishima). When it was sometime of her stay there, Mahendra’s mother decided to go back to Kolkata. Binodini who found her solace in serving her Pishima had an outburst of emotion since she had no one to serve and live with. Later while they were returning to Kolkata (Mahendra’s mother and Bihari) they took Binodini with them to live along with them.

Binodini was a well versed lady in all kind of domestic skills. Mastery came naturally and easily to her and she had no qualms about setting the domestic staff to work, rebuking them or ordering them about. She likes doing things herself without any help or assistance freely. At first Asha was jealous of the way Binodini used to manage all the work alone but later they became good friends.

As days went by, Mahendra began to get attracted towards Binodini while Binodini started having a huge respect towards Bihari. And Asha without any notice about the changes in the attitude of Mahindra kept on going with the daily chores of work.

Later Mahendra’s Kakima leaves for Kashi leaving the worldly attachment.

Binodini creates a gap in the pure relationship between Mahendra and Asha through the letters she had written to Mahendra during Asha’s absence (when Asha went to Kashi to meet her Mashima for some days)

The story contains many untold revelations which you can discover yourself after reading the book.

The advice given to Asha by her Mashima when she was leaving for Kashi was one of the realistic advice I would like to share, which is - If you wish to be happy don’t cling to all your memories. The pain dwelling on the wrongs done to us by other people far exceeds the little bit of pleasure we derive from condemning others for their guilt.

If you can’t forget you will keep alive the memories of other people too. Even if you can’t accomplish this of your free own will, take it as an order.

The story depicts the pureness of a bond and along with it the acceptance of the orders laid by the elders. Marriage is a bond which not only is sacred by the vows taken during the seven pheras of the fire but also a bond of trust and respect throughout the journey of the married life.

P.S.- This book is written more than a century ago and thus the virtue and the way the book is written is different from the modern day.

Overall rating- 4/5

Book Review of 'Many Life, Many Masters'

Book- Many Lives, Many Masters

Author- Dr. Brian Weiss

Pages- 218

Blurb-

Psychiatrist Dr. Brian Weiss had been working with Catherine, a young patient, for eighteen months. Catherine was suffering from recurring nightmares and chronic anxiety attacks. When his traditional methods of therapy failed, Dr. Weiss turned to hypnosis and was astonished and skeptical when Catherine began recalling past-life traumas which seemed to hold the key to her problems.

Dr. Weiss’s skepticism was eroded when Catherine began to channel messages from ‘the space between lives’, which contained remarkable revelations about his own life. Acting as a channel for information from highly evolved spirit entities called the Masters, Catherine revealed many secrets of life and death.

This fascinating case dramatically altered the lives of Catherine and Dr. Weiss, and provides important information on the mysteries of the mind, the continuation of life after death and the influence of our past life experiences on our present behavior.

My take-

We all know that there is a reason for everything. Perhaps moment that an event occurs we have neither the insight nor the foresight to comprehend the reason, but with time and patience it will come to light.

The author states the story as a true life event between a patient (named Catherine) and himself and the regression therapy (that can be also used as an anonymous to hypnosis in the book). Regression therapy basically is a technique that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories or past lives or incarnations. It holds that as a person moves through life, they collect memories that are then stored in the mind. Even though the subconscious memories are not able to be accessed, regression therapy believes they can still have a significant impact on a person’s development and ability to function in daily life.

Catherine was having anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias for which she came seeking help to Dr.Weiss. Although these symptoms had been with her since childhood, in the recent past they had become much worse. Every day she found herself more emotionally paralyzed and less able to function and she was terrified and understandably depressed.

The author (Dr. Weiss) had grown up in a loving home and had a good stable marriage. Two young children, and a flourishing career.

Dr. Weiss, after hearing from Catherine about her problems, used conventional methods of therapy for the first eighteen months, and then when nothing seemed to work, he tried hypnosis.  In a series of trance states, Catherine recalled ‘past-life’ memories that proved to be the causative factor of her symptoms. She also was able to act as a conduit for information from highly evolved ‘spirit- entities’, and through them she revealed many of the secrets of life and of death. In just a few short months, her symptom disappeared, and she returned to her life, happier and more at peace than ever before.

The story is the conversation between Catherine and Dr. Weiss from the stack of audio tapes that he had made during the sessions with Catherine.  

When the author asked Catherine about the things in her life, isolated memory fragments emerged. When she was about five years old, she had panicked when someone had pushed her off a diving board into a swimming pool. She said that even before that she however never felt comfortable in water. When Catherine was eleven, her mother had become severely depressed and her strange withdrawal from the family necessitated visits to a psychiatrist with ensuring electroshock treatments. These treatments had made it difficult for her mother to remember things. This experience with her mother frightened Catherine, but, as her mother improved she became herself again. Catherine said that her fear dissipated. Her father had a long standing history of alcohol abuse and sometimes her brother had to retrieve their father from the local bar. Her father’s increasing alcohol consumption  led to having frequent fights at home and she viewed this as an accepted family pattern.

Through the regression therapy (hypnosis) Dr. Weiss was able to know about the past life of Catherine (and what shocked me was to realize the fact that she lived 86 times in physical form. Can you believe that?) There were memories of some sort, but from where? The authors reaction was of amazement. He knew very little about reincarnation and past lives. He thought it couldn’t be but the fact was that he couldn’t deny the reality of it either.

Catherine was born with different names in different places at different period of time (one was 1568 BC as far as I can recall) and what was more strange is that she remembers everything from her past lives.

Through the hypnotic session Dr. Weiss got to know many facts and information which he had never had otherwise known. Catherine was able to tell Dr. Weiss about the death of his grandfather and his boy child (although Dr. Weiss have never revealed any information about himself to her. Just imagine someone who knows about your past, whom you have never met before and to whom nobody has shared your detail with. How would you feel? For me I will get Goosebumps for sure and maybe i'll just run as fast as i can from that person?)

Moreover, the book also contains certain sections where the Master spirit speaks in Catherine’s regression therapy (the voice of which can be clearly differentiated from hers). There are many Master spirits who teaches us at different period of our life. There are many lessons taught by the Master spirit in the book and the one I liked the most is-  

 ‘Patience and timing, everything comes when it must come. A life cannot be rushed, cannot be worked on a schedule as so many people want it to be. We must accept what comes to us at a given time, and not ask for more. But life is endless, so we never die; we were never really born. We just pass through different phases. There is no end. Humans have many dimensions. But time is not as we see time, but rather in lessons that are learning.’

There are many state we go through according to what Catherine describes- State of renewal, and three others (Catherine describes only two states and says that she didn’t experiences the other two states and she can’t tell what the other two states were) Catherine also describe the in between state between life and death and beyond. The experience with Catherine brought Dr. Weiss a force to write this book.

After the termination phase of the psychotherapy, Catherine made an appointment for Dr. Weiss again. This time only to share with him about a well known psychic- astrologer who was specialized in reading past life. Catherine was surprised that Iris Saltzman (the psychic astrologer) was able to tell about her past life to a great extent. What Catherine had arrived at through hypnotic regression, Iris had reached through psychic channels. Very few would be able to do what Iris did. Although hypnotic therapy helped Catherine in a great deal that she could live her life carefree and being herself once more, she was amazed by knowing the relation of psychic channel with her past lives.

The book truly described the effectiveness of hypnotic therapy. Although anti-anxiety, tranquilizers or even anti depressants could be used to treat the symptoms of Catherine, but, when nothing worked, regression therapy did which revealed the things that could be read in detail in the book. (Somehow at some point of time I felt it is exaggerated. But again the feeling that what if it really happened stuck me.)

To those who what to know about the past life therapy, this book can be your guide, with all the details between the therapist and the patient.

P.s.- It is a great book if you like real life stories.

Overall rating- 4/5

Book Review of 'Love Lasts Forever... only if you don't marry your love'

Book-  Love lasts forever… only if you don’t marry your love

Author- Vikrant Khanna

Pages-248

BLURB-

 Eighteen-year-old Ronit falls madly in love with Aisha the moment he meets her at his graduation day from a naval college. He believes he has found his perfect soul mate, and come what may, his love for her will last forever. Seven years later, he gets married to her. Big mistake! A week later, he completely hates her and believes she has turned into a devil.

But his perception about love and life changed when he hears the poignant love story of Shekhar, his Captain, on a ship that later gets hijacked by the pirates of Somalia.

As they are left fighting for their lives they confront if love truly can last forever…? But does it get too late?

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK-

 Love lasts forever…only if you don’t marry your love as the title suggest is a book wherein the author describes where lack of understanding after marriage can lead to.

The storyline is simple with few characters, Joe Singh, from the early days that Ronit had known him, he’d always been easy going and carried himself with aplomb. They were friends for more than a decade and first met at a school in Delhi. Joe Singh’s uncle was a Captain, earned loads of money, traveled all over the world and bought properties in Mumbai every year. It was pretty much then both of them decided and made an irrevocable decision of joining the navy.

 They story starts with Ronit and his Captain Shekhar travelling on the ship towards United Kingdom with fifty thousand tons of crude oil loaded in it from ‘Reliance Jamnagar Marine Terminal’ located in the ‘Gulf of Kutch’ in Sikka port in Gujarat. The en route has the transit through the ‘Gulf of Aden’- a piracy infested area near Somalia that scares the living daylights out of all seafarers.

There in the ship, Ronit thinks that getting married was the worst decision of his life. He was in love for seven years before making that horrible decision and since then love has been nose diving and now he doesn’t even likes that girl a bit. He planned to divorce her after completing the tour of three months in the sea.

Graduation day was the day where he found the love of his live. He fell in love with Priyank’s sister Aisha. Back there in his naval college, Priyank has been forever teased by the name Priyanka for his feminity in his voice, gait, stance and everything. 

They used to queue up for the fall-in where all the cadets stand in a line like donkeys and a head count was taken to ensure no one was missing. And if anyone was missing he had to run the entire length of the campus thrice, that was three kilometers three times making it a mighty nine kilometers. On the graduation day, everyone had turned up for the fall-in, afterall it was the last one. After the fall-in, they proceeded to a bigger ground where the passing out ceremony was planned amidst huge pomp and show.

 Priyank had been a pretentious person in the entire time they have spent in the naval college. Also, he always had to be the best and excel in whatever he did. Perhaps, to make up for his feminine image. Be it in studies, completing assignments, finishing his meals, waking up in the morning, reporting to the fall-in, the list was endless. Even at the Graduation ceremony, he was the topper of his batch.

Looking back at the time, Ronit recalled how they have had fun with Priyanka (Priyank) during their days at the college. Ronit shares a incident which costs him back for a lifetime.  One night, he and Joe tip toed to his room while he was asleep, undid his pyjamas, and then squeezed the entire toothpaste to the bottom till it covered the entire area and then the next day, Priyank was late in the fall-in and was given a punishment to run the entire campus three times.(That was one of the hilarious thing I've ever come across. Tooth paste! seriously?)

After the ceremony, they (Joe Singh and Ronit) congratulated Priyank for his achievement  when Priyank introduced them to his family. Then and there, he felt a hundred needles run up back to his neck.

Ronit passed on a tissue paper to Aisha on which he had scribbled something-

‘I don’t know if I’ve been searching for true love,

Or waiting for it to come knocking to my door,

But the moment I rested my eyes on you,

I’ve found what I’ve been looking for, and never want to let it go.

Soon they began dating ad after seven long years of dating each other, Aisha accepted Ronit’s proposal of getting married. Luckily their parents accepted and Priyank  didn’t play a spoilsport in this. Despite torturing him in the naval college, he let him marry his sister happily but not without the revenge of playing toothpaste game with him. (Yes! Ronit too went through the same. I recalled this phrase while reading it, What you sow so shall you reap)

After marriage, things started changing. Aisha was not the same or may be Ronit was not the same. They started arguing over little thing. They created issues which could have been resolved by them. May be they forgot that they have to live with the entire family and not just the two of them.

There are certain phases in life where we need to mold ourselves and adjust with the situations of the present. Ronit and Aisha didn’t care about the adjustment and went on quarreling on each and every matter. Two weeks of the marriage and they can’t tolerate each other. (Is it the way? They could have been considerate) Starting a new life with each other needs patience, trust, understanding and adjustment. Without which you can’t actually live happily. That was the main problem with both of them.

Well in the book, the cupid was the Captain who helped Ronit to understand about the meaning of love debating over the definition of love which has been lost with the newer generations. 

The entire book contains the story of the captain and his life and the tragic moment of his life when within few months of his marriage he had to divorce his wife. Only later he had known the fact that Shikha (Captain’s wife) died due to brain tumor. Sikha didn’t wanted Shekhar to know what she was suffering from. She didn’t wanted him to suffer along with her. She just wanted him to move on and find happiness in his life.

Meanwhile, the ship gets hijacked and few crew members among them were shot and beaten to death while one was put on fire alive. 

Ronit, Captain and few others were set free form the captivity of the pirates after their demands were fulfilled (Do they need anything other than money ever?)

One thing I liked the most of this book is the title and the ending. Both of them are ambiguous. Opposite from each other. The title says ‘Love lasts forever… only if you don’t marry your love’ while in the ending the authors ends it beautifully with the note that ‘I’ve realized now that love can definitely last forever even if you marry your love’.

P.s.- It's a good choice if you want a light read. 

Overall rating- 3/5

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Book Review of 'Being Mortal'

Book- Being Mortal; Medicine and What Matters in the End
Author- Atul Gawande
Pages- 282

Being mortal is about the struggle to cope with the constrains of our biology, with the limits set by genes and cells and flesh and bone. Medical science has given us remarkable power to push against these limits. But again and again, the damage we see in medicine when failed to acknowledge such power is finite and always will be.

There are some people who know what losing someone means. What it feels like watching a person die each day. How it stirs our soul seeing them in pain. How we want them to live normally again, without any pain, without any sufferings. There are some countries having Euthanasia in their policy wherein, slowly the person would be drifted towards death withdrawing them from the ventilator or by giving them an overdose of morphine or as per their policy guidelines.

The book, ‘Being Mortal’ comprises of stories of many lives which the author has witnessed. Although, the stories the author depicted in the book, none of them could win from the nature. Life is quite unpredictable if you think. People who never have smoked a single cigarette gets cancer while the one who is a chronic smoker lives longer. People who have never had a family history of cancer catch hold of a chronic incurable form of cancer wherein people having history of cancer in their family stays safe. People who have been an active person in youth become quadriplegic and wheel chair bound due to some kind of tumor growing inside the spine which has high mortality rate even if a surgery is performed whereas people with paralysis are slowly drifting towards well being through physical therapy. The continuum of health keeps on drifting towards both positive as well as negative side.

Ruth developed health issues. A lifetime smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, she survived, and kept smoking. Three years after, she had a stroke that she never wholly recovered from. She became increasingly dependent on her husband – for transportation, for shopping, for managing the house, for everything. Then she developed a lump under her arm and a biopsy result revealed metastatic cancer and then at the age of seventy three, she died.

Jewel Douglass, suffered from ovarian cancer wherein she was operated by removing the ovaries and then followed by total hysterectomy. Just when she thought she is well into life, her cancer reappeared. The metastasized fragments of the cancer cells have developed bigger that was causing her problem. The constant bouts of pain, nausea, intestinal obstruction made her difficult to carry on her activities. She didn’t like narcotics because they made her feel drowsy and weak that’s why she was just taking Tylenol. Then after few months, Atul gets a note from Douglass’s daughter which read ‘Mom died on Friday morning. She drifted quietly to sleep and took her last breath. It was peaceful. My dad was alone by her side with the rest of us in the living room. This was such a perfect ending and in keeping with the relationship they shared.’ Thus, she ended her life which she wanted since the inception of this disease.

Sara Thomas who was just thirty four and pregnant with her first child when the doctors learned that she was going to die. It started with a cough and pain in her back. Then a chest X-ray showed that her left lung had collapsed and her chest was filled with fluid. A sample of the fluid was  drawn off with a long needle and send for testing. Instead of an infection, as everyone was suspecting, it was a lung cancer and had already spread to the lining of her chest. The oncologist broke that she had a non-small cell lung cancer that had started in her left lung. Nothing she had done had brought the disease on. More than 15% of lung cancers occur in nonsmokers. Hers was advanced, having metastasized to multiple lymph nodes in her chest and its lining. The cancer was inoperable but there was an option of chemotherapy which she was started with. But, the chemo failed and the lung cancer had spread from the left chest to the right, to the liver, to the lining of her abdomen, and to her spine. Time was running out and later on after successive failure on using three different regimen of chemotherapy, she died.  

Again, howsoever you live a happy life by the progressing old age, a person becomes forced to take assistance. Independence is lost. Willingly or unwillingly a person has to accept what others think is best for him/her instead of the person himself taking a decision himself/ herself. Sometimes old age is a curse and sometimes it is not.  

  

One morning, Alice had a fall while alone in her apartment. She was not found until many hours later when Nan, who was puzzled at not being able to reach her by phone, sent Jim to investigate. He discovered that Alice laid out beside the living room couch, nearly unconscious. There was no explanation for her fall beyond general frailty.

Though the concept of nursing homes and assisted living homes have improved and helped people in getting the care they actually required, family support and home treatment still serves as a satisfaction in old age.

The book Being Mortal not only teaches the importance of time but also the fate of medicine and the limitation of medical studies. No one wants to die with pain. Everyone of us will want to live a happy life without any stress, without any problems, without any diseases or without any insecurities. Although we do not want any of them, Life is tragic and unpredictable. Sometimes it is too late when we learn we have an chronic incurable disease and sometimes it happens that we are lucky enough to get cured of them.

The book also describes about the hospice and palliative care team and the care provided by them to the terminally ill patients so as to provide them as much as comfort as possible.

This book is among one of those books I would like to recommend everyone to read.

Go and grab it if you haven’t read it yet.

P.S.- Depends on the taste you have on books.

Overall rating- 4.5/5