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 But Binodini considered them as outdated and less affectionate.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

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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

Book Review of 'The Year I Met You'

Book- The Year I Met You

Author- Cecelia Ahern

Pages-416

Jasmine, when she was five years old she learned that she was going to die. Not now. But eventually someday. She learned of her impending death from her older cousin Kevin on the day of her granddad’s funeral.

She was thirty- three when she was terminated from employment, six weeks before Christmas—which is a highly undignified time to let somebody go off employment. She began working as an accountant from the ride age of twenty four and then she shifted to a company which provided financial advice and guidance to individuals wishing to start their own business. Thereafter, she started a startup of building business and sold them once the business was successful.

The job she was being fired, she was a co-founder with Larry. She was thirty-three years old and on a gardening leave for a year, which doesn’t allow her to catch up on another job till her leave was over. This was from the contract of the business when they started it together.

Matt Marshal, DJ on Ireland’s biggest radio station was one of the neighbour of Jasmine, She stalked him every day when he returned back from his work. His show airs from eleven p.m. to one a.m. and receives the highest numbers of listeners of any show on Irish radio. He has been the helm of late night talk shows for the past ten years. Jasmine didn’t know he lived on this street when she moved in, but when she heard the voice travel to her across the road one day, she knew it was him.

Matt Marshal was fired after the New Year’s Eve show that he and his team felt would be hilarious to ring in the new year with the sound of a woman’s orgasm along with a quiz to guess the sound of a fake orgasm from a real orgasm. (Although it was a fake sound make by a woman, it costs his job).

One day, when a call came in her apartment, the number of which is only with Heather (her elder sister who is a year older than her and suffering from Down’s syndrome) and her Dad. She picked up the phone thinking it would be either of them, only to realize it was someone she never actually knew.

Meanwhile Kevin visits her only to make her more comfortable. Kevin was her cousin, but he was adopted and he fell in love with Jasmine right from their childhood and even kissed her in their backyard garden. Jasmine thought Kevin would forget those memories and start with a fresh new start, but, he repeated those words and convinced her that he love her as much as he loved her when they were young.  But she rejects and moves forward.

With the gardening leave going on, she found her hobby in gardening (quite interesting isn’t it? Because gardening leave doesn’t mean you have to start gardening in that leave. Seems Jasmine took it seriously!’  And started to make her garden more presentable when one day, Monday visits her (the one who called her in her apartment). He is from a renowned company which wants to build a new startup for the welfare of people. He described himself as a headhunter for people with capabilities to give them the position they deserve.

Jasmine felt proud of herself because she felt important and somewhat started falling for Monday.

Meanwhile, Matt Marshal’s ‘Paradise City’, the song which can be heard from the other side of the road made jasmine’s heart flutter. Whenever she heard the song, she went near the windowpane to stalk Matt.

One day while she was drunk, she writes a letter to Matt, which she doesn’t recall properly for which she sneaks into his house to get the letter which has been exchanged with the letter his wife gave him.

 

''Dear Matt,

We all have stand-out moments in our lives, periods which influenced small or profound changes in us. I can think of four life-changing moments for me:  the year I was born, the year I learned I would die, the year my mother dies and now I have a new one- the year I met you.

‘I have heard your voice everyday, listened to the unsavory words that formulate your tasteless thoughts and make a judgment on you. I did not like you. But you are proof that you can think you know someone yet never really know them at all. What I have learnt is that you are more, more than what you pretend to be, more than what you believe yourself to be you are less an awful lot of time, but being less has driven people away. I think sometimes you like doing that and I understand that too. Hurt people hurt people.

But when you think no one is listening or when you think no one is paying you any attention, you are so much more. It’s a pity that you don’t believe that yourself, or show the people you love.

The year I met you, I met myself. You should do the same, because I think you will find a good man’’

I am really awestruck after reading the piece of letter Jasmine wrote for Matt. Just imagine a person drunk and writing such a long letter.  Although the story ended with Heather inviting everyone Jasmine knows what she calls it a support group to support Jasmine in whatever she is doing. The story leaves a great impact you know? Like for instance it teaches take a break from your life and know what your hobbies are. What your likes and dislikes are. Take time out for yourself so that you won’t have any grudges for the life afterwards.

The story is predictable if you go on with the flow. But, at a point of time I thought Jasmine would share a bond with Matt (who was already married) but the protagonist fell in love with Monday instead.

The story is great, it has a good start and a good ending and teaches that sometimes it’s okay to just sit idle and think nothing.

Overall rating- 3.5/5

Little Happiness

In three years nothing have changed in this house, the same faded coloured walls, the same ceiling, the same scent of the incense stick lit near the temple. Everything was the same.

Other than the blue coloured drape on the window and the matching bedcover on the bed, which was new, nothing have changed in this house. There was still the same calendar hung in the wall, which I had hung 4 years ago to hide the stain which was mistakenly done by me. Near the door of the living room, the same clothes of Dad was hanging which he used to wear above his clothes at the time of painting. At one corner, bundles of different size of brushes were kept and along with it some petite cans of colours were kept arranged.

Nothing has changed and even Dad was still the same.

After 4 years, today, I reached home. From a busy schedule, I somehow managed to take leave for a few days so that I could visit my hometown. Being in a MNC and working in shifts, it’s a tough work to manage the time. From the last 4 years, this was the first time I came back after I got my job in Tokyo.

My Dad was a painter and my Mom died when I was too small. Even though his income wasn’t sufficient enough for us, he never made me feel that we were poor.

Pratik was one of my best friends in school days. Even though he was rich and he got anything he wished for from his parents, I too was rich in the same way. My shirts were ironed every day. My shoes were polished regularly and my homework’s were completed on time. I never thought that I was poor until one day when Pratik came up to me, when he was shifting to a private school and told “Raj you know what? Your Dad can’t admit you in my private school because you are poor”. I told nothing and kept quite but eventually later I was admitted in the same school in which Pratik was.

Later on, I realized that when I topped in the class or when it was my birthday, Dad used to bring sweets just for me, saying he already ate one. That day I realized that we were poor.

Doing overtime, just to satisfy the fees of my school, he never made me feel that we don’t have anything.

After I finished my graduation and got a job abroad, his happiness knew no bond. We had our dinner at a restaurant that day and he ordered the same thing for himself as mine.

I bought the same spectacles and watch for him after I reached my hometown. I knew he would like it. But he resisted saying he don’t need them. When I insisted him, he came forward and hugged me and kept the things in the cupboard. I know he would keep it preserved and would never use it.

Time kept passing, days went running by and it was my last day at home. I knew Dad was going to miss me badly. May be much more than before. But no matter what, he won’t show it.

We went to one of the finest hotel that day. I ordered the things and waited for the servings. I kept looking at Dad. He had grown old. He was feeling uncomfortable perhaps. I asked him if he was okay, he smiled. I can sense he didn’t like it. His expressions were showing the actuality. After having our food, we came out of the hotel, and then I can notice the wide smile on my Dad’s face looking at the “vada pao” vendor. At that moment I realized that he is happy in this land. With the little happiness in his life, never complaining even a bit and living as normal as possible. Insisting him to come along with me to Tokyo would be inappropriate. I smiled and joined him for the “vada pao”. Life isn’t about the big things you achieve; it’s about the happiness you get in the small little things. That day, I realized that even if you are poor, you can be rich with happiness in your basket. Dad was happy with my success, but was also happy living in the same small village with the little of happiness in his daily life. The next day, I decided to do something in the village for its betterment. To share the knowledge I have gained in these years. Without a second thought, I decided that the best way was to open a school where children’s would be able to learn. As it is said, they are the future of the country. So why not start a little step towards making them a better individual for the future of our country?

Life isn’t static. Find out the things that make you happy and always find time for the things that makes you feel happy to be alive.

Book Review of 'One Life To Ride'

Book- ‘ONE LIFE TO RIDE- A Journey To The High Himalayas’
Author-AJIT HARISINGHANI
Pages-234

Jeremy D’Costa was a successful and polished man of the corporate world. Facial palsy has skewed the symmetry of his own features but he still managed to look benign and handsome. His visiting card said that he was a CEO of a company. But, since his stroke, his work had been taken over by Mr. Desai, his assistant, in what was said to be a purely temporary arrangement until the boss recovered. As a speech therapist, it was obvious to Ajit that the day of his supposed return to his office was a distant dream. His stroke had left him severely handicapped. Aside from the physical disability it has caused to the right half of his body, it had damaged his memory circuits, which store the basic concept of human language and speech.

Six months of speech therapy sessions has helped him regain a portion of his communication abilities, but he still had a long way to go. A man who had been an expert at high-level finance was now just able to add single digit numbers. Brain strokes frequently cause severe disturbances of intellectual functions. Abstract thinking, analytical abilities that processes data, emotional parity and everything that is intimate about personality is altered. Family members find it difficult to come to terms with this new person who has replaced the one they knew.

Mr. Jeremy had two sons both living abroad, so it was his wife, Esther who took the charge of him.

He had been passionate about his BMW and Ajit about his Enfield. So they got along like a bushfire. Six months after the therapy, Mr. Jeremy was leaving Pune for San Francisco to live with his son’s family for a year. A rehab centre, which specialized in treating stroke patients, had agreed to evaluate his case and suggest advanced therapy procedures which had shown promising results in many other similarly afflicted people.

When he last came for the therapy session, he in his broken speech said something to Ajit, ‘What are you… when are you… adventure… do it for me. Motorcycle’ after hearing Mr. Jeremy he smiled and answered saying that he would definitely do it for Mr. Jeremy and for his ownself.
Three days later, just a day before he was to leave for the US, Mr Jeremy D’Costa died in his sleep.

This book is a travelogue which beautifully describes the journey of Mr. Ajit from Pune to the High Himalayas where he went with his Royal Enfield for a lone journey to satisfy his inner craving for travel. His journey to the Leh , Srinagar, Patnitop, Kargil, Khardung La, Hunder, Hermis, Kasol, Baralacha la, Pang, and many such places of the great Himalayas can be lived by reading this book. His stay at different places, the way he describes himself lucky enough for having grey hair, the problems he faced with his motorcycle, and infinite beauty of the high Himalayas is beautifully penned down in this book.

Suggesting everyone who haven’t gone through this book to go for it.

Overall rating: 4/5