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“Hi my beloved heart, are you listening?”

If ever you wondering whether I have gone nuts, no, I haven’t. I am just following what “The Alchemist” preaches. The book, written by Paul Coelho puts forward the quote “Follow your dreams”. I got the book for just Rs. 195 in exchange for gift vouchers I had with me. I had heard about this book long ago, but I was not into following the dreams that time. Rather I thought its about self-inspirational and motivational theme, the genre which I felt I ‘d never need. But having no other option than to get myself busy with some thing or the other, I starting reading about the alchemist and travelled along with The Boy in his journey.

There are several good quotes in the book, which are thought provoking and which provides the insight into the reality. Till the middle of the book, the quote which lingers around is the one which rhymes like, “When you work towards achieving your dreams, the entire universe conspires to help you to succeed”.For a second, I thought how the universe has helped me in achieving my dreams, when all I see is shattered dreams. Then again I tried to justify whether, what has happened is it what I dreamt of. I still don’t have an answer. Or maybe I am reluctant to accept the fact?

The book also speaks of love as part of the Soul of the world. Most of the religions and their practices speaks of spreading love and to love thyself and others. But I have not liked the way, the love story evolves in the book. The normal boy meets girl-love at first sight-kinda scenarios I can never accept, and I can never believe in it. But I do accept the quote it says, “listen to your heart as it speaks the truth”.

There are many more instances in the book, which makes us reminds of the old wise sayings of our elders. About life, about following our dreams, about reality, about the difficulties to face, about the omens we see, and especially, about relying on our heart and self. The strange thing is this book, as far to me, never portrayed about the emotional conflict and the social aspect we need to follow in the life.

There are many reviews online about this book, which speaks on and on about the inspiring quotes and how the book made an impression on them and all. This review provides some of the quotes provided in the book, while the wikipedia enlists the whole story in the form of summary.

Rating: 8/10

These days, I am interested in management books, which provides more insight into living life more beautifully. I came across many books, some of them which I read, some which I skipped, and some which are halfway. Of all, I liked the most till now, “The Present” by Dr.Spencer Johnson. The current one I have started with is the “Power of Subconscious mind” (will post the review soon once I finish it). There was also another book I recently bought from a book fair, called “FISH for life“.

In almost all books, I feel the first and foremost point advised is to enjoy the present.Make it fun or serious or with full concentration. But whatever it is, enjoy the time each and every moment. You can enjoy it by choosing what to do each moment, whether to help out or be helpful, or do something productive with utmost concentration etc. This somewhat relates to ‘follow your heart’ policy, or rather the subconscious mind (you can also call it intuition I guess). But how does the intuition thoughts get developed? “The Present” book says it all deals with the past.

Decision-making or having certain views rather called as attitude is developed from prior experience or the learned knowledge. Its this attitude or these decisions which makes your present more beautiful. You can find this saying everywhere : ‘learn from the past’. Indeed, every moment, we live comprises of the moments we lived on in the past, and it hits you like anything, creating an emotional turmoil. But its up to us, to choose how to live the current moment. You can brood over thinking over the past and get moody or dull, or you can remind yourself to move forward and work towards the future.

Attitudes can be for the moment you live or for the entire life. Just enjoying the present life will soon make you bored if there are no goals. Now, this goals can be either achieving your dreams, or some tasks you feel you should be completed in near future. This planning for future is not mentioned much in FISH book. Even in any interview, you can find yourself answering the questions of short-term goals and long-term goals. But how do we achieve them? They say you can make a realistic flexible plan to attain your goals. Does that mean some kind of compromise, by the word realistic? I guess it does. But if we were such a master minds to create a plan and follow them shouldn’t we be Gods? I guess that’s where the past experience and knowledge comes into matter.

“The Present” is very simple and does not drag at all. Its a just 100+ pages book which can be finished of within a hour or two by avid readers. For me, it was a simple inspirational book to read in my train journey en route home..

A simple book. I felt it like a film. This story takes place in England. There are two parallel tracks, one is about the love story of Leela and Roger and the other is the problems faced by Leela’s father, Tekchand in the factory he works for. Both tracks are described beautifully and independently by the author. And towards the end, it has a grasping twist which lasts an strong impression in your heart for a while…

I liked the book for the detailed description of the author in simple words of the pain felt by residents living outside India. The small small simple things about India and its land and the traditional living, for which its famous for. The book is written long back I guess, and I can see the reflections of the old traditions and customs of the times of the farmers and landlords. The difficulties in earning for your family doing small jobs abroad and all..

The book also portrays the feelings and emotions of a young girl. A growing woman in her initial stage, struggling with the traditional values and also with her dreams and wishes. Though the place is different, I guess it could be felt by any girl living with the family far from their village home town, say, even in any metro city.

To say as flaws, I did not find any, except that the work trouble may not be liked the present generation, who does not think of the simple village life, but instead prefers to settle abroad…Hence altogether, i would give 8/10 for this sweet novel.

Five point someone and One night@the callcenter are the famous novels of the upcoming author Chetan Bhagat.

Personally i believe, Five point Someone is better than the second book, one night@callcenter.
Five point Someone deals with the story of 3 friends, Hari, Alok and Ryan, studying in IIT, Delhi and their experiences, wat all happened in their life during the 4 years of engineering. How they flunked in studies, and came to the five-point grades, and finally how they come out, the mischievous things they do at iit, the love life of Hari and Neha covers up most of the story.The humor is really practical ones and you feel you can relate the incidents to some in your life. Then at the climax, you may seem some incidents which is really fictional, but you stil can enjoy it.
I would rate this book at 7 to 7.5 out of 10 and hence i went on to read his second book.
One night@ the call center, gave some insights into the work of the call center people, how they struggles to earn money. The difficulties they have to face, what all they have to face from the society for working in a call center, and in that night what all happened to them. The synopsis of the book says they gets a call from God! and yes, this part is really really fictional and unpractical, that we, atleast i couldn’t enjoy climax to the fullest. It leaves us in the middle, asking us, wat did u people expect more from a God’s call..it was just a like a granny story i felt.. Apart from that, it has the comedy as in the first book, but not as like with the college buddies. This book was concentrated on the working people, and hence was more serious kinda book. Actually saying you can consider it as a timepass book, but it gives the truth about how these agents are been tortured in offices, what value they ar given by the society, how they work additionally at night, other than the usual chores of the day.. you can say, the author came out of the iit life, and was trying to peek into the working people.. Overall i would give a rating of 5 to 6 only to this book..
Those who havent read these books, i would suggest the first book is good to read, but the second one, for people like me who read for fun, wont like it..