The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho’s bestselling novel has continued to inspire and awe readers across the globe. With his books translated in more than 39 languages, he has fascinated readers with his writing which imparts in us a greater understanding of our self and that of the universe. With the hard-hitting and universal truth presented in his book, The Alchemist is surely on my list of ‘Books to Read before You Die’. Here are a few quotes from his famed novel:

At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.
p. 18

There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe.... The soul of the world is nourished by people's happiness.
p. 22

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. (my personal favourite)
p. 22

At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible.They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.

If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise," said the seer. "If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur.
p. 102

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.
p. 130

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
p. 141

What happens once will never happen again. But what happens twice will surely happen a third time.
p. 156


...And that dream, day by day, became less important. May be cause it wasn't really his dream
Don't think about what you've left behind.
If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.
It's not often that money saves a person's life.
It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.
If I am really part of your dream, you will come back one day.
Fatima

May love be your guide in every moment of your life.
As he mused about these things, he realised that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure
The desert takes our dreams away from us, and they don't always return. We know that, and we are used to it. Those who don't return become a part of the clouds, a part of the animals that hide in the ravines and of the water that comes from the earth. They become part of everything... They become the soul of the world.
Fatima

Understanding Harry Potter

Well as you might have guessed from the previous post, I am down with Harry Potter fever. With the last installment of the Harry Potter series and the film based on the fifth book ‘Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix’ releasing one after another, it is a treat for all of Harry Potter fans. Many might depressed about the series coming to an end, but as they say, all good things have to come to an end.

For more than a decade, the bespectacled orphan boy has managed to capture the attention of thousands of readers and has continued to maintain its faithful base of fans. Google the word ‘Harry Potter’ and you will get approximately hits. J.K.Rowling has, in a way, revived the dying habit of reading. Many critics might dismiss this idea, but they themselves have no explanation as to how these books have set a record for themselves. Fans line up since midnight to get the first copy of the latest installment and then they finish it off by reading it for hours at a stretch. In less than a few hours, websites dedicated to Harry Potter carry spoiler warnings for the plot as the fans quite animatedly discuss about the plot and characters.

So I wonder, what is it that endears ‘The Boy who Lived’ and his best buddies- Ron and Hermione, to the readers? At least there is a partial explanation to this. According to a research, the reason for success of books of authors such as Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling lies in the way they use simplicity of language. As many might have noticed, both these authors have used simple, lucid language in their works which triggers certain biochemical reactions which in turn keeps the reader hooked. Simple language has got to do everything with their success.

Another reason for success of Harry Potter is that it presents to us a magical world which is completely different from our ‘Muggle’ world. The author has delved into every tiny detail of Harry Potter’s world which makes it all the more believable. We use the book as an escape from our mundane, mechanical life. How nice it would be if we could summon the remote with one flick of wand! Or we could use a flying broom (I personally would want the Firebolt) to zip off to our destinations, without getting crushed in the local trains. The possibilities are unlimited, provided we give free reign to our imagination. More often than not, I find myself chanting spells, charms and hexes in front of the mirror, in the hope that it might work and then I would be inducted in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I would scan the skies for an owl, conveniently forgetting the bad reputation it enjoys in various cultures.

The emotions in the book are so raw and so human, that you can actually relate to them. Many cried when Sirius Black and Dumbeldore were killed, as if it was their personal loss. Many would ask why one would shed tears over the death of a fictional character. It is because the reader and Harry Potter merge into one whole entity. His problems bother us and we celebrate his victories. It is a source of utmost pleasure to us when we, at least for a few hours, are the hero and by partaking in the adventures, we try to feel the adrenaline rush in our veins. I feel this infuses a new energy in us, which in turn prepares us to face fresh challenges. The author stresses the importance of facing one’s fears and even though we might have many allies in this battle, the final battle will have to be fought by you-alone. And above all it underlines one important fact, always emphasized y the beloved headmaster Dumbledore -nothing is superior to love.

Do you find this idea too churlish? Here are a few lines from ‘Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel-
“Fear is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. So you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.”
Need I say more?

HARRY POTTER FEVER

Ah, finally my net connection is restored, putting an end to my withdrawal symptoms of internet addiction. Phew, I don’t know how I managed to pull through three whole weeks.
As I am writing this entry, a particular incident comes to my mind. This was my first encounter with the so called ‘moral police’.
The scene: my friends and I are waiting for the classes to begin and hence are standing outside the building waiting for someone to open the classroom. The time is 5:30 pm, but the teacher hasn’t come yet.
friend 1 and friend 2 are reading my SMSes with absolute silence. An elderly woman approaches us.
Elderly woman: Can I know why are you standing here?
Friend1: we are waiting for our classes to start.
EW: can I know why do you come so early and wile away your time here?
Me: the class was supposed to start now but the teacher isn’t here yet. We don’t come early; it’s just that the teacher is late.
EW: but you see the problem is that you sit here and pass comments on the boys passing bye. (What?)
(Silence)
Friend2: why should we do that?
Me: we have better things to do Ma’m.
EW: even if you don’t do anything, the boys passing by notice you and they pass comments on you. (OK we will ask them to pass comments on you. HEE HEE. )
Friend1: we can’t help that.
EW: I know that but you see we weren’t so open with boys when we were of your age. (Jealous?)
(Notice where the conversation is going.)
Me: huh?
EW: actually you see I am against these classes. This is a residential area. I m also a teacher (Ah, a moral police with qualifications!)
Friend1, friend2, me: huh?
EW: you see there are certain NORMS of the society that you must follow. (Oh really…….)
Then she leaves, and we were left to think “what was she trying to say?”


We were left quite confused. Let me clarify friend1 and friend2 were girls so there was nothing to bring out the moral police in her(unless of course.. u know.... she thinks otherwise...ahem). And if reading text messages is considered a nuisance, then God save the world. Since when did teachers become so narrow minded?
I bet she is lying but if she is not, then god bless her students.
She is an insult to the community of teachers.
I am still wondering what she was thinking to say such things like that. Maybe I should take her for a tour of my college so that she can share her ‘knowledge’ with the students there. At the end of the day, who the hell is she? Any idea?

Ahem.....

Resolutions don't last long, do they? If anyone has bothered to notice, my weekly entries are no longer weekly. Blame it on my laziness.Hehe.
One more thing. Due to my limited vocabulary, i gave a summary of "Who Moved My Cheese" and not a review. A certain knowlegable friend of mine pointed this out. Bless her.
Anyways, sorry for the goof-up.
As for the posts, they will be coming soon.

Yay!!Yay!! So I will be finally back to college on Monday, and I can’t just wait to meet my friends. Perhaps you might call me abnormal but I simply dislike vacations. A holiday of 2-3 days is fine, but vacations bore me to death.
As you see, I have no luck with trips- whenever one gets planned; it HAS to be cancelled for some reason or another. The end result? Wile away your time at home reading the newspaper for the fifth (or is it sixth) time or the old novel for the nth time. ‘How to spend time’ is one big question in front of me. Life surely becomes hell when you are warming the sofa watching torturous soaps (which I would have never watched during non-vacation days) or spoiling your eyes in front of the PC and accepting some stranger’s friends request on Orkut.
So friends that’s the reason I love going to college, especially when I have decided to BUNK lectures (yes I am going to give it a try) and try not to be some teacher’s pet dog. After all every dog has his day. Woof – Woof to that!
P.S.: There are going to be lots of college fests during February so I am planning to attend maximum number of fests. So keep checking the blog for my reports from the fests.

book review

Book Review
Who moved my cheese? By Dr. Spencer Johnson.
All right I must admit I don’t like those self help books, but I thought I would give this one a try. It was one of those books which don’t tell you to do this or do that, but it accounts the experiences of the author and tells us to choose what we feel is the best. The author has used a story to share his experience.
It goes like this………….
Once upon a time there were four beings in a Maze searching for cheese to feed themselves. Two were mice-Sniff and Scurry and the other two were Littlepeople – Hem and Haw who resembled us humans. Sniff and Scurry used simple trial and error methods to find cheese whereas Hem and Haw used complex, analytical methods, due to which both groups were able to reach a Cheese Station C.
Hem and Haw were so overwhelmed by this discovery that they moved into this comfort zone almost immediately, forgetting one basic thing-nothing ever is permanent. On the other hand, Sniff and Scurry were able to detect the shrinking size of the cheese and were well prepared for any adversity.
Finally the day arrived when the Cheese Station vanished, landing Littlepeople in a soup. Sniff and Scurry on the other hand put on their running shoes and left in search of greener pastures. Hem and Haw who were quite baffled by this loss just kept on asking “why did this happen to us?” and kept asserting “I do not deserve it”, unable to accept the fact that change is the only thing permanent in life. They waited and waited but there was no cheese, which added up to their frustration.
Sniff and Scurry by that time had found a New Station N which had all kinds of cheese. They profited because they dared to venture out of their comfort zone. Haw had by that time become restless and finally left searching for new cheese, scared and apprehensive and without his companion. When he was scared he asked himself “what would I have done if I had not been afraid?” and he found the way. After a while he joined Sniff and Scurry at New Station N, relishing the cheese. Hem on the other hand simply refused to budge due to his rejection of change.
Here cheese symbolizes the thing we desire-money, fame, social status, etc. Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw represent the 4 types of people in our society. The decision is left entirely to us to become either one of them and adapt ourselves to the changing times. After all change is the only permanent thing in the world.
Explained in simple language, this one is a must-read for those who find it difficult to cope with the changing business environment and also for those Hems to become Haws.

oh yes i forgot to add.......

you can comment on my blog on orkut also.
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=8186126046083980570
thanks and do reply.

some facts of life

“Walk towards the setting sun or towards the rising sun, walk on the banks of rivers, walk where the cool breeze is playing and you will find yourself in tune with nature, in harmony with the universe.”
-----------Swami Ram Tirtha.
There are times when nature simply leaves you speechless and you have absolutely no means to express yourself. I recently had the experience of being so close with nature.
The place was Swapnanagari, 20 minutes from Panvel. I left for Swapnanagari early morning, enjoying the cool breezes that hit me while sitting in the six seater, locally called as ‘tum-tum’ or ‘dukkar gadi’.The calm in the air was broken by the continuous humming of the engine.
When I reached there, I first went to a temple and prayed hard.
I looked around and was simply taken by the sheer beauty surrounding me. How can the air be so pure that you feel a burst of energy every time you inhale?
I walked bare feet on the grass trying to restore the sensation in my legs. The day couldn’t have been more beautiful—cloudy with the sun occasionally breaking through the clouds accompanied by a cool breeze. There was a small river flowing by and when I could hear the sound of water flowing, I realized how quiet it was. No really I am not faking it, I could actually HEAR the water flowing. I had become so used to the din, noise and confusion around me everyday that I had forgotten what the language of nature is.
I came to the same conclusion most of us reach at some point of our lives.
Take the case of a bike racer- I mean the ones who go crazy with their bikes seeing an empty highway.
They think its fun to balance your bike on one wheel or perform stunts that leave you gaping at them. And we as audiences also enjoy seeing them. They think they know their vehicle but when it suddenly lurches or simply refuses to go the way you want to go, then the real terror strikes. Then all they can do is close their eyes and pray, that’s how bad the situation becomes.
Same is with life. We think it’s alright to rush in life and compete with the world as well as with ourselves. In spite of knowing we are stuck in a rat race, we run and we run.
We feel the adrenaline pumping and pushing our body. But when we look around, everything is a blur and then we realize how fast we have been moving. You want to stop, you want to walk with your loved ones, but it becomes impossible and you are left alone and helpless.
That’s mankind’s greatest fear..........
I hope you get my message .

lets get started

OK, so I have finally started on something I always wanted to do - blog.
Reasons for creating this blog (as if you care) ------
1.Maintaining an online diary sounded really fascinating to me and since I have an opinion on almost EVERY topic, I decided to start blogging.
2.I have quite a lot of time to wile away.
3.Since I am studying engineering, I have come across lots of things, both good and bad (mostly bad), I have decided to account all these experiences which I presume will only be experienced by engg Students. Even though I am in FE, I have lots of topics to discuss and this will primarily provide the contents for the blog.



I just hope this blog invites SOME feedback either here or on orkut. That will deter me from being lazy to maintain the blog.
Starting from today, I hope to maintain a weekly journal. Cheers to that!!!!!!!!!!! :)