Just finished reading the “3 mistakes of my life” by Chetan Bhegat. I had read reviews of Ashwin and many others, and had not much hopes on it. But now I dont feel it as worse as his second book. And the author has always the style of hooking readers till the end, with a superb prologue.

The story plot at times and at many many places may sound very unrealistic. But its a fiction book. Unless you provide the fictionary part it becomes non-fiction. So I discard the irrelevant script of abroad trip and other impractical scenarios.

The twists and turns,the portrayal of the major issues of Gujarat and also India was good. I have seen the riots, the fights over religion in news and also in another film, Kazcha, based on the same and it had always let me down. On top of it, the tint of politics just added to the distaste.

There were instances I loved the subtle humor. The theme of love story didn’t interested me, though the love story did looked cute initially. The struggle of Govind to live, the disappointments, the resurrection after the unsuccessful dreams, and the cinematic climax were the only good points.

Overall I could rate it at around 6/10. Have you read this book? What is the rating???

Long back in November, Yahoo decided to shake me off by closing its Yahoo photos. I had stored so many photos in it, ranging from my experiments to my portraits! It left me with few options to transfer my photos, and being the bright net addict and knowledgeable that I am, I chose flickr.

Since then, I had loaded and loaded more into it, using the mass uploader option of flickr.com. Initially I was having hard time, knowing about sets, collections, and groups, but slowly as any hardworker conquering and completing its assigned task, I mastered them (er.. did I… yet??!!).

Then came the catch! I was notified that what I was experiencing over the weeks were just a trial version of the paid version of flickr which was about to expire in few days! And I was not about to pay hundreds just to show case my photos. I was not an official photographer!

The limited version created a hell lot of probs, one of which was the archive!!! They archive automatically the older photos and I was not able to see or edit retrieve it back!! What the hell was it! They were like capturing my precious photos in a deceitful way and asking ransom now to give it back!??? They should have mentioned it, rather Yahoo should have mentioned all these details when they help out their customers in transferring the photos to other third party agents!!!

I have stopped using it, and I am transferring my photos to other places (as of now its picasaweb.. don’t know when its going to deceive me now! ) slowly, and trying to recover the old ones from the archive of flickr!!! Phew man! what a task!!!

Ways to Achieve success; Power of now; Law of Attraction;

Spiritual enlightening books. How do they motivate us? Do they?

I have been reading quite a few ones, like Alchemist, Tuesdays with Morrie, Fish, and some ways to achieve success etc. Most of them carry a single message and keep repeating it through every sequences/scenarios.

People are mostly composed of oscillating thoughts comprised of their dreams and practicality. They do have so many options of living life, the various established (un)realistical myths of right and wrong. The difficult part is to choose to follow. We do accept or hear various views, keeping apart our opinions and views in backend. We sometimes criticize or are empathetic to them, with profound established view point to various matters. There are matters of heart, relationships, money, ambitions, studies, love, family, and many others and innumerous diverse scenarios as much as a writer can be deeply immersed in.

How to accept yourself to follow and choose the selected path is quite easy, once you have selected the factors. They keep juggling inorder to form a balance in life, but there would be some ethics based on which we select the path. To frame the ethics, both material and immaterial ones, is of utmost importance rather than selecting the path or goals. Don’t you think so?

For example, everyone loves their family and their self. They are one of the top priorities along with money. Being selfish is humane, but it need not be purely opposite of selfless.

I don’t deny the definitions, and the established rules of life, they may have some experience - biased reasoning which is high above our understanding. But until we are able to interpret the course of life fully enough to understand its depth, we do can, rather we do alter its basic definitions. That’s just a phase of life when we question and find their answers. The phase when we start framing the ethics. Does that mean, we need to get all the answers to our questions to frame our ethics and thereby select the path to live? Need not be, and I am sure we won’t be getting the answers, we do get, but unsatisfactory. Its just that this is the phase we need to mould more, to create a more happy life. But then why no books available pertaining to this point?
Or is it that I missed some of them?

I just finished “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Alboom. The book is all about conversations between a student and a Coach, who is about to succumb to ALS disease. You can find instant similarity with the student, Mitch, if you are questioning the meaning of life. They talk about death, money, love, marriage, aging, emotions, family and friends, forgiveness and their essence in our lives. The Coach, Morrie Shwartz, is a teacher in sociology, and his interpretations of human relations and needs is very much true. It also talks abstractly about souls and life after death, and speaks along the borders of life and death.

Every human being is in search of love, and craves for attention. People are different, and hence all need not accept it publicly, the universal truth. We keep expecting more, and end up immersed in material needs like money, things, places, houses, cars, etc. As Morrie says, there is a clear line of distinction in what we need and what we want. But only when we realize that its our last day, we get to the essentials. Relationships and love only survive till our end. His famous aphorism was “Love each other or perish“. True indeed, thats the only one which can give you internal satisfaction, rather than the immaterial ones, which have an expiry date. “Death kills life, not the relationships“.

This book has similarities in ideas referenced by other books like “The Present” or the “LOA”(law of attraction). There are good days and bad days, and there would be times, when we cannot live our life fully as we expected. But we just need to live through the emotion, to experience it fully, and then move on to experience other emotions of life. Its easy to move on, once you grasped the idea of forgiveness. But how many of us do that in our day-to-day life? Maybe thats where people become unique. Every one has their own way of living life and thinking ways.

I would rate the book an 8.5/10 for its excellent message and impact on me. The marks lost in the descriptions of ALS disease, which lefts the strong realization of life in us, that everything is impermanent. But nevertheless, this book has brightened my mood, and I am sure, it can affect you too.

Happy reading.

“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