Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Alchemist...

I have wanted to write this entry since the time I finished reading “The Alchemist”. It is definitely one of the most beautiful books that I have read. The central character (Santiago) has been so wonderfully presented that every person can see a small part of himself with the central character. Apart from being a very good read, the book also made me ask myself some very deep questions. What is my destiny? Am I traveling the right path? Will I end up being a baker who was destined to find a pot of gold? Frankly, I am very much afraid to even think about these questions, let alone answer them. It is said in the book that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I wonder when my teacher will arrive. I wonder if I am ready enough for a teacher.

But there is one thing said in the book which I believe totally. It is about the so called “Old man in shining armor” helping you in your life’s path. Ever since I was a kid I have always felt that there is “Someone” watching over me. Someone, whom I have never seen or met, but who always has my best interests in his mind. I call him God and the people who have read “The Alchemist” can call him the old man in the shining armor. Every time I have a bad experience he seems to be whispering in my ears – You will very soon understand why you went through this. 

Let me try and explain by taking someone examples from my life. Early in my childhood, I had to leave my hometown and study in Delhi. I am talking about a time when I was in 6th standard. It was a new place and I absolutely hated being there. I had no friends in the place and almost always felt as a south Indian outcast among North Indians. I remember wondering why I had to go through all this rubbish. Three years later when I was leaving Delhi and going back to my hometown, I again felt miserable. This time it was because, I had made so many new friends and I will now never be able to see them again. Now, after 15 years due to a strange twist, I had to go to Gurgaon for my work and one by one I am getting back in touch with all my old friends. You cannot imagine how happy I feel whenever I meet my “long lost friends”!!!! I am glad I came here, went back and again came here. It was as if everything was planned. 

I am an electronics and communication engineer by education. I had always wanted to be a software engineer. Fate made me a telecom engineer. I was very angry on God to have made a telecom engineer out of me. It did not take me long to know that this job was “Charming”. In fact I began to love it. Everything that I had studied in my four years of engineer was proving to be useful. Today when I call my “Software engineer” friends that are more bitter then me. They are angry that studied electronics and are working on a computer. They are angry that the market is so over crowded that they have become just another person in the crowd. They are angry that their day start starts staring into a computer and ends with staring at the same computer. Today I am glad I am communication engineer and am enjoying every moment of it. It was as if everything was planned.

I used to hate traveling a lot. I liked to be in familiar surrounding with familiar faces. I hated the uncertainty that traveling brought you. My job as a communication engineer involved a lot of travel. The first time I went on a travel, I was so bloody scared and nervous that I lost 17,000 Rs from my purse. Just imagine how I felt!!!! But slowly as time went by, and I traveled more places, I began to see why people enjoy traveling. I in fact began to love it. My hate for traveling began to be replaced by a love for it. As I did so I also began to feel more confident about myself. Today I have traveled to more places then many of my “Software engineers”. I love the challenges of going to unknown places and visiting unknown people and finding friends. Now I am confident that I can go even to the North Pole and make friends there. Traveling has become such an inseparable part of me that I now wonder I did not like it before. It was as if everything was planned. 

Like all people of my generation, I too got hooked to the internet. I loved to chat my heart out online. It was during this time that I found a very interesting lady online. She was so cheerful and bright that I thought it was her that I was waiting for all these days. It was not to be. And it turned out that it was just my hormones and infatuation that were fooling around with me. She was not the girl after all. But all these chatting session somehow made me feel good about writing my heart out. I realized that I loved to put my thoughts on paper and publish it. It cleared my mind and lightened my heart. I turned to blogging. I started to write my “own” articles. Tough I do not have a big fan following, I enjoy publishing my thoughts online. What started as a routine chatting with one girl online ended up with me trying my hand on blogging and to this day I have written about 60+ blogs. I plan to write atleast a 100 more. I have found some geninuly good bloggers/blogs online. I have inspired some of my own friends to start blogging. I am loving it. It was as if everything was planned.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It always happens that when we look back at the path we have trodden in life, subtle patterns emerge.. Feels often as if there is a method in madness after all. Alchemist is a beautiful fable.. Indeed!

Siladitya Banerjee said...

Did Steve Harvey copy the book title Act Like A Lady Think Like A Man

and theme from an earlier book?



Book with same title & theme copyrighted and published by Sharon P. Carson in 2003





CHICAGO, IL – Sharon P. Carson the author of the original title: Act Like A Lady –Think Like A Man, watched the February 27th episode of the Ophra show on which Steve Harvey was promoting his book of the same title. She was hoping that Steve would reveal to Oprah where he got the title and the theme for the book. It just seemed odd to her that his book had the same title and theme as her book that was copy written in 2003.



Upon subsequently purchasing the book, she found some interesting parallels and realized that it is not unusual for a high profiled person to take a great title and theme, rewrite a book and use their celebrity status to sell it. This she says happens too often to the unsung poets, authors and entrepreneurs of the world.



Steve wrote in his book that his hope was to “empower you with a wide-open look into the minds of men”. Sharon P. Carson wrote in her book in 2003 that her hope was for women to gain some insight into how men think in terms of relationships. Sharon also noted that in chapter 8 of Steve Harvey’s book titled “Why Men Cheat” he came to the same conclusion that she did in chapter 37 of her book, titled “Why would a man cheat”, and the answer was, “because they can”.



Sharon actively promoted her book before the release in January 2009 of Steve Harvey’s book, and would not like to see her promotion efforts hindered. She feels that her book has much to offer from a woman’s perspective and seeks to empower women to practice self love and tough love in relationships.



Before the publication of Steve Harvey’s book of the same title, Sharon bought the domain name: www.actlikealadythinklikeaman.com from which she has been selling her book. She has also held seminars with women at a Chicago University in promotion of her book, and can be viewed on the following youtube clip as she was being interviewed on a cable television program about her book in 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxVVQX15X2Y.



Mindful of all the self - published poets and authors who have a hard time finding publishers for their works, Sharon is currently consulting with attorneys regarding her options, and hopes that her book with the first and original title of Act Like A Lady Think Like A Man will finally receive the recognition it deserves for the wisdom, encouragement, and empowerment that it provides to women. skeystoi

Anonymous said...

what a gr8 story.
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