2 Books

Last 2 months have been pretty crappy and rough. Sleepless nights with cluttered thoughts have been a trend that I have not been able to break out of it despite several attempts. Tonight, I try very hard to focus on some of the good parts of these past 2 months. And it pretty much boils down to books. Especially the two children’s books I picked up during an unplanned Barnes & Nobel visit - A Dog’s Purpose by Bruce Cameron and Wonder by RJ Palacio

Both books somehow felt very similar to me. Both heartwarming, wherein a bond with the narrator is quickly established and is a strong one. One (Dog’s Purpose) narrated by a dog who goes through several re-births chasing his (her) true purpose and the other (Wonder) mostly by a 10-year old Auggie with severe facial deformations.

Despite completely different settings and plots, the underlying theme of both the books is love and friendship. It may be between Bailey, the dog and his boy Ethan or between Auggie and his ‘lil group of friends. Subtle humor that’s not laugh out loud but makes you smile is beautifully used both by Cameron and RJ. I found myself smiling and crying and sometimes both at the same time. At the end of each of these books, you are left with a renewed faith is friendship, love and kindness.

Before I picked up these “kid’s” books I was going through some pretty heavy stuff (for me) such as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig and The Difficulty of Being Good by Gurcharan Das. Zen and I shared a love hate relationship wherein I had to constantly put in an effort to read in order to discover the gems of wisdom in this book. A laborious read that left me exhausted towards the end.

I guess, sometimes you just need to hear a simple tale of love and positivity that pulls your spirits up and puts you back on track with more hope than ever before. For me Bailey and Auggie did the trick and just thinking about them while writing this post has put a smile on my face. Gonna leave hear with my favorite quotes from each of these books.

“When given a choice between being right or being kind – choose kind”. – Mr. Browne, Wonder

“People are vastly more complicated than dogs and served a much more important purpose. The job of a good dog was ultimately to be with them, remaining by their sides no matter what course their lives may take. All I could do now was offer him comfort, the assurance that as he left this life he was not alone but rather tended by the dog who loved him more than anything in the whole world.”  - Bailey, A Dog’s Purpose

Keep off the Grass and Catcher in the Rye!!

Just finished reading both these books 2 days ago.... Keep off the Grass by Karan Bajaj first and then Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, its one of the TIME 100 All time best Novels.

Keep off the grass:
Its is a story of a NRI who comes back to INDIA, kicking his million dollar job at the Wall Street. He is haunted by the thoughts of his 'roots'. He gets admitted to IIM B and begins his bizarre self-discovery journey with another crazy character, Sarkar (I was in awe with this person, except few of his eccentricities) and Vinod. The book comments a lot on the Indian Institute of Management, not in very good light though. In India, every ambitious student dreams of getting in the IIM and here is Karan Bajaz going completely ruthless with his comments and observations about the finest of B schools in the world, and to our dismay its quite true.
The story is pretty stereotype in the sense these guys make big goof ups, get the lowest of grades, do all kind of possible screwing up but ... at the end of the day they find what they always wished for..... A lil hard to believe... BUT, what makes this book keep away from monotony is the language which is completely engaging and the thoughts on self-discovery and happiness the author has come up with. Its like the author is articulating the thoughts you always wanted to express but didn't have the right words.
The confusions of today's youth, the fucked-up concepts of happiness, the ways of getting away from it and finding oneself going in deep shit..... All is very well explained by Karan Bajaj. BUT, he not only explains the problems but comes up wid a plausible solution.
A truly engaging and un-putdownable book. A journey with your own thoughts if you belong to the pool of lost and confused souls.

Catcher in the rye:
It was a pleasure meeting HOLDEN CAULFIELD(The Protagonist).
A weird narration style by Salinger which gives you a feel of being zonked. The book does not have a plot nor a story. The author establishes a first person dialogue with the reader and then there is no stopping. He goes on to explain every detail of Holden's life for 3 days and his thoughts. The language may be obnoxious to few as it uses words like "phony" "goddamn" "corny" "fuck" in huge amounts.
Holden wants to be the Catcher in the rye and wants to keep away his sister and other kids from the 'phonies' and 'goddamn world' but towards the end he realises that he cant do so and his sister, Phoebe MUST learn the hard way and on her own.Salinger leaves the actual events of Holden's presumed suicide attempt and hospitalization ambiguous; Holden only uses euphemisms such as "getting sick" to describe what has happened to him, but the implications are clear. Yet even more ambiguous than what happened to Holden is whether or not Holden will recover from his difficulties. Nevertheless, while looking back on his situation Holden still harbors some of the same suspicions and deep cynicism that afflicted him throughout the book. Salinger ends the novel inconclusively: he gives no strong indication what Holden has learned from his difficulties, if he has learned at all, and allows for a strong possibility that Holden will continue his self-destructive and suicidal behavior.
(Some part taken from official review.)

More than half a decade separates these books but what surprises me is the questions, the problems, the confusions and the SOLUTION still remains the same. BUT every individual will have to DISCOVER it on their own.... That's the FUN.....

Enjoy the self - discovery :P

Anti-Library

In the book The Black Swan, the author Nicholas Nassim Taleb introduces the concept of the anti-library as the collection of books you haven’t read, of knowledge you don’t know, a massive collection of unknowledge. A more qualified description would include the caveat: books you haven’t read but possess.

"A massive collection of unknowledge, the anti-library contains all the books that may still change your life. Most of your favourite books are there, hidden and forgotten. It has facts you need to know, authors you’d worship. Only people who read very little can think the anti-library doesn’t matter. To book-lovers, and especially generalists like me, who jump all over the place without focus, the stacks of the anti-library loom higher and darker for every book we read. Every book that changes me reminds me of the ones that still might."

Another list:
My Anti Library:
1. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai - Bought this book as it won the award and all (forgot which one :P) but never could get myself to read it.
2. State of Fear by Michael Crichton, one of the most celebrated authors of Jurassic park. This book I went till the very end and just lost all the patience I had put into reading it.
3. Ek hota Kharver: Its a story of an African kid growing up to become a great scientist, gifted to me by a special friend on my B'day cos I wanted it, but as the book is in Marathi, no success... The friend promised that she Will read it aloud for me but alas...
4. The Bhagwatgita: Like everyone else, even I was determined to read it at least once but alas.
5. The Hitchhikers Tale: I don't know what pleasure ppl derive out of tormenting others to read "such" tales... aarghhh... a complete painful read, rightfully left half way...
6. Midnight's Children by the Bookers of the Bookers' winner Salman Rushdie, like most of you, I couldn't complete it either :P (Had bought it as a gift to myself, nicely gift wrapped and all, I can be so tacky at times :P)
7. The Afgan by Frederick Forsyth, the complexity of the book went to such heights that I promised myself that I won't torture myself again... :P

The list is bigger... But now I'm unable to recall partly and partly I don't want to confess having bought some of the books....