The Zahir: A novel of Obsession

I simply adore this novel by Paulo Coelho. I can't just take this out of my mind and go back to work; It took 5 days to read this novel. Believe me every day I went over some of his lines again and again. I was just wondering why I never saw things in such way Coelhi sees. 


This novel is neither just philosophical nor fictional nor spiritual; its mix of all emotions. You will get questioned and given a way to see Love, Obsession, Life and Truth. 


Instead of I write my words, I would love to share his own from this novel,

“Marie, let’s suppose that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire. Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man’s face is completely clean. My question is this: which of the two will wash his face? 
That’s a silly question. The one with the dirty face of course.’ 
No, the one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assume that he looks like him. And, vice versa, the man with the clean face will see his colleague covered in grime and say to himself: I must be dirty too. I’d better have a wash.’ 
What are you trying to say?’ 
I’m saying that, during the time I spent in the hospital, I came to realize that I was always looking for myself in the women I loved. I looked at their lovely, clean faces and saw myself reflected in them. They, on the other hand, looked at me and saw the dirt on my face and, however intelligent or self-confident they were, they ended up seeing themselves reflected in me thinking that they were worse than they were. Please, don’t let that happen to you.” 

Well I colored those few lines for general reading; and the rest other gives meaning to who are in relationship. 
It's just a sample; here are few more extracts,

“All you have to do is to pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step”

“Love is a disease no one wants to get rid of. Those who catch it never try to get better, and those who suffer do not wish to be cured.” 

“Free again, but it's just a feeling; freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit yourself to what is best for you.” 

Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.

‘A fatally wounded soldier never asks the medical team: “Please save me!” His last words are usually: “Tell me wide and son that I love them.” At the last moment, they speak of love.’

“When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive.” 

"There is always an event in our lives that is responsible for us failing to progress: a trauma, a particularly bitter defeat, a disappearance in love, even a victory that we did not quite understand, can make cowards of us and prevent us from moving on. As part of the process of increasing his hidden powers, the shaman must first free himself from that giving-up point and, to do so, he must review his whole life and find out where it occurred."

Don't you also get inspired to read The Zahir. If you are kind of person who is in-between good & bad; hate & love; philosophical & Spiritual; can't judge who yo are, then this Novel is for you :-).

why do I like watching action movies??

When my friend Denni asked me why I like watching only action movies.

I said, “its may be coz i can’t do them in real life; … may be happy to seeing them swing on screen”.

Paused.

“those movies have less dialogues; I can understand or guess them; you see i’m poor in English” I added.

“Is that all?” he asked.

“May be those are the films caught my first attention than any other movies in English… you know back there in India, in my village no English movies are screened”, I added again.

“You are not so sure..” he again asked.

After that conversation I get this question “Why do I like watching action movies?” every time i see an action movie. Honestly I never find out the answer yet.

I write this now, because I’m planning to watch The Expendables movie this week. :-)

An excerpt from Life of Pi

I would like to store this excerpt from Life of Pi on my blog. When my colleague Muthu suggested this book, I felt tempting to read. When I started reading, I was loosing interest as it was more and more about animals. When the ship sunk & Pi (the boy) was left alone with couple of animals on a lifeboat , I sat straight. Soon then I realized why this book won the Booker prize.

Okay.. here goes the excerpt which talks about fear..

I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild- mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy. Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out. But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier. Doubt does away with it with little trouble. You become anxious. Reason comes to do battle for you. You are reassured. Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapons technology. But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low. You feel yourself weakening, wavering. Your anxiety becomes dread. Fear next turns fully to your body, which is already aware that something terribly wrong is going on. Already your lungs have flown away like a bird and your guts have slithered away like a snake. Now your tongue drops dead like an opossum, while your jaw begins to gallop on the spot. Your ears go deaf. Your muscles begin to shiver as if they had malaria and your knees to shake as though they were dancing. Your heart strains too hard, while your sphincter relaxes too much. And so with the rest of your body. Every part of you, in the manner most suited to it, falls apart. Only your eyes work well. They always pay proper attention to fear.

Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you've defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you. The matter 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.

Thanks to Yann Martel the Author of the book. I don’t much like philosophy but this such long quotes.

Director - Christopher Nolan

Chirs Nolan is the best for the psychological thriller.. I could say.
I have seen almost all of his movies; and will watch those I missed.
Take a look here..

Thanks to "Inception" movie for bringing his name to me. (Yes.. I never knew Momento, Batmen Begins, The Dark Knight and The Prestige were his movies.. until now.)

I'll not miss watching Inception.