Finally Back

After a long gap of almost a year, here I return!!! Life took away the better of me. I changed jobs, went through shit in life, on family front, personal, professional.

But, without boasting, as I've said many times, I'm a survivor!!! I survived and managed.

I managed depression, I managed alcohol abuse, I managed job changes. I am slowly getting back to healthy habits emotionally as well as psychologically too.

I'll start posting regularly I hope.

Till then,

Regards and thanks to all people who stuck by me.

Last few months

The Host
The Magic Thief
Animorph series
Loads of vocab
4 novels - abridged versions by Readers' digest (names forgotten)
Shantaram

Additionals

The Da Vinci Code

2 states

St. Joan

The importance of being Earnest

King Lear

Where late did the sweet birds sing (3rd time)

The new moon

The host

The magic thief

The amulet of Samarkand

Loads more, in last 3 months.

More to add :

The Whip
Open Heart
No Escape
A parting gift
Last Quadrant
A brief History of time
Nighteen Eighty Four
The story of Philosophy
How to win people and friends
Ignited Minds
The wings of fire
Robert, my son
Mrs. Pollifax and the hongkong buddha
The double man
The shining land
The amulet of Samarkand
Parineeta


Reread:
A thousand splendid suns
The kite runner
Brida
The witch of portobello
(I just can't resist reading and re-reading these books over and over again:) )

Covered also:

The Eclipse: Stephanie Meyer,

How to live series: Paramhansa Yogananda

The Alchemist,

Eleven minutes,

Brida,

Manual of the Warrior of Light: Paulo Coehlo

The story of Philosophy,

The second sex,

The Breaking Dawn

God of Small things

The namesake

The three mistakes of my life

One night in the call centre

Five point someone

Also Read

Had read these ones months/even years ago, but had forgotten the names....

The Kite Runner
A thousand Splendid suns


The Pilgrimage
The Fifth Mountain

Conversations with God...1, 2, and 3

Bhagvad Gita...Srila Prabhupada.

Additional Read List to summarise:

Paulo Coehlo:
Zahir
Witch of Portebello
The Valkeries
The Pilgrimage
Veronika decides to die


Bhagwad Gita
God Alone
Autobiography of yogi
Encyclopedia of Sikhism


To Read:
The Four Noble Truths
Bible
Bhagwad Gita by PHYN
Second Awakening of Christ by PHYN
Spiritual lessons
Oxdord's advanced Learner's Dictionary
....
.....
.....
....
....

Edited on the 17.06.09

List to be summarised: recent in past one month

Robert Browning
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Strife
The Old Man and the Sea
A Doll's house


Radhakrishnan
Tagore
Gandhi
Iqbal
Vivekanada
Paramhansa Yogananda


Philosophy od Religion


Hegel
Plato
Aristotle
Marx
Lenin

The Witch of Portobello

I started this post months ago........am completing it on the 17th May 2009 from the office in the neighbouring town where I am for a night out of work.

I was reading this wonderful fiction by Paulo Coehlo,The Witch of Portobello....

This is a story of a young woman who is restless over-energetic and enthusiastic in heart, mind and spirit. Her life is about a summary of being orphaned by her own mother, being adopted, falling in love, marriage, becoming a mother, getting a divorce, exploring herself in her loneliness and isolation, falling in love again, being popular(rather unpopular) and finally being killed(though its later revealed that she's alive and happy)

However, this is not what the story really is about. The real story if about an individual who is actually looking and exploring for her real self. Her real self which is in harmony with the passion and love for life......the passion to live, to excel and to love and share what she's learnt.

Its not about living quantity for her, rather living quality. At one end, while she's consciously and continuously upset about finding her roots with the mother who gave birth to her and abandoned her........Its a constant quest to find her actual/real soul mate(Paulo doesn't use this word here though). A constant quest to realize God in whatever she does......... be it love, prayer, dance, work or even something as simple as calligraphy.

And when she learns the secrets...........she yearns to share them with those who don't........and the result is that her restlessness increases endlessly. The effect is that she's recognized as a witch who's young, charming, knowledgeable and yet destructive.

She realizes that her own presence is going to cause a lot of destructive effect on a lot of people whom she really loves and cares about........ So, with her new boyfriend who's in the Scotland Yard, she fakes out her own death and finally settles in a cool personal life.

This is an amazing and intriguing journey of a young woman, who goes through a lot of changes and ups and downs in her life, learning and doing everything she can, simply to find harmony of her self with her surroundings.

From praying with interruptions in music in a Chapel.......cursing the Chapel and the God.........dancing to the music of desert............teaching it to her colleagues in the Bank........selling land in Egypt, and learning calligraphy..........Going to Romania to find her mother who gave her birth and abandoned her.........finding her..........realising the basics of the wiccan religion and the fact that she's a witch herself in true essence.......coming back and teaching what she knows and also what she doesn't to all the people who are really interested.............to FINALLY dance OUT OF rhythm, and allowing The Divine Mother to realise in her!!