Something good to read !

After a long time, I got a chance to read two wonderful books - 'The old man and his God' and 'Wise and Otherwise'. The books are written by Sudha Murthy. She has shared her own real life experiences in such a beautiful narrative way that they touch your heart. The most important thing behind narrating these incidences is to pass on a specific message to the reader so that he/she can think over it, can relate the stories to his/her own life experiences and last but not the least can act upon it.

The stories such as freedom of speech, the journey, two faces of poverty, the grateful tenant, an old man's ageless wisdom, forgetting our own history, a bond betrayed on rakhi day, light as many candles as possible, bahut kuch hota hain, Salaam Namaste, crisis of confidence, etc. teach us many things. I am sharing some good thoughts from this book.

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This is the reply that an old man from Kalahandi forest gave to Sudha Murthy when she showed him some Indian currency :
"This is just a piece of paper. For this paper, people fight, go away from our ancestral land,leave our forest and go to cities. Have we not led a complete life without the piece of paper? Our ancestors did. We are children of God, settled here happily without this paper. This is God's land. Nobody owns this land. No river is created by us. No mountain is made by us. The wind does not listen to us. The rain does not ask our permission. These are gifts of God. How can we 'sell' or 'buy' land, I do not understand. When nothing is yours, then how can you make such transactions?"
The writer ends this chapter with following question: Who is more civilized- this wise old man in the forest or those of us with our fingers on the pulse of the Internet?

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Everybody should know his/her own capacity and strength. One should also know one's limitations. It is more difficult to recognize our weaknesses than our strengths. Don't aim for the sky. Keep your feet firmly on the ground and work around you. There is so much misery and gloom, but it is better to light a single candle than to remain in darkness. Try to light as many candles as possible.

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Education means more than scoring good marks in exams or receiving certificates. Life is an exam where the syllabus is unknown and question papers are not set. Nor are there model answer papers. There are various types of questions that can come from any direction, but one should not run away. Education and financial independence are tools that can help us face difficulties, but confidence must be developed throughout life.

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Each patient is precious. If a patient dies, it is just one more hospital death for the doctor. But for the unfortunate family, it is a permanent loss.

There are a lot of good messages like above ones in these two books. I am sure I have lit a small candle of interest into your minds, and you are certainly going to read these books if you haven't already. Happy reading ! :-)