I’m often coaxed or rather cursed by my fellow reviewers on Mouthshut about lack of good reading habits from my side. This lack of habit of reading good books is partly finding its origin in lack of time on my part and finding the remaining part in my scare to read books that span more than 300-400 pages. Considering limited vocabulary that I possess, I wont mind using a dictionary while reading the books. But their sheer fatness frighten me off. Sheer fear of reading some 300 odd pages and losing it in the end by wondering about where it started makes me a little nervous when I take into consider time spent reading it. But recently I came across a smallish book by a brazilian author named Paulo Coelho.
Named as Alchemist, this book has been published in 150 countries in 60 languages and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
I finished reading this 177 paged book in flat 2 nights and in the end I exclaimed ...
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I read a book ! I read a GOOD book... The Alchemist !
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Alchemist is a story about a shepherd named Santiago who loved roaming around and see beautiful places around the world so took to the profession of being a shepherd. Santiago was living a contained life and was thinking all those things that a normal guy of his age would think at that particular age.
One day there is a revealation in his dreams that he is destined to find a treasure and from this point this good boy named Santiago starts searching the path for reaching the treasure.
The path where he meets a few people who essentially make him learn essentialities of practical life.
In the end he finds the treasure... but was the treasure the same that he wanted to achieve in the beginning when he started for its quest ???
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What is an Alchemist
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For me, I considered an Alchemist is a person who can convert any metal/stone into gold. So for me, an alchemist is the blessed person who can possess possibly maximum wealth on the earth. But it was very immature on part to consider Alchemist to be these kind of people.
Myself and Santiago learnt during the course of the book that what makes u rich or reach ur goal in the end is not important, but what is important lies in the process that makes u rich or makes u achieve ur goal. These processes / rigmarole are of the utmost important part of reaching the goals. The reason for giving them such an importance is because we often forget the hardships faced and learnings that any successful person has learnt while he was on his way up. We only remember where he started (the bottom of the ladder) and where he is now (On top of the ladder).We often forget the processes, people, difficulties and most importantly the learnings that takes one up from bottom-most part of the ladder to the top-most part of it.
Alchemist taught me and Santiago to learn from the experiences, people, signs, environment around us for progressing ahead.
Me : Santiago - You : Santiago
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For all the reasons, I can compare upheavals of my life with the ups-downs that Santiago experienced during his journey from fields of Andulasia, Spain to the Morocco and the treasure.
All the people that Santiago met en route the treasure came to him in different forms like friends, foes, lover, mentor, challenges, pleasures, pains, deceptions, temptations are the same guys that I meet when I’m moving for finding and reaching my goal in life, short-term or long term.
I’m learn from experiences of these people ...
I see this Santiago in me....I see Santiago in you....I see Santiagos all around....
Me : Alchemist ? You - Alchemist ?
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This book gives out a few one-liners , a few learnings that are like learnings for all of us. One should always be remembering them if we want to be an Alchemist.
An Alchemist, a person who knew where his destiny was and has really achieved it.