The Zahir- By Paulo Coelho

pp 320. Harper Collins

Paulo Coelho does not need any introduction as an author. After Reading the Alchemist, Picking up the Zahir was natural. And since then I ended up reading every one of his publication.
Zahir in Arabic means obsession- a thing which completely fills your mind.
Through a fiction written in first person, Coelho highlights many fixations in us. But the beauty of his writings in that he goes into the depth of them to introduce us to the root cause and then takes us to understand the ways to overcome them.
The protagonist is a best-selling Novelist living a luxurious life in France. He believes that he has a happy marriage, till one day his wife Esther (A war correspondent) disappears under mysterious conditions. However his misery starts when he realizes that she had deliberately left him.
For two years after that he tries to get on with his life convincing himself that he would be fine without her. However he soon has to face the realization that he loves another human being more than himself and that is his wife. From then on he sets on the long road to find his dear wife or rather to face his Zahir.
This journey that he takes up to reach Esther is the same that Esther had once taken. The clues that Esther had left for him were such that he would have to take up the same path and understand the facts of life that Esther wanted him to understand.
Among these lessons are some traditional knowledge shared by an old tribes-head. When asked, “What is life?” he replies, “It is just a story that other people tell us about the world and about how we should behave in the world”
And to another question, “Why are people sad?” the answer is, “… they are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if the plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people’s ideas and it is more than they can possibly cope with and that is why they forget their own dreams…thus becoming unhappy”
Powerful concept indeed. Personally, I am becoming aware that most of the books that I pick up are pointing towards this same concept, BE YOURSELF.
And then I am again reminded by Coelho, “Our natural tendency is to want to please, even if the person to be pleased is us”…How true!!!
To explain the fact that how much we are bound by the ‘Others’, he says, “Mostly we learn to do everything reasonably well, but there is always a point where we get stuck…why…because according to the story we are told, there always comes a moment in our lives when we reach “Our Limit”!!!
Since I read it, I have strongly recommended “The zahir” to many. More than the story, it is the character description, dialogues and the connectivity in the philosophy that touches the core and sets one thinking.
I liken Paulo Coelho to one of those favorite teachers who can deliver powerful lessons through stories that appeal to us. Like most of his work, this is also a beautiful mix of autobiography and fiction.
One of my favorites.

The missing Rose- By Serdar Ozkan

190pp Wisdom tree

Though I had read the introduction of the author before starting with the book, somewhere in the middle of it I assumed that the writer is a woman. That all the lead characters in the book are women might have had something to do with it, but I was taken over by the sensitive and very feminine approach to an object as delicate as a rose and its tenderness.
Reading through the introduction and re learning that Serdar Ozkan is a man deepened my appreciation for his fine writing skills.
The Protagonist Maria is a typical young woman who is caught between her heart’s desire to become a writer and the need to keep up to society’s expectations and gain others approval.
Diana’s mother can see the dilemma that is slowly pulling down her daughter. However she is unable to persuade Maria to follow her heart. Hence on her death bed she reveals a secret to Diana which sends her on a trip to find and understand her twin Maria. This search turns out to be the quest to search and understand herself.
Drawing the inspiration from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's legendary novel “the little prince” the author leads us with Diana to an extraordinary garden of roses in Istanbul where the gardener Zeynep Hanim teaches the art of conversing with the roses.
Written in a mystic mode, the book gives out those subtle messages that relate to all of us today and forever. The book connects each one of us to the Greek mythology.
Few of the quotes that I could relate much to are:
“Most people entered into a new relationship carrying all the old ties with them- their old feelings of mistrust, being misunderstood, or a defensive wall -prevented them from living the new relationship freely….what they fail to realize is that it is not their partner who wrong them, but their own past which they hadn’t been able to leave behind”
“To become attached, first one needed to be become unattached”
“Rain clouds, rain, water; all three are sensational too. But to quench our thirst, ultimately we need a confining glass”
“Every question asked… is like a seed. In time it grows roots stems and buds and finally blossoms”
And the best:
“do you know what it means a rose my friend? Being a rose means “freedom”. It means not existing by the praises of others and not ceasing to exist by their disapproval”
“ …To a certain extent all of us give up something of ourselves in order to win the approval of the people around us”
“…and because you owe your existence to their praise, once you are forgotten, you cease to exist”
Yes, the missing rose reminded me again of what has been an important lesson for me. –Be what you are, care for your rose, it will blossom and give out eternal fragrance.

No wonder it is one debut novel that has been translated in 29 languages across the world.
This book is for all of us today and always, like the essence of a rose.