Oct 28, 2014

Past and Present: 2 books which defined it all

Past and Present: 2 books which defined it all

Past and Present: 2 books which defined it all

A quiet Diwali spent with books instead of rituals becomes a reflection on choice, solitude, and shared human experience. Through two very different novels, the piece arrives at the same insight: across ages, cultures, and stages of life, our insecurities and struggles are strikingly similar. The takeaway is simple yet grounding. We may face our battles alone, but we are never truly alone in what we feel.

woman in white and blue checked dress shirt
woman in white and blue checked dress shirt
woman in white and blue checked dress shirt

Pallavi Pratap

Beginner at Life

Oct 28, 2014

Past and Present: 2 books which defined it all

A quiet Diwali spent with books instead of rituals becomes a reflection on choice, solitude, and shared human experience. Through two very different novels, the piece arrives at the same insight: across ages, cultures, and stages of life, our insecurities and struggles are strikingly similar. The takeaway is simple yet grounding. We may face our battles alone, but we are never truly alone in what we feel.

woman in white and blue checked dress shirt

Pallavi Pratap

Beginner at Life

So over the Diwali holidays, when people (normal people) spend time with family, celebrating the festival… I spent it reading books that may or may not be defining.

No, its not that I don’t celebrate the festival, I do but then, like my ‘well-wishers’ say that since I have no kids, I am lucky that I have time to live my life and do the things I want to. With so many guilt trips that I have taken, on every single festival of my nearly 7 years of married life, I thought I will make it different this year.

I will read something which is fiction or autobiographical and is feminist literature.

so picked up #Notthatkindofgirl by #Lenadunham and #Adultery by #paolocoelho.

Yes they are both adult books, by that I mean it in strictly non-pornographic way and basically, to make it clear, books for adults.

The first one described a life from teen and early 20s while the latter is more your mid-life crises book. I read both of them, one after the other. It was not intentional but having read both of them, I feel that people around the globe, may, especially women around the globe, may, have the same insecurities, the same feelings, the same problems, at any given point in time. So when we feel alone or depressed or the same kind of life, day after day, we are not alone because someone else, in some part of the world is going through, the exact same thing, at the exact same age, at the exact same time. May be we have to fight our problem alone right now, but not too long from now, we will see that person, or read about him/her, whoever he/she is, and realize that what we did in combating our problem, is exactly what this person did.

Bottom line, we are never alone, in happiness or in sorrow!

So happy reading and a happy life! Like Coelho said life will become what you feed it, if its happiness, it will be a happy life and if its sadness then, do I need say more!

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