The Alchemist's review

‘The Alchemist’ is a story with the power to inspire. This is a magical fable that makes you learn how to listen to your heart, read the omens strewn along life’s path and keep the pursuit of one’s dreams. This is a narrative of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who dreams of traveling the world in search of a treasure. From his house in Spain, he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and from there into the Egyptian Pyramids where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him. An old man, the King of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart". This is all about following our heart, following our dreams and our own life path which brings us joy and then lives within us. There are many pearls of wisdom to be implemented in our own life. This book also illuminates how special and extraordinary dreams are and they can come true, especially to those who don’t let them go. It shows us how a really successful and fulfilling life is really accomplished but not through the systematic ruthlessness of today. It explores the path of walking our destiny. It is truly a magnificent novel that has delivered profound inspiration as well as evoking passion within me. As I started getting interested in reading ‘The Alchemist’, I felt that I was reading my own life story in the form of a novel. And that’s the primary attraction to me towards ‘The Alchemist’. This novel is written by Paulo Coelho. He was born in Rio de Janerio in August 1947, the son of Pedro Quiema Coelho de Souza, an engineer, and his wife Lygia, a homemaker. His own dream, to be a writer, met with frustration throughout much of his early adult life, a time in which he worked at various professions. Coelho once said that "Following your dream is like learning a foreign language; you will make mistakes but you will get there in the end." In 1988, he published "The Alchemist", a novel that explores this theme, and it launched him as an international bestselling author. Specifically, Coelho is recognized for his powerful storytelling technique and the profound spiritual insights. In addition to "The Alchemist", he has written luminous novels about the different streams of our lives. He has won numerous literary prizes. In 1999, he received a Crystal Award fot the Artistic Achievement in the Davos Economic Forum Conference. Paulo Coelho is also a prominent speaker for the humanitarian causes. He has become one of the most widely read authors in the world today. He has written many other bestselling books that have touched the hearts of people everywhere. The experience by reading ‘The Alchemist’ affected me profoundly. And here are the some beautiful quotes which inspires me a lot.

The Quotes I love:
1. The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
2. When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
3. Courage is the most essential quality to understand the Language of the World.
4. What's the world's greatest lie? It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.
5. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you.
6. Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life.

7. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of this wisdom.

Will Indian Stock Market stabilize in the near future?

Markets are like women -- always commanding, mysterious, unpredictable and volatile. I think that Indian Stock Market will definitely stabilize in the near future as the fundamentals of the Indian Economy is strong and more so of corporate sector. It seems that the market will take a little more time to stabilize and settle itself in a comfort zone. The turmoil in the global markets need not affect India as “the Indian economy is driven by its own robust investment and consumption. Ours is a long-term growth story based on real investments. If we talk about the Reliance Power’s IPO which receives an overwhelming response from the investors, it clearly shows that investors seem to be confident and have good faith in the future of India. FIIs pulled out nearly $2 billion from equities in just four days after their monumental response to the Reliance Power’s IPO. It is a reflection of the world community in the future of the robust Indian Economy. This outflow of liquid money can also be considered as the reason for the huge recession in the history of the Indian Stock Market ever. Recording another year of impressive performance, the economy grew by 9.6% during 2006-07, leading to over 14% increase in the per capita income. The improved growth has been achieved due to all around improvement in the manufacturing and services sector. One way to judge the fair market value of India's equity market is that to look at the ratio of market capitalisation to the nominal GDP which also gives a broad indication.In India, the ratio reached 173%--a 73% increase in just a year’s time.So i think that Indian Stock Market would have a stable growth in the long run.