Veronika decides to die....

We tend to take life for granted. We keep chasing elusive goals set by others for us. Paulo Coelho’s “Veronika decides to die” reminds us to really live life each day as opposed to just existing. This is a story of a girl named Veronika who lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She has everything in her life a girl can ever dream of. She is young and pretty, has plenty of attractive boyfriends, has a steady job, a loving family. Still Veronika is not happy, still she is not satisfied, still her heart is empty, still her heart craves for something missing in her life, still she wants to end up everything and die. Finally she decides to commit suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills in order to stop that endless routine.

While she waits for her death, she decides to read a magazine. After seeing an article in the magazine which wittily asks “Where is Slovenia”, she decides to write a letter to the press justifying her suicide, the idea being to make the press believe that she has killed herself because people don’t even know where Slovenia is. Unfortunately her plan fails and she wakes up in Villete, a mental hospital in Slovenia, where she is told that she has a week to live. During her internment in Villete she realizes that she has nothing to lose and can therefore do what she wants, say what she wants and be what she wants without having to worry about what others think of her. As a madwoman, she is unlikely to be criticized. Because of this newfound freedom, Veronika experiences all the things she never allowed herself to experience including hatred, love and even sexual awakening. She starts to see her past relationships much more clearly and understand why she felt her life had no meaning. Veronika’s experiences lead her gradually to realize that every second of existence is a choice that we all make between living and dying. Through the story of her remaining days, Coelho encourages the reader to believe in hope and follow his or her own dream without the fear of being seen as mad.

This book reminds us that every moment in our lives is special and precious. Like other works by the same author, this one also is about those people who yearn for finding what life is all about. “Live each day as if it were a miracle”, he tells us. After I read this book, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I pondered its thoughts, and I wondered: if I were to die in 5 days, what would I want to do that I can't do today because the world will call me crazy? Well... it's actually a hard list to come up with. Some moments of the Veronika's story were even shocking and insightful for me. One of the Villete's patients tells Veronika to masturbate and to be bold in her imagination while doing it. By that particular moment, Paulo Coelho brings out the importance of sexuality in our lives and states that this theme continues to be a taboo and leaves many people unhappy and dissatisfied.

What is normal in our society? Why is it considered normal? Why people refuse from something very important for them under social pressure? These are just few issues which Paulo Coelho presents in his book. Reading this book didn't leave me indifferent, it was not just one of many books which are forgotten after some time. Thanks to "Veronika Decides to Die", i realize that everyday routine should not be an obstacle in living happy fulfilling life. Now I know that following the rules created by other people will not make me happy. If I am unhappy, it's not other people's fault rather it’s my own fault because I was not strong enough to follow my own passion. I believe that every reader will find something in the book that particularly meshes well with his or her own view of life.

The Quotes I love:

1. There is alwayas a gap between intention and action.

2. Nothing in this world happens by chance.

3. Some people always want to help others. Just so that they can feel better than they really are.

4. People think about sex only once a fortnight and transform that thought into action only once a month.

5. People never learn anything by being told, they have to findout for themselves.

6. You have two choices, to control your mind or to let your mind control you.

7. We are allowed to make a lot of mistakes in our lives, except the mistake that destroys our lives.

8. An awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely.

9. The danger of an adventure is worth than thousand days of ease and comfort.

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.