Essays for Life, Essays on Life

Thanks to the suggestion of my friend, Juhi Gandhi , I got an opportunity to visit the best book fair of my life in Ahmedabad. Its name is “Ahmedabad International Book Festival 2024” and it is totally worth the time.

I visited it last weekend. Like a regular book reader, I intend to visit it for 1-2 hours. But to my surprise, I got lost somewhere in the book stalls and amazing pages of unsold books that my five hours were gone in the blink of an eye. I must say the experience was enriching and worthwhile. Apart from the books, I also got an opportunity to meet new authors and publishing houses. This created a bit of optimism in me and it seemed like a step closer to publishing my own book.

I got so carried away that even though I had around three unread books on my shelf, I got seven more books just to satiate the excitement after seeing piles of books in one place. I have already finished two books in the past week. This blog is dedicated to the same. More reviews will come soon.

So, let’s start.

Book#1 – Atomic Essays

I know for a regular reader, the term ATOMIC on the book cover would automatically mean the bestseller book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. But this is a different book. It is a book written by Dr. Prabhakar Singh, co-founder of Nimaaya Health, which is a chain of hospitals specializing in infertility treatment and women’s health.

“Time has a direct correlation with the newness of experiences. It flies when it is monotonous and slows down when new memories are created.” (Author)

I always like to read new authors as it gives a glimpse of trending writing styles along with the taste of hot topics among readers.

But I liked this book mainly because it excels in three ways –

Way#1 – Connect the past with the present.

Let me share an example. There is a chapter titled “Equality and Indian Railways” where he shared that –

“From sharing food and water to ideologies, the train compartment is a microcosm of India. Gandhi realized it way earlier when he used the train to travel across India to unite the masses against the British occupation with great effect.”

He also adds that –

“The real India lives in villages and travels in train compartments.”

I really liked this concept.

I vividly remember my train journeys to Granny’s house in Allahabad (the train journey used to start from Nazibabad and it takes 10 hours to reach Allahabad). It created a lifetime of memories – fighting with my sister to get a window seat, drooling over the samosas carried in a bucket by the train vendors, changing natural landscapes after every station, accompanying Sun from dawn to dusk and making new friends on the way.

This is the exact reason I love Ruskin Bond also. He has written immensely on the train journeys. This reminds me that I also got one book from Mr. Bond from the book fair.

Way#2 – Compact size.

The whole book is divided into 100 mini-chapters. A chapter can be read in less than a minute. It means it is a perfect companion for our daily commute (obviously if the reader is not driving).

Making mini-chapters is a technique adopted by many famous motivational speakers like Paulo Coelho and Robin Sharma. Robin used to write long stories or essays initially like in the case of “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”. But later on, his latest books like “The Wealth Money Can’t Buy” are written in the form of mini-chapters of wisdom.

It makes the book digestible and easy to read for all age groups of readers. Also, in the current highly distracted world, reading a random chapter at any moment gives the flexibility to read anytime and anywhere.

Even though I used to hate this format initially. But then later on I started liking this.

Way#3 – Experiences take another level when a sense of universality is felt.

While flipping through the chapters, the challenges faced by the author felt relatable. He talks about the influence of the internet on our attention span, the importance of parents, difficulty in prioritizing health over taste buds, cherishing memories and the need to improve emotional intelligence. I also go through a similar train of thoughts every day when my mind is unable to focus.

This sense of connectedness that we are not alone in this world who is struggling a similar way is a profound feeling and it can give goosebumps.

Book#2 – Saudade

This is a love story. So, I will not talk much about this. This is the debut novel by Mansi. But do search about the Portuguese word.

In a nutshell,

Book reading is one of the best addictions anyone can have. I guess, writing can be next. So, I thought of mixing both this weekend. I would suggest all try this sometime and let me know the feeling.

(PS – This article is on books and hence views are biased and partial. Please don’t mind.)