Originally written on August 20,2006

The Alchemist is a ‘once in a lifetime’ books. I got to read this book owing to the recommendation of one of my friends at a stage of my life when I was facing an acute crisis in my life .Today I admit that this single book has changed my thinking overnight, highly influencing me and is been my most favorite book along with ‘The Old Man the Sea’.

Talking about the novel content it is actually a mysterical fable about a small boy (Santiago) who goes on to realize his dreams and discover his much desired treasure of life. The author Paulo Coelho in his symbolic story has spun a web of magic into which the writer gets trapped and when he comes out at the end of the book, he is a changed person.

It is a book of optimism, love, destiny making and realisation of one’s own dreams. One of the most striking features of the book is usage of extremely simple language and one can literally see himself being hypnotized by the charm of the book. The novel talks of some highly philosophical concepts like ‘Soul of the world’ and ‘Language of the world’ but they are expressed with such simple and lucid presentation that even a novice reader can easily understand and digest the concept.

The story tells us how each of us have a single mission or goal in life, a personal legend though most of us do not realize it .It also speaks of how doing good deeds for others is eventually rewarded. It teaches us the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts and following our dreams. All of us have dreams and are dying for somebody to tell us that they may come true. This is what ‘The Alchemist’ does and anyone who reads this book is bound to identify himself with Santiago the protagonist, a part of whom is essentially a part of each one of us. Though the whole book and all its lines are a teaching some of the best lines and quotes that I could figure out are:

· All books describe people’s inability to choose their own destinies. And they end up saying that everyone believes the world’s greatest lie. The world’s greatest lie is : At a certain point in each of our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate.

· People are capable at any time in their lives of doing what they dream of.

· If you start out by promising to give what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

· When everyday is the same for the people, it is because they fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives everyday the sun rises.

· Every search begins with the beginner’s luck and every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.

· The darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.

· There’s only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.

· Love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit in wake of love, it’s because that wasn’t true love …the love that speaks the language of the world. Life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny.

· When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need to understand what’s happening because everything happens within you.

CONCEPTS

· True love is the love that speaks the language of the world.

· Soul of the world is made of love.

· There’s not much point knowing the right path unless you actually walk on it. A person knowing the place of the treasure and not decided to go for it is the same as someone who doesn’t know about the treasure at all.