The Alchemist-- Waiting for someone to make it's movie!

This is a symbolic book, fiction basically, which explains the story of a young Shepard an ordinary boy who dares to seek out his 'dream'. Dream can be our ambition, a milestone, a stupid wish; as I often wish of being able to play a musical instrument, or can be merely be our struggle, our fight to live a happy life. In this book it is a dream in literal sense as the boy saw a treasure hidden in Egypt while sleeping. So the book conveys how he moves from uncertainty,  that either his dream his worth pursuing or not, to the conviction that he is gaining so much each day in his struggle. As he is not afraid of taking risks and travelling in quest of the treasure no matter how badly betrayed and struck he became in his journey.

It is very important to have an objective and defined goal in life, like the boy has the treasure as his goal, and discovered many other things and learned skills in the process. The parents of the boy (the central character) wanted to send him to the seminary but he stood up against all odds and told his parents that he wanted to travel, ad had to do so as a Shepard as he did not have enough money. So he had decided to realize his dream of travelling. 

At a point the boy says: "Well usually I learn more from my sheep than from books" This was beautiful which meant that we can look around and learn, we can learn from sheep even!

One can seek out God anywhere and everywhere you need not be a priest or a scholar to find God, so the boy while enjoying the beauty of sunshine comments: "I couldn't have found God in the seminary, he thought as he looked at the sunrise". 

As from the story it seems that the sheep would change their location from place to place with him but it was he who was travelling in the real sense! that's why he commented about his sheep: "...they don't even realize that they're walking a new road each day " He also said that sheep only think of food and water and humans also sometimes just think of food and water! and it shouldn't be so!

When you're about to give up hope!

The boy met the king of Salem who told him the story of a miner who had struggled years in search of an emerald but one day he was about to give up hope, at that stage the king magically became a stone and rolled to the miner's foot. The miner with all his anger threw it towards the mine. It was thrown with such great force that it broke the stone that was hit to reveal the emerald embedded in it! Again symbolism can be seen here, the King became the stone which means that God's help comes into action when we try hard to pursue our desires. 

The world's greatest lie!

Paulo Coelho explains it as the greatest lie that everything that happens cannot be controlled by us but our fate alone. Everyone can enjoy freedom like the 'wind' but we just need to discover it. We are not unable to choose our own destiny, we just need to realize this.

"The boy felt jealous of the freedom of the wind, and saw that he could have the same freedom. There was nothing to hold him back except himself"!! awesome indeed!!

Self-pity 

I believe self pity is a crime, and came to know that I share the value with the author. As once the boy when he was in tough circumstances concluded: "He realized that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of the thief or an adventurer in search of his treasure". So the author asks for an attitude shift from 'poor victim' to 'adventurer'! the much needed attitude shift for a happy life! 

Also it is very important to clean ourselves, like in the book a crystal merchant asked the boy to clean the crystals so that he could clean his thoughts!

The desert and the oasis

It is simply worth a read that how the author narrates the story of the boy travelling in the desert and cannot be explained, its a matter of self reading. He marvelously explains the desert and the caravans and connects them with life seamlessly.

Some Excerpts:

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"

"Its the possibility of a dream come true that makes life interesting"

"sheep are afraid of strangers but children always seem to be able to play with them without frightening them. I don't know why. I don't know how animals know the age of human beings"

"Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how others should lead their lives but none about his or her own"

"I'm like everyone else-- I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does"

"Everything that happens once can never happen again, but anything that happens twice will surely happen the third time"

Some loose ends in my post:

I have resisted the temptation of telling where and how the boy found the treasure for those who feel tempted to read the book! and I would suggest (at the end of the post though) that it is far mush better to read the book instead of reading this post! :P 

This book is definitely a MUST READ!