The Alchemist - an inspirational story by Paulo Coelho for anyone seeking their path in life

As and when I read each leaf of the great book which have had a life-enhancing impact on many, I believed that no one can skip imagining themselves in the main character of the magical story, i.e. Santiago, a shepherd boy who dreams of travelling the world to seek the most wonderful treasures known to man. The way the boy chooses his path of life to reach his destiny which he dreamed really inspired me and input a positive energy in me. In the journey to find his destiny, the boy acquired great knowledge and wisdom by learning from various people like King of Salem, crystal merchant, his woman of desert, the Alchemist etc., which is the real treasure than the chest of gold he found at pyramids.

There are many lines from the book which I am able to correlate with the happenings in life of myself and people around me. Here are some of the already existing facts which the book invoked with an explicit narration. I have added few lines of my own perception against each saying:

"When someone sees the same people everyday, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own." This is a common context every human have come across in their life at some point of time with some sort of relationship in their life. If each one in the relationship is ready to change for other, balancing on either end, then the relation exists forever, else it sinks. But everlasting relationships are built only if there exists love in it. Once a person finds his/her true love, only then he/she stops hearing to thy hearts when it speak the above words and concentrate on what his love want him/her to be.

The Worlds Greatest Lie: "At a certain point in our lives, we loose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate." This is how every person think, when something in his/her life is not happening as they expected or when they do not find an idea/path of how to make their dreams come true. This is the point when they start listening to their hearts saying the above words, because it never want to take pain to think beyond and want to continue without any disturbances.


The Great Truth on this planet: "Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want  something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of universe. it's your mission on earth." Every human has a mission on earth and his actions are droved by it.


"The Soul of the World is nourished by people's happiness. and also by unhappiness, envy and jealousy. To realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation. All things are one."


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


"If you start out by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work toward getting it."


"Everything in life has its price"


"Before you feel jealous of the freedom of the wind, you should realize that you are the one who hold yourself back from taking the steps along the way to your destiny"


Principle of favorability: "Beginner's Luck." When you play cards for the first time, you are almost sure to win. There is a force that wants you to realize your destiny; it whets your appetite with a taste of success.


"Don't forget that everything you deal with is only one thing and nothing else. And don't forget the language of omens. And, above all, don't forget to follow your destiny through to its conclusion."


"The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon entrusted." A shepherd may like to travel, but he should never forget about his sheep.


"In money there was magic; whoever has money is never really alone"


"Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision." When Santiago decided to seek out his treasure, he never imagined that he would wind up working in a crystal shop, join a caravan to cross a great desert, met a woman of desert and fall in love with her, etc.

"Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there."

"People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want."


"We are afraid of losing what we have, whether its our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."


"Every search begins with beginner's luck. And every search ends with the victor's being severely tested."


"The darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn."


"When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed."


Every person who wants to find their heart's desire and seek their path of life should read this inspiring book, "The Alchemist". I learnt from the book how to choose my path of life without feeling discouraged with the challenges I faced in travelling in that path and learning out of each challenge I faced. In the process of my journey, I met new people, experienced new environment, and learnt new things of life. Thanks for my friend who suggested this book to me. It rejuvenated me to continue my journey of life with everlasting positive energy.

Our never ending school memories in GEMS

One day, I and Sanjana stopped in crossword in a big mall. Even though the crossword is a small area, it consist of a large collection. And it is the place when I spend on reading books while waiting for my friend. I am a great fan of Sherlock Holmes and went to detective section. The worlds most famous address flashed into my mind i.e. B221, Baker Street, London. I always remember my English teacher Mrs.Subhashini in school days who is the root cause for such an interest. In reality Dr. Watson may be the narrator throughout Sherlock Holmes volumes, but for our GEMS, our favorite English teacher, Subhashini is the first narrator. I still remember each and every pupil in the classroom hearing to her narration, maintaining pin drop silence, involved in following the story with everlasting enthu, eager and interest.
I still remember about myself sitting in government library reading the volumes of Sherlock Holmes after the school timings. Even though ours is a small town, it has a decent library with plenty of collections. Whenever I went to library for the book of "Complete short stories of Sherlock Holmes", it was always already with some reader. I used to wait until the other person complete and then get hold of it. That much is the interest induced by our narrator. And of-course, I am a voracious reader of short stories in my childhood. I haven't still come across such a narrator of ours who used to describe the Watson's surprised expressions for Holmes wise interpretations from available short details of the cases. Her narration is so realistic that we used to literally visualize the places where a murder or theft happened in the story. Our never ending memories are they with whom we spent in school every day.

1 MIN READING: how the path was forged(From Paulo Coelho's Blog)

One day, a calf needed to cross a virgin forest in order to return to its pasture. Being an irrational animal, it forged out a tortuous path full of bends, up and down hills.

The next day, a dog came by and used the same path to cross the forest. Next it was a sheep’s turn, the head of a flock which, upon finding the opening, led its companions through it.

Later, men began using the path: they bent down, deviating obstacles, complaining and cursing – and quite rightly so. But they did nothing to create a different route.

After so much use, in the end, the path became a trail along which poor animals toiled under heavy loads, being forced to go three hours to cover a distance which would normally take thirty minutes.

Many years passed and the trail became the main road of a village, and later the main avenue of a town. Everyone complained about the traffic, because the route it took was the worst possible one.

Meanwhile, the old and wise forest laughed, at seeing how men tend to blindly follow the way already open, without ever asking whether it really is the best choice.

.(based in traditional Malayalam story)