Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Book Review: The Calling by Priya Kumar

I believe in Karma, I believe in the law of attraction, I believe that everything happens for a reason.

With that thought, I believe that this book “The Calling” by Priya Kumar came to me for a reason.

About Priya Kumar

Born and brought up in Chandigarh, her journey from there to today, an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, nationally renowned and award-winning bestselling author & the CEO and Chief Facilitator of Priya Kumar’sTraining Systems has been, in Priya’s words, “my sheer drive and purpose to make people’s lives better.”

An international publication once introduced Priya as “When Priya speaks, people listen.” A leading national daily wrote, “Priya has the power to change lives.”  All this and more, resonates the impact Priya has had on the lives of people across the globe, through her work and books.

Priya Kumar us the winner of six international awards and has been voted the most popular book on 2015 on Amazon India in the Biographies section. She has written quite a few bestselling books. One of them is “I am another you”

A brief about the book

·     The Calling: THE ANSWERS LIE WITHIN
The Calling is a spiritual adventure. It is an encounter with the truth, the wisdom and the force that is innate to us all. At the brink of a divorce and personal breakdown, Arjun took a trip into the heart of the Himalayas, on the insistence of a sadhu, who predicted that the journey up to Hemkund Sahib would align him to his purpose and change his life forever.


At every turn the mountains holds secrets and tests that urge Arjun to evolve into the person he had denied to be – himself. Pretenses, falsities, confusions and untruths fall apart as Arjun is forced to confront the mess he had created in his life.

What started off as an opportunity to escape reality, turned out to be an opportunity to escape from the dwindling spiral of self-created misery. Filled with spiritual insights and sprinkled with light humor, this story will help you find your calling, your voice and who knows, even your true self. 



What I felt about the book
Recently after being to a vacation at the foot of Himalayas, I loved the cover of the book to start with. Its about this man, Arjun who has a successful but not so-satisfactory career, his family life is disoriented, his wife has filed a divorce and he is away from his daughters.
Arjun, meets with an near to death accident, with a broken neck, fractured limbs and a crashed car nowhere. He is almost sure that he is dead, but encounters a sadhu, who ties a purple thread on Arjun’s wrist and asks Arjun to go to Hemkund Sahib to find the answers to his life’s problems. The sadhu asks him to find the thread on the tree. Arjun wakes up next morning on the street at nowhere miraculously healed of his broken body.
He was sure he was dreaming until he sees the purple thread tied to his wrist. Later, the thread vanishes from his wrist and Arjun remember the sadhu’s words of finding the thread on the tree in Himalayas. After a while, he makes a decision to go to Hemkund  sahib to find that thread and solve this mystery. 
With the help of his best friend Jay, Arjun starts his journey at the foot of Himalayas, where he meets Chandu, an 18 year old, spiritually high,a man with amazing knowledge about leaves, herbs, so much so that he can bring a dead back to life, with two of his donkeys.
NOTE: I loved the subtle inflicted humor with Chandu and the donkey
The lessons this book gave, has to be implemented in life this instant
  • This world is yours, its your responsibility to keep it beautiful
  • Everyone in your life is there for a reason, put them to use else they will become redundant
  • Being positive is a state of mind, and you are responsible for your own happiness. Do not let negativity seep into you
  • What you sow, so shall you reap

Everyone in this world has a bigger purpose, finding yourself, feeling happy inside will make everyone around you happy too.
As a reader, you can feel yourself travelling with Arjun through the Himalayas, you can see Chandu, you can get the whole experience sitting where you are. Its like attaining sadhana exactly where you are.
When the book ended, my heart was beating really fast in my chest, I let out a happy sigh, I fell silent for a while, pondering everything I read in my head. I loved the way something peaceful, something calming washed over me.

 There are a few quotes that I loved in the book

 “The end is the beginning. The beginning does not have a past, it only has the future”
“Regret is to life like termite is to wood, it will eat you up”
“I haven’t done anything that will worry me. You have however done a lot to work yourself up that you have no control over yourself”
“God is a spiritual potential in action. When one feels spiritual compassion. They feel divinity”
This is not one of those positivity preaching books, its forms a story that gives you very positive vibes.
It’s a must read for everyone. Read it for you, read it for your soul.
I give this book 4.5 / 5

Thursday, September 15, 2016

CTT: We are God's books

Its been a week with lot of expected, unexpected holidays in my city. And the unexpected holiday, with a curfew like situation is very boring. You can't get out of the house, there is nothing on TV, videos on Youtube has got boring, the books I have are read already, I could sleep...But for how long?

Well, so this early evening, I was sitting on the swing of my balcony, with nice warm breeze on my face, it was peaceful. I could hear the "click click click" of the keyboard in the husband's home office, I could see those stupid pigeons on my neighbors balcony, in the opposite house a mother trying to feed her kid. It felt like some story book existence.

Then far somewhere, I heard the bells of a temple, I thought then, maybe...just maybe God will have a of book in each person's name. He will have many scriptwriters in his payroll, and all of them would be weaving a story for us everyday, their stories will depend on their mood that day. They will have targets for a year, say 100 happy days, 10 fight scenes, 100 romance scenes, 50 sad days, 105 random emotions days. The scriptwriters might bill according to the person's man days on earth. The book closes and goes into library after the person is dead. Every dead person might be employed as a scriptwriter after staying in heaven for like 10 years. A retired script writer maybe reborn on earth again.

How cool is that! I was grinning on my geniusness and I was almost on the verge of convincing myself of being one of the story books in God's library when my celestial thoughts were disturbed by a police siren on the main road. Sigh! So much for my devil's workshop.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

#DAshTalks Comments Gone Wrong

It was Friday night, 1 am and after watching a movie at home. We were sitting on our bed with our respective phones, in the soft glow of the bedside lamp.

Me: Listen, I want you to comment Awwww on some couple display picture I put

Awin: Ok

Next morning, I put up a super cute picture
of ours as my Facebook picture

In an instant, I get a notification that "Awin has commented on your picture"

I get exicited because, the husband rarely comments

I go to the comments section and see

Awin: Awwwwwwwwful 

He slept in the living room that weekend.