26 February,2023 09:29 AM IST | Mumbai | Team SMD
Mehmood M Abdi
If you thought 2023 was off to a rocky start, then may be some light, or heavy, reading can make it better. Five go-getters tell you what book they fall back on when the going gets tough, and why life seems better after reading it.
Abdi says the many salient tips given by author SSA Zaidi in his book Failure Is A Knock On The Door Of Success, have been inspiring him for a long time. "The 3P approach of patience, persistence and perseverance, is a sure shot route to success according to the author. This impresses me to keep going like a clock and never stop. This also makes me not opt for excuses and just take success as a journey, not the final destination," Abdi says.
Mahajan, also drummer of Hindi rock band, Parikrama, says that the book he turns to in moments of despair and existential angst is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Written by a psychiatrist who was sent to the Nazi concentration camps, the first part of the book talks about his experience there, explains Mahajan. "He maintains that even in the worst of situations, we always have the freedom to choose our outlook in life. It really helps put everything into perspective," he says.
Malik says the book provided a more practical view of the challenges life presents to us and helped him focus on what's important, what he can control and what to let go of. "It helped me manage myself and my reactions better to situations. It helped me be less frustrated and happier, especially in situations where circumstances were beyond my control. We cannot choose what problems arise in life, we must accept them and choose how we react and how they affect us. It helped me accept a lot of situations that were happening in my life at the time and led me to make peace with many, many things. The subtle art isn't in not giving a f'ck, it's about consciously choosing what to give a f'ck about," he adds.
Bestselling writer Kiran Manral who recently authored All Those Who Wander, says her go-to book is Three Men in a Boat by English writer Jerome K Jerome. Published in 1889 and initially meant to be a serious travel guide, the book is a humourous account about the narrator and two of his friends, who were on a two-week boating holiday on the Thames from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford and back to Kingston. "It makes me laugh, it makes me ponder on life lessons and above all, it makes me marvel at the incredible skill of the author to take something as mundane as three men going up the Thames in a boat and making it a classic read for generations to come," says Manral.
I go back to Gone with the wind, even re-read bits it every once a while, especially when I get into that head space that nothing is going my way. I first read it when I was 12 years old, and remember being impressed with the protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara. She's a really strong and resilient woman, who rolled up her sleeves and did what needed to be done. She had her flaws, but Scarlett's the sort of person you would want in your corner, always. When the war came, she didn't become a victim of her circumstances. If she needed to give up the love of her life and marry other men to keep the family farm afloat, she did that. She was a very real woman. If I start getting into a defeatist headspace, I go back to it.
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