Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

I recently got into the habit of book reading. But I realised after few months of reading that I was forgetting names of books, authors and sometimes even the storyline. A casual discussion with my husband on the habit of book reading gave me good insights. He suggested that book reading as a habit is an excellent habit, but its a passive habit. To make it an active habit, one needs to put in effort to write down a few lines after finishing reading it. I really liked the suggestion but was feeling lazy to pen down a few lines.

I have read very few books as I ain't an avid book reader. Book reading recently caught my fancy, so let me recollect names of few books that I read. Biographies of Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, JFK. The last one didn't sustain my interest for long. I try reading 2/3 books at a time, a mix of heavy and light reading. Some more names' Miss Prym', 'Veronica must die' by Paulo Coelho, John Grisham's ' The painted house', ' Stay hungry, Stay foolish'( a book about 25 IIM graduates who chucked away lucrative careers to start something on their own) , ' Not without my daughter' by Betty Mehmoody and William Hoffer'.

The one book which I just finished reading is 'Tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom. This particular book really touched my heart. Its a beautiful story of the relationship between a student and his mentor. The student Mitch Albom adores his Professor of Sociology, Prof Morris Schwartz and becomes very close to him during his years in college. Mitch promises on the last day of college in the year 1974 to keep in touch with him after he finishes college, but fails to keep his promise. The story was later adapted by Thomas Rickman into a television movie (directed by Mick Jackson), which was aired on 5 December 1999 and starred Hank Azaria.

A causal channel flipping in the year 1995 and he sees his professor on TV, an old man shrunken counting his last days of death with a smile on his lips. Mitch feels terribly guilty and rushes to meet Morris. The book shares in depth the last few days spent with his Professor, who has been diagnosed with ALS,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease which has no cure. Mitch visits him every Tuesday during his last days of death. It is to keep up his tradition of attending to his lectures every Tuesday during his college days.

The Professor shares his beautiful secrets of life and good aphorisms which are learning lessons for one and all. When I finished reading the book I felt after Morris's death that I lost someone of my own. Mitch with his beautiful narrative style transports us live to Morris's house every Tuesday and hence the grief after reading weighs so heavily in every ones heart.

Some of Morrie's greatest insights are his views on how our culture plays into our lives. He spent his life creating his own culture, listening to his heart and doing what was right for him, versus what was right by society's standards. One problem he sees is that we tend to see each other as dissimilar rather than alike. We are taught to be independent and unique, but in reality we all have the same needs. He emphasizes investment in people, not things. When all is said and done, we will be remembered not by our bank accounts or stock portfolios, but by the time we spent listening to a friend or helping a family member

I personally feel the book deals with two stories simultaneously without the reader realizing it. One a superficial level its a story of a man and a disease. But when scratched it conveys a warm message of a professor of social psychology who has come to understand that life's complexities can be broken down into simple truths. Morrie speaks to every person because he is every person. He has led a simple yet meaningful life that inspires you to live yours to the fullest.

Perhaps his story is more powerful because one is not only taking in his wisdom, but as reader we are experiencing his death. In his words, he is fortunate enough to know he is dying, to take stock of his life as it comes to an end. He handles this with bravery and compassion, and when the final moment comes we feel as though we lost a dear friend.

A FEW MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK CAPTURED IN MY BLOG FOREVER:

Here are few of my favourite quotes from the book.

" a man frozen inside his own flesh".

"I hope that one day you will think of me as your friend".

"Life is a series of pulls back and forth.You want to do one thing,but you are bound to do something else.Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted even when you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle".

"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves.And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it".

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half asleep, even when they are busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning".

"Dying is the only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else. "I am on the last great journey here- and people want me to tell them what to pack."

"Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do"; "Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it"; Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others"; Don't assume that it's too late to get involved."

"All right I'll be your coach. And you can be my player. You can play all the lovely parts of life that I'm too old for now."

"Which side wins? Love always wins."

"If you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too-even when you are in the dark. Even when you are falling."

" A teacher affects eternity. He will never tell where his influence stops."

"Same for loneliness. you let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely-but eventually be able to say, " all right, that was my moment with loneliness. I ain't afraid of feeling lonely, but now I am going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I am going to experience them as well."

At seventy eight he was giving in as a adult and taking back as a child."

"Death ends a life, not a relationship".

"Be compassionate. And take responsibility for each other. If we learned these lessons, this world would be so much a better place."

"Love each other or die."

"What's wrong in being number two."

"Invest in human family. Invest in people. Build a community of those who love you and those you love.'

"In the beginning of life, we are infants, we need others to survive. At the end of our life, we need others to survive. BUT, HERE'S THE SECRET: ;IN BETWEEN, WE NEED OTHERS AS WELL."

" In marriage, you get tested.You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accommodate or don't."

There are few rules about love and marriage. "If you don't respect the other person, you are gonna have a lot of trouble. ?If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you cant talk openly about what goes on between you,you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you 're gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike."