‘I am just another you’ an earlier book by Priya Kumar made to my 2018 list of books I refuse to uncage. I had also read her book, ‘I Will Go With you’ and was suitably impressed. And I picked up ‘The wise man said’ by Priya Kumar with high expectations. So, I am biased.
Back Cover.
Sammy is an 80-year-old billionaire, who finds himself at the peak of his success built on a mountain of sacrifices. He decides to participate in a life he missed to live. Eleven months in a year, he leaves behind his identity and money. He allows his curiosity and his willingness to experience anything—death even, to take him on life-changing adventures and experiences across the world. Loaded with wisdom, surprise, humour and an eagerness to embrace life, The Wise Man Said is a collection of twelve such adventures of Sammy, where his journey becomes his greatest achievement—a life well lived!
Judging Book By The Cover.
The book cover is intriguing and engaging but does not do justice to the content. So once again, tough to judge a book by the cover- here I picked it up because I have read books by the author. Otherwise, if it was on the back of some other book- may6be I have hesitated to pick it.
Inside The Book.
The protagonist, Naina Seth, meets Sammy, as destiny would have it. She smokes a compound that would make her see images and get gifted a worn-out diary capturing adventures of the wanderer billionaire.
She then picks 12 of those adventure stories and interpret them for the learning and impact it has on her. Well, each of the stories is definitively and experience, right or wrong, true or false, it does not matter. What matters is how it makes that iota of change in her life.
Gems Inside ‘The Wise Man Said’
Not only the stories are excellent and engaging, but the synopsis of learning and notes at the end of the stories are a gold mine for introspection. There are thought-provoking observations sprinkled throughout the book as experiences.
“I have travelled through cities and villages alike. But the further I went away from the hustle, the closer I came to Humanity.” And if for a moment we layer our experiences to the statement, we find how strongly true it is.
Different Lives Different Impact
Not that you will agree with every observation. You must not. This is your life, your experiences and reactions will be different. They have to be as we are in different space and time, in a dimension attached through the sense of time. Your life and events that have impacted you will always be different, as your truth will be different than mine. impact could be
Priya Kumar serves some gems in ‘The Wise Man Said”.
I envy Sammy- the billionaire, he wanders around with no money across different part of the globe for 11 months in a year and lands up at his work in the 12th month. Every time he is out, he is experiencing, learning and evolving.
Here are some thought bearing statements I have specially plucked from the book. Do think over them and see where in your life they impact you.
ACT NOW
And if you have even a slight bit of interest, go pick the book to read the story of Sammy’s adventure as narrated by Priya Kumar.
- No matter how much time you put in, you can never be fully prepared for a journey. I have learnt to be off on the way rather than to plan starting out.
- There are people who have an interest in your absence than in your presence. Capitalise on their need to get rid of you.
- Life teaches you lessons so that you don’t repeat mistakes. But sometimes the impact of the mistake remains undone. You kill a man. You realise your mistake. But that does not bring the man back to life.
- Slavery exists – not just on the Atlantic Queen ( a ship in one of the stories), but in every corporate set-up where people are not allowed a life beyond work.
- The thing about the truth is that because you tell the truth, it does not mean that people will believe you.
- I learnt that being in debt is sometimes good: people want you alive to pay them back.
- Money is not the solution, because money was never the problem.
- A bad worker never makes a good thief. The mechanics of success are common to both.
- The path may come to an end, but that doesn’t have to be the end of the journey.
And a few excerpts from ‘The Wise Man Said’.
The greatest trap that has enslaved us in the human experience is familiarity. We will keep coming back to the same person, the same addictions, no matter how hellish or how ugly or how painful it may be to bear, all because it is familiar.
We are s used to being victimised y it that we allow its continual impact on us until we finally become it. The misery has a compounding effect when we keep others trapped along with us, when we do not let them go, knowing very well that we are killing them slowly with our restrictions.
I have learnt to hold on no matter how tough or impossible the situation, maybe for me to stay. The truth is that the situation will turn, as the planet does to bring us the promised sunrise after every sunset. Life is set up that way, what rises falls, what falls rises, what comes forth, will soon retreat- that is a certainty. The interval between those two ends sometimes is longer or shorter than warranted, challenging us to hold on, for if it has been set forth, its arrival is guaranteed.
I have learnt that although the destination may be the same, it is the journey that holds in it the lessons and the evolution. Every path unfolds a different story, a different character, a different setting. On arrival at the same destination, you will see different personalities emerge as a result of their journeys and experiences.
You can send an email or connect on Twitter S_kotnala .
To subscribe to weekly update click here.
BLOG/78/2020/Book/010
