The White Tiger

As my friend was going gaga over Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, am rushing through the pages. Better late than never. As usual, sharing three paras I liked so far:
“Only three have never let themselves be ruled by foreigners: China, Afghanistan and Abyssinia. These are the only three nations I admire.”
(Another friend argued that China was indeed at times ruled by foreigners. But as I am not an intellectual, I am not in this argument game)
“And only two destinies: Eat or get eaten up.”
“You were looking for the key for years/But the door was always open.”

Like the flowing river

Picked up “Like the flowing river” of Paulo Coelho last week. Finished in a matter of hours. No, no, it wasn’t so gripping, only I skipped pages by the dozens. Dunno why. After Alchemist, I find this so-so. For the record, lemme say I am too small to comment on the great author’s work.
Now just a couple of paras that touched me:
* I am not doing anything, and yet I’m doing the most important thing a man can do: I am listening to what I needed to hear from myself.”
* Quoting Genghis Khan: “Any action committed in anger is an action doomed to failure.”
* “You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, there is no need to prove all the time that everything is going well, it is good to cry out all your tears, because only then you will be able to smile again.”