VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE

This book by Paulo Coelho deals with mental disorder’s that afflict us. It help’s us understand the people who suffer from them. The book revolves around the protagonist Veronika who decides to commit suicide and it just snowballs from there. It is set in Slovenia. A very bleak setting indeed. It conjures up images of snow and isolation and poverty. You keep imagining a place with mountains that are barren and a city without greenery.

In this setting is situated the mental institution Villette. Here we meet people who are mental and those who are not but still would like to keep their company. Veronika arrives here and everyone around her starts getting affected since she is so young and about die. The inmates stories are bought to the surface and the way they start questioning their own lives because of Veronika’s situation is beautifully bought to the fore. In all this death and despair a case for living is made. All of us are afflicted with madness of some kind or another. We learn that life is too short and people need to realize that they can be different. It also deals with how people get caught up in the world with things that do not inspire them. They give up something that they are really passionate about for living a mundane life and in that frustration start living a life of mediocrity and soon suicidal thoughts enter our heads.

I’ve never thought about what might feel like to be mad, to be considered mad, to feel so alone and not have people understand you. Some people come through it stronger like Mari one of the character’s in the book but it’s not a situation I would ever like to be in. This book gave me a ringside view and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a different topic to read on a Sunday afternoon.

This blog was just lying vacant. I had decided to write book reviews here. Because I read so much sometimes I forget what I've read! This will definitely help me remember. This book I read last term and the review was just lying around, incomplete. So now I'm going to actively start writing here.........it will help me in the goal of writing my book(: I'm sure. Would love to have some comments here.

The tipping point- By Malcolm Gladwell



I had read Blink a book by the same author and was impressed. At that time I heard about his earlier book, this book, and was looking forward to laying my hands on it.

Once Again Malcolm Gladwell speaks of a really novel and unique concept. It’s about how small occurrences can snowball into larger consequences. A tipping point. He takes up various examples. The first example was about Hush Puppies and how the shoes were going out of style. Then one day some really cool people started wearing them and they became bestsellers. Similarly he talks about shoes called Airwalk. Whereas in the first example Hush Puppies went about doing their usual marketing strategies, Airwalk decided to use a novel way by using those key people that others listen to, too spread their brand.

Here he explains the concepts of Innovators, Connectors & Mavens. Innovators are those guys who take the risks and do something different. They always know that there is something different about themselves be it clothes or business. They are the ones that everybody is watching. They are the ones that make the decision whether something is good enough or cool enough. Connectors are those with a large network of friends who can spread a message really fast. Mavens are the brains. They are the ones who watch the innovators and are very sensitive to their surroundings. They pick up trends and are first to know about a bargain. They may not have as large a circle as a connector but when they talk everybody listens, so do the connectors. These examples are highly relatable where you can see yourself and your friends placed into these different categories.

Malcolm also talks extensively on the TV shows Sesame Street and Blues Clues. Here he tells us how innovative children’s cinema has become and the tipping point in each of them being the novel way in which the shows are designed. Amongst other things he also talks about how New York city became a better place. It was not necessarily because the policemen increased or things became stricter. Sure that was one of the reasons. But it was mostly because graffiti was taken care of in the city and ticketless travelers in the subway were penalized severely. These were the small things that were the tipping point for the city. Once the decay in the environment got cleaned up things started looking much better. It gives us food for thought. That sometimes it’s not about your advertising and marketing strategies. But simple things like someone you respect telling you to go out and buy the product.