' Veronica decides to die ' - A Review

Book :- Veronica decides to die.
Author :- Paulo Coehlo

Story

A girl named Veronica decides to die and swallows sleeping pills. She decided to die because of monotony and boredom in her life. She is then rescued and gets admitted into a 'Mental' hospital.She is been told that she would die in few days time.

The book then revolves around the life of other 'MAD' people in the hospital and the interaction of Veronica with them.

Eventually , Veronica wants to live longer when she herself knows she would die sooner.In the End ,The awareness of death makes her to live life more.

Best parts of the book :

--> This book gives a whole new meaning to the concept of madness.
A story in the book defines madness.

" A Sorcerer curses the main well of a Village.So anyone who drinks water from that well turns MAD.All the Villagers drink water from that well and become MAD except the King and his Family . The Villagers think that the King is MAD. Unable to control the Villagers uprising , the King and his family too Drink water from that well. SO everyone became MAD and they all lived happily ever after."

---> The Great lines
The book has some wonderful lines which makes us to think .

a) People talked more freely to a psychiatrist than they did to a priest because a doctor couldn't threaten them with Hell.

b)Each human being is unique, each with his own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure and desire for adventure. However society always imposes on us a collective way of behaving, and people never stop to wonder why they behave like that.

c)Fear. Veronika might feel insecurity, shyness, shame, constraint, but why fear? That was only justifiable when confronted by a real threat: ferocious animals, armed attackers, earthquakes, but not a group of people gathered. But human beings are like that we have replaced all our emotions with fear.

d)Fantasies are electrical impulses in brain which if not realized will release their energy elsewhere.

e) Other than grave pathological reasons people go mad only when they try to escape from routine.

f)Have you ever thought why alphabets are arranged in a hapazard manner in a typewriter ?

g) You could cry, get worried or angry like any other normal human being, as long as you remembered that, up above, your spirit was laughing out loud at all those thorny situations.

h) 'Is wanting to be different a serious illness?'
'It is if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else: it causes neuroses, psychoses and paranoia. It's a distortion of nature, it goes against God's laws, for in all the world's woods and forests, He did not create a single leaf the same as another.

I)Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but do so without attracting attention.


Bad Parts of the book

NONE

VERDICT

A book par excellence .

Kamal Haasan was once asked by a reporter " How come you are able to come up with sterling performances in each of your films , Is it because you perform thinking that every film is your First ?"

Kamal Replied " NO , I perform in every film as if its my LAST "

The essence of this book is very similar. It says " Live your life as if it is the last day in your life".

I am trying...