My Life My Rules - Book Review

Aristotle once said "All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire." This book made me agree. A compilation of real life stories how people can change their life if they really wish to. An unconventional career is something which is as under rated as much as it is over rated. The bottom line of all the stories is just this- if you think you are or can become good at something there is nothing that can make you feel unconventional about it. Even the so called 'conventional' careers cited in the author's note have their share of unconventional hardships. Work is worship, but it all depends on for what and how often we truly pray.

What is impressive is the selection of profiles of people from varied backgrounds in our country, people whom we hear about and watch on television. Each of them have made an exceptional mark in their field, rules and life apart. Words such as these of Harsha Bhogle "Things just happen to me. What I do is only approach them with the attitude that okay, I am going to give my best to whatever comes my way. I may not be good enough for a particular day but then it's not a crime. Given the circumstances of the day, I try the best I can"

 My personal opinion with regards to the choice of people written about with due respect to their achievements, if we were to consider the relevance of the title is just this, it could have been more better. ' My life my rules' sounds a little inappropriate, some of the instances cited which made them choose their career has nothing to do with a goal or dream, some went by the flow and some made a hard choice. Read the book to agree. Not every effort or step in  life can be always strongly intentional. Life gets shaped not just by rules.

From a reader's perspective, the concept of this book is appealing. But when it comes to the choice of words, the flow of each story is just an elaborate life summary. For instance in one part "Born in ...., about thirteen kilometers from... he is the fourth of the five children". Somewhere with all the detailing the rules of life, the intention of the book is forgotten in many paragraphs. Now why would a reader really want to know what was his birth order, speak of ideologies and principles which shaped him up professionally, well that can be taken.

All said and done, there are boundaries that surround all our dreams. Yes they do exist. The hard part is to bring them to reality beyond them. It takes a great deal of everything in life and people who are willing to go through it all make it to books such as these, so that we can read about them. And in some way get inspired, and write a little better :)

This post is a part of the Book Reviews programme at Blogadda

-R