Saturday with Paulo
Kids were away on their own brand of adventure courtesy of my brother in-law. And just when I had the craziest idea of spending the day being a ‘mermaid’- my very own term for cuddling in bed until the sun rises straight up my head and being a slimy squid in front of the TV for the second half of the daylight- and very excited about it, my Roze suggested that I should drive her to her facial at Ampang Point.
“You know the place would be jam-packed with people and if I were driving, I would be late for my appointment because I would have to drive around to look for parking. If you drive, you can just drop me off.”
It made perfect sense to me but I was a bit apprehensive at first nonetheless, knowing that I had to spend 2 hours of loafing around. And with kids not with me, I knew it wouldn’t be easy to spend all those times waiting. But I said yes anyway, not out of duty to Roze but to myself as I came to a realization that I need all those times to be alone by myself and be free.
After making a number of circles around the block in pursuits to secure a parking spot, I finally managed to complete my mission. It was a short victory and I wasted no time in celebration when I realized I had a far bigger mission: I have 2 hours to waste. “But then, where do I go?” I said to myself. And, there I was, in the middle of a crowded place and nowhere to go.
I was running around with no sense of purpose until I looked up to 3rd Floor and saw the bookstore. At that very moment, I saw clear images of Paulo Coelho in my head and I was in an almost revelation-like experience when I stepped my feet inside the bookstore. I knew what I wanted and my mission was clear: a Paulo Coelho’s book. I finally knew why I was there. It happened very fast and in 5 minutes flat, I was holding “The Zahir” in my hand.
A few minutes later, I was sitting down at Frisco Coffee on the Ground Floor with a large X (Extreme Mocha) on the table and my eyes and fingers glued on to “The Zahir”. Running through pages of “The Zahir” in between sips of the heavenly X was a journey in itself. And, Paulo Coelho, as in his other books I have read, has nothing short of magical power to suck me deep in the storyline, making me feel as if I were the main character. The delivery was brilliant and the plot was full of unexpected twists and turns, curves here and there, and ups and downs everywhere.
The spontaneity and the fluidness of the storyline were so phenomenal although I could feel the story was moving slower than what I would like it to be. The frequent change of stage setting offered a different yet refreshing experience for me. As the setting moved from Paris to Spain (Santiago and others), Croatia and ended in Kazakhstan steppes, I was also carrying my luggage from one place to another.
I loved Coelho’s analogies used throughout the book and I think they were so relevant and meaningful. And, he used the encounters with the beggars and nomads to demonstrate their different brands of philosophy of life, which perfectly made sense to me.
Needless to say, I was so deep in the storyline that I managed to ignore what happened around me except for a few minutes of having to listen to a group of screaming Arabs sitting at the next table. Otherwise, I was in the world of my own enjoying the time to myself. And, 2 hours later, after emptying 1 large X and another regular X and puffing away 5 sticks of Sempoerna, I completed almost half of the book.
(Just for the record, I completed the whole book that day. A must-read for those of you who’s still searching for the meaning of life.)
Chazz
“You know the place would be jam-packed with people and if I were driving, I would be late for my appointment because I would have to drive around to look for parking. If you drive, you can just drop me off.”
It made perfect sense to me but I was a bit apprehensive at first nonetheless, knowing that I had to spend 2 hours of loafing around. And with kids not with me, I knew it wouldn’t be easy to spend all those times waiting. But I said yes anyway, not out of duty to Roze but to myself as I came to a realization that I need all those times to be alone by myself and be free.
After making a number of circles around the block in pursuits to secure a parking spot, I finally managed to complete my mission. It was a short victory and I wasted no time in celebration when I realized I had a far bigger mission: I have 2 hours to waste. “But then, where do I go?” I said to myself. And, there I was, in the middle of a crowded place and nowhere to go.
I was running around with no sense of purpose until I looked up to 3rd Floor and saw the bookstore. At that very moment, I saw clear images of Paulo Coelho in my head and I was in an almost revelation-like experience when I stepped my feet inside the bookstore. I knew what I wanted and my mission was clear: a Paulo Coelho’s book. I finally knew why I was there. It happened very fast and in 5 minutes flat, I was holding “The Zahir” in my hand.
A few minutes later, I was sitting down at Frisco Coffee on the Ground Floor with a large X (Extreme Mocha) on the table and my eyes and fingers glued on to “The Zahir”. Running through pages of “The Zahir” in between sips of the heavenly X was a journey in itself. And, Paulo Coelho, as in his other books I have read, has nothing short of magical power to suck me deep in the storyline, making me feel as if I were the main character. The delivery was brilliant and the plot was full of unexpected twists and turns, curves here and there, and ups and downs everywhere.
The spontaneity and the fluidness of the storyline were so phenomenal although I could feel the story was moving slower than what I would like it to be. The frequent change of stage setting offered a different yet refreshing experience for me. As the setting moved from Paris to Spain (Santiago and others), Croatia and ended in Kazakhstan steppes, I was also carrying my luggage from one place to another.
I loved Coelho’s analogies used throughout the book and I think they were so relevant and meaningful. And, he used the encounters with the beggars and nomads to demonstrate their different brands of philosophy of life, which perfectly made sense to me.
Needless to say, I was so deep in the storyline that I managed to ignore what happened around me except for a few minutes of having to listen to a group of screaming Arabs sitting at the next table. Otherwise, I was in the world of my own enjoying the time to myself. And, 2 hours later, after emptying 1 large X and another regular X and puffing away 5 sticks of Sempoerna, I completed almost half of the book.
(Just for the record, I completed the whole book that day. A must-read for those of you who’s still searching for the meaning of life.)
Chazz
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