Remember when I went shopping to six different stores in Penang looking for the book “Shantaram”? Many people told me about it in the US before I left, even a man while I was waiting in line to be admitted to The “GoLite” factory sale. Once on my trip, more people mentioned it and even some of you wrote me that you loved that book! Now, moments ago, I pulled it from it’s fresh plastic cover and began reading.
In a few days, I’ll be on the island of Flores and soon on Surya Island, close to Labuan Bajo and without electricity. I knew I was saving the book for the right moment and now that moment has appeared.
I started reading it tonight and was captured by the opening paragraph. For those of you who might be interested, chew on this opening paragraph for a while:
“It took me along time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn’t sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it’s all you’ve got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.”
WOW, how’s that for a beginning?! Lovely! Now, I’m back to reading.