Lessons for Life

Several simple and touching stories, which talk about life and death, have become bestsellers in recent years. Not only  do they give a deep insight into what the process of dying does to our physical self but also about the lessons we learn as we come closer to death.

One such best seller is  “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Album (Time Warner Books), which is a magical chronicle of a rekindled relationship between a professor, recently detected to have a progressive neurological disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and a student he had taught 20 years ago. It was on Tuesdays that the young “student” came in to spend time with Professor Morrie Schwartz, and the story of his last days unfolds over 14 consecutive Tuesdays that he spends with his teacher who battles this relentless disease,

Mitch gets a second and, this time a more practical lesson in life from his ailing professor, and learns to understand the value of relationships with loved ones, and the importance of sharing time with those that ultimately matter, distant from the maze of day-to-day commitments. It also helps Mitch learn how disease and death are ultimately humbling, and how we need to ask bigger questions and cherish the love we get and the time we are granted to bask in its warmth.

This 200 page “cant-put-down” candid tale touches the heart and poses the question “ What would you say to a person or do to him if this were your last meeting?” a disturbing but real question that we make a habit to avoid.

Another true-story international bestseller book worth reading is “The Last Lecture” (Hodder and Stroughton Ltd) by Randy Pausch, a youthful, energetic and cheerful Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Melon, who is diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer at a young and productive phase of his life, with doctors giving him a few months.  Life again poses the same question, “If you only had a short time to live, what would you do?”. And add to that his concern that his children would be too small at the time of his death to have really known their father.

Dr Pausch decides to prepare and deliver the last lecture at his university that will make people remember him for what he was; not just his work, his struggle, his achievements, but more importantly, his emotions and his sportsman-spirit with which he accepts his inevitable fate. Entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, it makes us pause and notice that what we spend most time being dragged into doing might not be what we had set out to achieve in our dreams. “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand”, says Dr Pausch.

Books have a quiet way of communicating life’s important lessons, far from the glare and din of movie theatres and TV boxes. They, in addition, give you that precious time and space to ponder and reflect. Try these books.

As published in HT City (Hindustan Times) dated 8 January, 2012.