ONE by Richard Bach

Read Richard Bach's One on my way to and from San Francisco. I liked a few things about the book. Foremost, that it had large print which meant less reading! (When I start a book, I get very anxious to finish it up).

To me, it is a book about choices. We have one life to live. But there are infinite choices and depending on the choices we make, we can live any of the infinite lives possible.
Then there was another thing I liked. Rather, it is my personal philosophy. I quote from the book - If it's my fault, I can change it! If I change and stay changed for a month, and we're still unhappy, then we can talk about changing her!"
In any problem, always look for where you are wrong. That is the part which you can correct. You will find that in almost every scenario that you are upset with, you are partly at fault - either by action or by inaction. I think such attitude resolves a lot of issues. Furthermore, this sort of attitude gets rid of any paranoia that you are at the center of a wicked conspiracy of the world to make you feel wretched all the time. But, sometimes (or often) people feel happier to assume that they are right and others are wrong. To each, his own!

Then there was this talk about soul mates which left me wondering for a while whether there really is such a thing - the one person who you are meant to be with. Its hard to say, but even if there is somebody like that, chances of my meeting her is very unlikely. How many people do we even meet in our lives? Even the author in the book says that 'in some universes, they (the soul mates) don't really meet'. (He regrets why he was not brave enough to talk to his wife when he first saw her, and thus lost a few years.) Clearly, you can not go about knowing every girl in this world. So then in some sense she has to be in the same geographical location! If there is a soul mate, overwhelming chances are (by simple probability) that their paths will never cross. Nobody can help it. Now then, should we be ready to accept a compromise? I meet some good looking girl. She's smart. I like her smile. I like her enthusiasm. I like being with her - because she' smart, because she has a lovely smile, and because she is full of energy. One day I decide 'okay, she's the girl for me'. I know that's partly how it works. But how do you convince yourself (or your subconscious) about it after having been fed with a lifetime of tutorial on soul mates!

"I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it?", says the rear cover of the book. What a way to put things in perspective? 20 years hence, I too probably will be asking myself the same question. There are things that I want to do today. There are things that I can do today. There are choices I have made today. Will I regret my choices? Will I reckon that I lost too much of time doing things that I didn't really want to do? Unfortunately, these are things only time can tell. But sometimes a book like this makes you reconsider your choices. It did have some effect on me and I made certain decisions, some for the near future, some for not-so-near. Lets see how much I stick to those.