Paulo Coelho, Roll Call Again: Book Review

Paulo Coelho’s latest offering to be a piece of art, demonstrating the magic he is capable of creating with simple, ordinary language. “Zahir, in Arabic, means visible, present, incapable of going unnoticed. It is someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else.” (From the foreword of the book.)
heartbroken novels about the presumably corrupt world of today and the jaded cynicism of most intellectual writers, The Zahir is like a fresh ray of hope, because it is essentially a very positive book. The concept of The Zahir is very important here, because it puts the entire plot into perspective, which is necessary to grasp the meta-plot of this multi-layered and wonderfully complex story. It is easy to relate to the narrator and protagonist, because it is just not about a rich writer who is obsessed with his disappeared wife, it is about the human experience of learning to follow dreams, realising them, and unleashing the powerful force of truth.
The book is about facing who you are and what you are afraid of, and erasing past histories in order to create more and more love every day. It is easy to sense that the protagonist is a broad-minded individual, who is brighter than the average person. As the book goes on to describe his journey it is easy to see how he grows more spiritually aware with every chapter.
The narrative is alive and vibrant and so insightful that it is sometimes overwhelming. The narrator’s view of life and society is very difficult from the conventional and commonsensical, and hence it provides new interpretations of even the most mundane things. The symbolism is very significant in the book once the reader has grasped the basic plot; within that outline the story progresses to reveal new dimensions into the writer’s search for his wife and his initially inadvertent stumbling into the truth about his own life.
As pointed out that school stories always have been and will be cherished by generations of students. Enid Blyton’s St Clare’s and Malory Towers stories will always find readers. What they have in common is that usually they are only representative of the students’ views. But in a school there is another body of important people, the teachers.

The story of the Chirstmas Tree:Synopsis

Today, Christmas is as much of a secular festival as a religious one. The exact date of Christ’s birth is unknown, but the Church fixed the celebration on 25 December. This is preceded by the Advent season, which is a sombre but hopeful time in which Christians prepare themselves for Christmas, when they believe God came into the world to save mankind from the Evil. The Christmas tree forms almost an indispensable part of the Christmas celebrations. The decorated Christmas tree, common in German countries for centuries, was introduced to Britain by Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria.
According to the Holy Bible, the Christmas tree is associated with the birth of Jesus Christ. It is generally believed that on the night of His birth, all living creatures came to Bethlehem to greet him with gifts. The olive tree came along with its fruit and the palm with its date but the fir had nothing to gift the newborn king. So an angel taking pity on the fir tree commanded a cluster of stars to shine on its beautiful boughs. Baby Jesus smiled on seeing the lighted tree, and blessed it. The tree is always lighted with many decorations on it, to please little children during Christmas. It is also said that the triangular shape of the tree symbolises the Trinity and points upwards towards the God. While the light, gift and decorations on the Christmas tree mean heaven, love and charity respectively, the light symbolise the light that Jesus Christ cast upon the lives of the people. There lies the legend behind the Christmas tree.
The celebration is incomplete without a Christmas tree. This tree is regarded as one of the most dominant symbols of Christmas celebrations all over the world. It is normally a conifer that is decorated with lights and colourful ornaments during the auspicious Christmas days. The Christmas tree originated in Germany in the 16th Century.
The custom of carol-singing was revived mainly in the 19th century. It was also the time when Christmas crackers were invented. The Trees have been a symbol of good luck ever since.
Traditionally, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve and removed only on the day after the twelfth night. To have a tree decorated before the Eve was considered as a bad omen.
The best selling trees during Christmas celebrations are those named Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and White pine. Other types of trees, such as cherry and hawthorns are also used as Christmas trees. These trees are widely available in the market and are in great demand all the world over. Christmas trees take an average ten years to mature.

Franklin Pierce was the first US President to introduce the Christmas tree to the White House. The first national Christmas tree was lit in 1923, on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.

It is also a time for Christmas carols. The popular carol merged with the folk song and with the broadside songs sold on city streets. Composed carols gained variety in form in the 17th century, while their texts began to centre on Christmas. The familiarity of a large number of carols among the general public is probably unmatched by any other musical form.
It is a time of great commercial activity and family reunions. The familiar image of Santa Claus moving in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, distributing toys and gifts to every child across the globe is known worldwide. Very little is known of Jesus historically, but information can be gleaned from the Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible, and the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. Many still believe that Jesus was the revealer not only of human life in its perfection but of divine reality itself.
The ultimate principle of the universe, called by many different names in various religions, was called “Father” in the sayings of Jesus, and Christians therefore call Jesus himself “Son of God”.
Love is, in the New Testament and in subsequent Christian doctrine, the most decisive among the attributes of God. Christianity teaches that God is almighty in dominion over all that is in Heaven and on Earth, righteous in judgment over good and evil, beyond time and space and change; but above all they teach that “God is love”.
The creation of the world out of nothing and the creation of the human race were expressions of that love, and so was the coming of Christ. Thus Christmas is a celebration of that “love” throughout the world. It brings with itself a breeze of love and faith with it.
Being one of the most awaited festivals across the world, Christmas is all about carols, Santa Claus, goodwill, and love

Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West:

by :Gregory Maguire

If you’ve never read Frank Baum’s children’s classic The Wizard of Oz or seen the movie starring a very young Judy Garland, you should not be reading this book (or my review). Because you really should read the book or watch the movie one day and I wouldn’t want to spoil your enjoyment of either.
But if you know the story already, I cannot recommend this companion piece too strongly. In The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West was seen merely as a source of evil, a peripheral character who caused the troubles that Dorothy and her party had to overcome in order to free the land of Oz. Gregory Maguire chose to question the very idea of wickedness itself. Who or what is wicked? And how and why? Do the wicked also not have a strong rationale behind their behavior? The result is a wonderful, exciting and challenging book.
Wicked starts with the circumstances surrounding the birth of Elphaba, the green girl who would one day be known as “The Wicked Witch of the West”. It describes the unusual baby she was, the repressive atmosphere in which she grew up, her father’s religious fervor and her mother’s casual treatment of the baby girl she had not wanted. Elphaba enters University as young girl with strong convictions, a deeply embedded sense of right and wrong and a fellow feeling for the underdog. The political turmoil of Oz and the Wizard’s callousness towards the rural districts (where she grew up) and especially the Animals, sees her joining the underground revolutionaries.
The death of her lover leads her to her lover’s home in the mountains, in an attempt to find forgiveness from his wife. The wife herself frustrates this desire and insists on friendship instead and she stays on with the boy who may or may not be her son. Politics enters her life once more however and takes away this home and she is left behind at the castle with her attempts on biological engineering (trying to stitch wings on monkeys in an attempt to teach them to fly) and her reputation amongst the rural hillside folk as a sinister witch.
Her sister Nessa — the Wicked Witch of the East — after having taken over their part of Oz by a political coup, is killed one day by a house falling on her head. Elphaba flies down in haste to hear about a mysterious tornado and a girl called Dorothy, and that this girl caused her sister’s death, albeit indirectly. An old friend from University, Glinda the Good Witch has sent Dorothy to the Wizard, hoping that he will resolve the political crisis Nessa’s death has led to. Knowing the Wizard as she does, Elphaba then sets out looking for Dorothy, trying to stop her from taking Nessa’s powerful shoes to the Wizard.
From here on the novel shows the other side of Baum’s narration. Anything more than this would maybe spoil the novel for you, so I’ll keep quiet. But if you do read the book, try drawing the connections between the Baum and the Maguire versions. And try not to let Maguire brainwash you into thinking that it was Dorothy who was the (unwitting) cause of evil instead! Maguire is a powerful storyteller and it challenges the reader to find a ‘truth’ somewhere in between the two novels.