Human heartbeat

Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilities [...] I'd always thought that fate was something unchangeable: fixed for every one of us at birth, and as constant as the circuit of the stars. But I suddenly realized that life is stranger and more beautiful than that. The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad the luck, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love.

The quote above, beside reflecting one of my biggest belief, is from a great book I recently finished to read. "Shantaram" is an incredibel truth story (even though classified as fiction, probably due to some forcing... so called artist license) about an Australian guy escaping a sicurity prison and ending up in Mumbai, India to re-discover himself with the pain of a lost past and uncertain future, but above all a present made of an overwhemling culture and surrouding. Shantaram is a bit Godfather (knowing how popular is Puzo's masterpiece in India, I'm sure the author has been influeced by it!) and a bit of a philosophical collection of thoughts that eventually deal with what everyone faces in life.

Being in Australia and ranking India on top of my best life experience might have given a recent sweet taste to my reading of this book, but I believe everyone would find it exceptional. Check out the Shantaram website, unfortunatly not much update lately, managed by the author Gregory David Roberts.

What I loved the most is probably the very first page of the book... below however are the first last line which you might skip if you've already decided to give the book a try... Enjoy!

For this it what we do. Put on foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another passionate search for a truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forvige us. We live on.

The new book I'm reading seems very promising as well: "A prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving... however I only read 50 pages so far. I bought it a few months ago at a garage sale I passed by and just this morning found two tickets for some public transportation means marked in UK pounds, (60 cents) and date 1991. Eventually I noticed the book has an handwritten name on top of the introcution page... it says: Brett Garrston, July 1990 - Birmingham... now I may have met Brett at that garage sale or maybe the book passed through so many hands... I definitely don't know, but I wonder how many human hearbeats brought it to me!