every book has a right time for each reader: on reading Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith

Do books have soul? Sometime I feel they do. I think, when a book is born, it is born with a soul. And when that book is published and reprinted, the same soul keeps beating as one among the million and million copies of the same title. So all The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - those millions and billions of copies  - some lying by unmade beds, some in neatly dusted libraries, some lying forgotten in crevices of  drawers and desks, some being read by people travelling in buses and trains and flights even as we are reading this line - all of the them have the same soul coursing through their pages.

And soul falls in love. Sometime, when a reader reads a book very lovingly, may be the book falls in love with the reader too. And, if you start reading a book when its soul is already in love with another reader; you will never fall in love with that book - however great a book it might be.

At such time, we must keep the book aside, and pick it up later. We need to pick up the book after the first reader is done reading the book; after he has read the last page, shut down the cover and put it back among the other books in the library.

When we read the book then, we will fall in love with it. And the book will love us back with all its soul.

When I first read this fantastic book, Girl meets Boy by Ali smith in the April of 2013, I strangely could not keep going through the pages. I know its a great book, I was loving the words within but I could not carry on with it. So I kept it aside. And now, in the May of 2014, I am reading Girl meets Boy and loving every page, every word in it. And every word, every page of the book is loving me back, with all its soul.

Reincarnation - true cases of children who have lived before by Trutz Hardo

I came across the name of this book while reading an article and was immediately drawn by the title. Subjects like reincarnation or near death experience have always been very alluring to me. I have spent countless evenings of my childhood coaxing my grandmother for such stories. And needless to say, I have rarely been disappointed. Those are still some of my favourite evenings. When I came across the name of  this book, that old  spirit was rekindled and within an hour, I had ordered this book online.

I do not yet know whether I am a believer or a non-believer here. Here, more than anything, I am a very interested listener/reader and this book did not disappoint me. The book begins with examples of real incidents of reincarnation. These are all scientifically documented examples and the main protagonist is always a child. The writing style is simple and yet those are carefully chosen words because each documentation can be read like a story. However, the author is more a story teller than a good writer and this is often reflected; sometime I would feel that these could have been written better by a favourite author of mine. But at the end, I was not disappointed; the author has done justice to his work. Trutz Hardo has done a good job of plainly telling us the different cases he has studied/researched throughout his career and all of these sums up to a really interesting read.

Through these real life "stories", slowly Trutz Hardo takes us through different aspects of reincarnation. Some of these are simple incidents: a girl recognizing the brother of her past life or another child claiming to miss her grandmom from her previous life. Then there are incidents where a boy could identify his murderer from past life and so accurate was his evidence that the murderer finally admitted to his crime.

The books tells us what happens between two lives - the time when a person is yet to be reborn. Sometime hundreds of years passes before a person is reborn while sometime it can only be a few months between two lives of the same soul. Some "soul"s hover in the earthly plane while some "move on" to an "intermediate realm" during this time. In this intermediate realm, the soul meets old friends and relatives and prepares for his next birth. Sometime, such souls arrange to meet again in the next birth and the author tells us an incident where two best friends are born as twins in their next lives. In this intermediate realm, the soul can still be aware of the people they care about; the emotional being of a soul continues from one life to the another.  The author tells the incident of a young boy (he died in an accident) who would appear in the dream of his aggrieved mother to console her and assure her of his return; he is soon reborn nearby. In his next life, he reconnects with his mother from earlier life. Often, the soul is guided by other wise souls in the choice of his next parents but sometime, it is the individual choice of the soul too. On each rebirth, a soul has an aim - and the soul chooses a set of parents who can help him best fulfill these aims. For example, a man who showed less compassion in his earlier life may choose a life path in his next rebirth that will make him understand compassion better. A man may be reborn as a woman to experience motherhood. Deformities or birthmarks are often a connect between two lives of the same soul and panic attacks or phobia can be often be rooted in one of the  past lives of a soul.

Most of these information is gathered by the author with the help of regression therapies that he conducts with people who believe to have been reincarnated. During such times, often the person remembers incidents of his past lives, as well as his experiences in the intermediate realms.

It is not easy to believe such "science"; nor did I try to believe or disbelieve them while reading this book. These might be true; these might not be true. But it is always interesting to read about such possibilities and I had a very enjoyable read.

Next time I meet a person I instantly like or dislike; will I wonder if this emotion is rooted in past life? I donot know! May be I will wonder :)

the Crossover - open heart verses

The first thing that I liked about this is book is its cover. It shows a man walking out of darkness to the path of light. As I read the verses within, I realized that the cover page has very adeptly depicted the underlying theme of all the verses that follow. Through the verses you can sense the poet's journey from turmoil to peace.

The book is divided into three sections: Dream, Reality and The Path.

The verses flowing through Dream are the ones I liked the best. It hints of the poet's oneness with nature, with a spirit above and with his own inner self.

the poet says:

amidst mountains of mist
lies the truth deep within
between frozen moments in time
mind evolves towards bliss

Yet, it leaves me longing for more poetic expression in the poet's words. The underlying thoughts are beautiful  in each of the verse but as verses, in most places, they fail for me.

the poet says:

i ride on an ants back
to see its unseen track
it gives me goodies to eat
and they taste so sweet

I would have found these lines very endearing if my 8 year old nephew had written them. But reading them here as a part of a published collection by a grown up for another grown up, I am left wishing for more.


As the poet moves to Reality, we find him dealing with different subjects of the modern world. Through his words, he points out the flaw in them. The subjects range wide. Sometime he talks of the outer world where people go to discos in fancy dresses, only to impress other people while completely ignoring their inner selfs. Sometime he talks of the widening gap between the rich and the poor in a world full of high price tags. Again, the subjects are mature but I find the words lacking a bit in maturity. Also, when I say the words lack maturity, I do not mean that I am disappointed by lack of "fancy words"; I am myself a believer of verses in plain simple words. What disappoints me is the inability of the poet to string these words together into a more matured expression of his thoughts.


the poet says:

hello jumping jack
get off my back
stop giggling around
and get back to track

are you nuts
are you insane
all your attempts to impress
will go in vain

Yes, again I am reminded of my 8 year old nephew!

What is often brilliant though here is the thought process of the poet, and whenever his words has matched his thoughts, we come across brilliant lines of verses. One of my favourites is:

light cannot contain darkness
but darkness can contain light
if we are open to destroy all our beliefs
only then we can reach a greater height

Finally we come to the last section of the book, The Path. Here the poet points out the path to peace, spirituality and the inner world. And he has done a good job. Very matured thought process, and his style of expression is much better here.


The book is an interesting read. But I feel it is best suited for readers who are below 16- 18 years. Readers above this age group would have higher expectation in form of maturity in expression and in this regard,  The Crossover will be a  disappointing experience for them.