THE ALCHEMIST

                             A FABLE ABOUT FOLLOWING YOUR DREAM

                  Author-Paulo Coelho

         A review by RAJESH CHANDRA

 “ When you want something, the entire Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

It is a story of a Shepherd who is contented in his world of Sheep and little wonders of the world and follows his recurrent dream to his destiny through the wisdom of a Old King  who teaches him to read the Omens and to believe in his dreams and destiny.

A series of dreams takes him to a dream reader who points him to the direction of his destiny of treasure. His dreams bring a wise old King to him who ignites the flame in him to find the treasure and follow his dreams to his destiny. With the adage-  “ When you dream and set out to your destiny, the entire Universe conspires to achieve it for you.”, the Shepherd gets his wise adviser in the old King  who teaches him about the world of dreams, destiny, omens and universal language of the nature.

The protagonist risks his entire possession in pursuit of his dreams and set out on his journey to follow his dreams even walking past the girl whom he has dreamt about for an year. He crosses into an alien land with alien language, religion and culture; it was Egypt, the mighty  Arab land of Desert and Pyramids.

He is tested by his destiny on his strength of conviction to his dreams. Robbed off all his possession, he works hard in a crystal shop and earns enough to cross the desert. Here his destiny favours him and the owner of the crystal shop in which he works too. And he learns his next lesson, Perseverance on the path of dreams pay off more than what you ever risked. Also, that some people stop short of their destiny and amass the means to achieve it and then remain stagnant and rooted short of destiny.

He, once again is at the cross roads, whether to  return back and be satisfied of a comfortable life but short of his destiny or to go on trail of his ultimate destiny risking his possessions and life across the mighty desert. He chooses  to follow his dreams again and becomes a part of a caravan. He learns the ways of Camels and the Caravan, the omens of the desert and reaches a Oasis where he finds the next love of his life. He gets rooted on the oasis due to  a war between the tribes. Here he finds Fatima, the girl of the desert who becomes a part of his destiny.

The Shepherd meets  an Alchemist whose eyes show the strength of his soul and inspires him to read the omens of the desert and he guides him to explore his capabilities to converse in the universal language. The boy, in adversity learns in communicating with the elements of the desert, the wind and the sun. These elements in turn guides him to his inner self, the hand that made the world.

After arming with the language of the nature he sets out to his destination of treasure, the pyramids. Here the Universe conspires again to bring his destiny closer and is tested close to death and whispers the secret of treasure. The man who chose to shun his dreams, gifts his destiny to the Shepherd.

The Alchemist is the one who has mastery over the nature of metals; they can change metals  into Gold but the real Alchemist is one who can play with the forces of nature itself and shape his own destiny rather than the destiny of few metals. This book is full of deep insights and may this book lead to the discovery of Alchemist in You.

            RAJESH CHANDRA