Books I am reading

There are few books which really talk to you when you read them. They just appear at the right time and they are magical. I am going to talk about three such books as they touch upon a topic which is very close to me.

First one is a book by Niall Harbison called Hope - How street dogs taught me the meaning of life.

This is more of his own life story as how he went from being a wealthy person to a addict and his comeback when he started taking care of street dogs. I follow his twitter feed and is the one I look forward to. It is full of joy and I just love the dogs which he talks about. Anyone who had a dog can relate to his feed. They teach you in so many more ways than you can ever think of .

Second book is by Meb Keflezighi called 26 Marathons - What i learned about Faith, Identity, Running and Life .

"If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life , run a marathon" is a quote by Emil Zátopek taken from this book and it sets the background of this book.He is the only athlete who has won a gold in 5K, 10 and Marathon in Olympics and that speaks volume about his running prowess.

If you have ever attempted to run a marathon, you will appreciate this book. As they say, it takes a village to raise a child, the same is true about running marathons. You need to look into your nutrition, strength , gels, water and ors, protein, recovery. mental and physical stamina, shoes, socks, shorts, singlets, injuries and the list goes on. The biggest question is why I am doing this and having a perspective on this helps. It is one of the most difficult runs from a physiological perspective. Meb covers 26 marathons which he ran in his career and it answers most of the questions which comes to me as I train for the same. It is a gruelling journey to say the least. It needs multiple things to fall in place for you and that is what motivates me to take this challenge.

The third book is by David Brook called The Second Mountain.

It is a fascinating read as it talks about 2 mountains which are more of metaphors. The first mountain is about building up the ego and defining the self; the second mountain is about shedding the ego and losing the self. This kind of sums up what those two mountains are and what amazed me, is most of us are stuck at first mountain.

He goes on to argue we teach our children to follow an ethos that defines who we are by what we achieve. Meritocracy drives you to top of first mountain but pretty soon you realize that it is a disappointment. That is when you start looking for second mountain and it is found in not chasing achievements but having a commitment to do good. It builds the character and also gives one a meaningful life. The faster we realize that we need to get to second mountain, we will be happy and live a fulfilled life.

On a side note, I went to this school run by a NGO and was amazed to see the joy among the children and also the pride in the school staff. This affirmed my belief that there is a much bigger world outside of your vocation. This is what we need to to chase, If we want to be happy in what we do and live a meaningful life. It can be different for each of us and the whole point here is to answer this question for ourself , are we climbing up the second mountain or not.