Skip to main content

Book Review: The Quest of the Sparrows by Kartik Sharma and Ravi Nirmal Sharma

The Quest of the Sparrows is a promising book on practical spirituality, narrated in a fictional way. If you can read this book, chances are that your life will change positively. As humans, we constantly ask this question, what to do with this life? There is birth and then death. What lies between it. And the answer you get from this book is, Evolution. People are afraid in their life to change for better – before they contemplate any move, they tend to think about future security and certainty in actions.


If life is all about future security, then what is faith in divine? Does it guide our existence on this earth? You will be sent on a roller-coaster guide if you manage to grasp the core of the story. This story, in all senses, is for everyone. It is for masses. The story has been told through three person’s point of view. Their stories converge to one point: what is spirituality in life and does it matter?

The first part is of Nikhil. He is a rich businessman – all his life he ran after money and business and he gave least botheration to his family. As a result, he is deprived of love from his own wife and daughter, who runs away to USA.

The second story is about Sanjeev. He literally hates saints and sages and spirituality just because of his father’s actions. When his father went to an ashram for spirituality, he suffered back home along with his mother.

The third story is of Swami Pratibhan. He is suppressed by the burden of loan. He loses one of his fingers and his mother dies in poverty. All the sufferings in his life are because of his father who ran away from their lives to become a very famous sage. Pratibhan does not believe in spirituality, and he hates his father like an enemy.

The story of Pratibhan is long and interesting one. When his father is about to leave for another world, he is called to his Ashram out of nowhere. He is informed that he has that special divine light in him and he has to succeed after his father. Also, the worth of the Ashram is three billion dollars. Pratibhan already on the run due to loan on his head reluctantly accepts the offer. The way he transforms himself as a saint to guide thousands of his father’s followers is quite fascinating. In the transformation period, he realizes his worth; he connects with the divine self, and gets the purpose of his life.

With many of his followers, he starts a 600-km long journey on foot. They take this journey without gadgets and money, the idea is to realize the power of spirituality by giving up the materialistic desires. The journey is quite crucial for all three, but the question is how they will survive such long distance in cold weather? As the journey begins, various aspects of life and divine faith begin unfolding one by one. The beautiful thing about the journey is not the tolerance to endurance, but their doubts about life, faith and divine begin fading away. A new power is being instilled in them. They feel the transformation as part of their lives.

The book, though religious in nature, offers a splendid view of life. The more you read, the more you feel like exploring your relationship with the god. But, its tragic end may dishearten you. The death of Pratibhan was needless.

It seems that writers have taken special care as not to bore their readers with lectures on life…faith…and so on. They beautifully maintained an element of charm throughout the story. It is not other warts and all on the name of spirituality, it is something special. Highly recommended.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...
68 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...
64 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more