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Between the Devil and the...Angel?

And finally the final book of the trilogy, “The Devil and Miss Prym” is the most interesting of all. In this novel about temptation is a thought provoking parable of a community devoured by greed, cowardice and fear as it struggles with the choice between good and evil. A stranger arrives at the remote village of Viscos, carrying with him a backpack containing a notebook and eleven gold bars. He comes searching for the answer to a question that torments him. Are human beings, in essence good or evil? In his sophisticated plot, he shows Chantal Prym, a young, simple girl in the village, where he buried his eleven bars of gold. After showing her the gold bars, he shared his plot to proof his theory that the nature of human beings when confronted with temptation, will always fall. He explained to Chantal, “ Everybody in this village is honest, starting with you. I showed you the gold bar, which would give you the necessary financial independence to get out of the village, to trav

Death by Suicide

“I’m alive”, thought Veronika. “Everything’s gonna start all over again. I’ll have to stay in here for a while, until they realize that I’m perfectly normal. Then they’ll let me out, and I’ll see the outside world again.” In the second book by Paulo Coelho I have been exploring, “Veronika Decides To Die” talks about a 24 year old Veronika who seems to have everything – youth and beauty, boyfriends and a loving family, a fulfilling job. But something is missing in her life. So, one cold November morning, Veronika decides to die. She takes a handful of sleeping pills, expecting never to wake up again. But she does…in a mental hospital where she is told that she has only days to live. And as she thinks about her situation now that her suicide was unsuccessful, an inner monologue continues on in her head: “Since people always tend to help others-just so that they can feel they are better then they really are-they’ll give me my job back at the library. Since I only take sleeping pil

Between Love and God

My book review journey continues…and this time it’s a book entitled, “By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept” This is the first part in Paulo Coelho's trilogy "On the Seventh Day". The other two parts are “Veronika Decides to Die” and “The Devil and Miss Prym” . This trilogy revolve around a week in the life of seemingly ordinary people, all of whom find themselves suddenly confronted by love, death and power. Linking these stories together is Coelho’s belief that the profoundest changes take place within a short time. And while these intense changes shape the lives and decisions of the characters, they also challenge the reader, testing our strength, courage and willingness to adapt. After all the challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny. “By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept” is essentially a story about love. It also includes elements of Catholicism and particula

Love in Unexpected Places

I was still very hesitant about writing this post due to the delicate subject of those “Harry Potter books” and the last thing I want to do is open up a can of worms. There are still many differing viewpoints on whether Harry Potter books should be banned, burned or maybe…recycled? Or is the church overreacting about this particular series of children’s fictional books? I am not advocating that Christians should or should not read/watch Harry Potter but this is just to share my viewpoint and encounter with Harry Potter books. The first time anyone actually asked me whether I had any problems with Harry Potter was when I was applying for a job as a facilitator for a children’s development centre. Since they use Harry Potter to make things more interesting in their science experiment classes, they actually asked me if I was comfortable using him in the classes since I told them I was a Christian. That was 2 years ago…and I had to admit, I have never seen or read any Harry Potter bo

Holidays, Birthdays...and Happy Days!

“Are you getting married?” My colleague asked me as she eyed the book on Decorating for newly weds curiously on my table. I just laughed and shook my head. Apparently I had the itch to redecorate my bedroom so I had been borrowing all the books on interior decorating from the library. I actually didn’t notice the title of the book until I was taken aback by her question. Well since the unfulfilled desire to own my own place is still not within my reach, the best alternative goal within my reach was to redo my bedroom…hence the book on my table. And probably also the creative bug in me is starting to itch having been neglected for too long…doing other boring stuff! So my plan was to get all the inspiration and ideas as much as I could before the DeepaRaya holidays looms near. It’s seldom that we have two major national holiday celebration back to back so when it happens, it’s usually a long break. It also happened that Deepavali was right smack before my birthday too. So with th

Hyppo Barney Rocks!!

The ActsGames results were finally out after the long awaited two weeks. And the winner goes to....Hyppo Barney!! It was quite unexpected since the team didn't win alot of games, but did they score big time on the merit points! I was just chatting with one of the committee members and she said that most of us were so focused on the games and superpower that they forgot that what happens behind the scenes are just as important. I guess we learnt a lesson from the Hyppo Barneys...Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hippo Barney! As for the winner of the cheerleading, the Red Hulks walked away as the champion while Pink Panthers came in second with very close marks. Pink Panthers were the Iron Team for being the team who was the strongest...surprise! surprise! I thought we did were around second or third. The best Sportswoman went to Aunty Molly from Mata Kerbau and best Sportsman went to Alex Au Yong from Red Hulks. Way to go! Finally, well done to all the teams out there, and thanks for that gr