Why I am starting to believe in rebirth...

Recenlty I joined the social networking bandwagon and became a member in Facebook. Initially I was skeptical about it, but later as I tried it out it had a few things that kept me interested. I found an interesting application called Virtual bookshelf, where you can list the books you read and want to read and the cool thing is you can view the bookshelf of your friends as well. So I came across this book called "Buddha" in one of my friends book shelf . Later when I visited my friend I found that it is actually a graphic novel(comic) that was originally written in Japanese. The last I remeber reading comics were during the days when my Dad used to get me Tarzan comics. I reluctantly started reading the first few pages and was immediately sucked into the book and so I took the book home and completed it in a day or two. But the sad part is, it is a 8 volume series and my friend doesnt have any other volume. How all this relates to rebirth...? Well after reading the book I did some research about the author Osamu Tezuka and found that he was a "Manga"(comic in Japanese) artist in Japan and was a legend. Just a few days ago I was making a list of all the things that I liked to do and it was a very big list consisting of things like sports(cricket, tennis, golf, chess), reading, visiting different countries, various professions I am interested in other than my current one and the list was getting endless. And just in the types of books I liked to read there were so many genres and here I am introduced to another one "Manga". At that moment, I pretty much realized that there is no way I will be able to do all the things I want to do in this lifetime and therefore rebirth is probably the only solution... If only we are given a database of things that we did in our preivous lives, the task in this life would be much easier... :)

Book Review - "How Life Imitates Chess..." - Gary Kasparov

Gary Kasparov is to Chess what Sachin Tendulkar is to Cricket. A book about either of these Masters of their trade is something every sports fan will love to read. And to read a book by the Grand Master himself about the preparation and thinking process he went through during the course of this career is worth every penny! I came to know about this book through a blog that I visit frequently and ordered the book immediately. I just finished reading this book and the experience was as mesimerizing as wathching a Sachin Tendulkar century against Australia. Quite literally, it was like being let in on the master plan that went into a successful heist against a maximum security bank. This book can be read in three different ways, 1) A chess fan who wants to go to the next level can read the book as a coaching manual that teaches how to prepare and think for tougher battles. It does not have any chess specific teachings like opening gambits or defensive techniques. But it is like a gym workout for the mind of a chess player. 2) A person from the coporate world can learn how to organize, strategize and execute under varying degress of pressure and the same time continuoulsy seek challenges to elevate oneself to the next level and 3) Anyone else who wants to know what it takes to become a champion and even more so about what it takes to continue being a champion for decades without losing focus. I guess it is time to declare CHECK MATE...