'Tuesdays with Morrie' - a must, must-read.

There are times when a book makes such a great impression on you that you can see the
aphorisms gleaned from the book, as a living example in your everyday life. Each and every incident you see in your life, will remind you of a pithy saying found in the book. 'Shantaram' was a prime example of a life-changing book, where the sayings rang with the sound of truth. I was lucky enough to find a second book that did the same for me, a book that made me laugh and cry at the same time, with the whole gamut of emotions that it manages to evoke in you. I am talking about a book called 'Tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom, which describes itself thus - 'An old man, a young man; and life`s greatest lesson'.

This book recounts the lessons that the author gains from an inspirational professor from his university days; a man called Morrie Schwartz. The author thinks the world of his professor, and on graduation day promises Morrie, that he would always be in touch. However, the author like many others before him, finds it difficult to honour this promise, when confronted with life and its many problems. He drifts apart from his professor, until sixteen years later, Morrie`s appearance on an episode of the famous television series, 'Nightline', as a person dying from Lou Gehrig`s disease, makes him want to touch base with his professor, who he affectionately used to address as 'Coach'. The day he arrives at Morrie`s house happens to be a Tuesday, and they decide to meet every Tuesday for their meetings, where Morrie lectures his favourite student on life and its challenges. As Albom so poignantly says, "The last class of my old professor`s life had only one student. I was the student".

Morrie instead of moping around, now that he is dying, decides that his death should be a learning experience for people around him, for he says that he feels most alive when he knows that he is still capable of making a difference to someone`s life, even when his body withers around him. The author, who is lucky to be the recipient of Morrie`s lessons, faithfully records all his experiences, to preserve it for posterity. Over the course of fourteen Tuesdays, Morrie generously gives away all he can still give away, as the disease gnaws away at him, rendering him incapable of performing the most basic of activities. His indomitable spirit shines through when he tells Ted Koppel from 'Nightline', "Ted, this disease has taken my body. I will not allow it to take my soul."

The quality that I liked about Morrie was that unlike many people on their death beds, Morrie doesn`t allow his family to drop everything for his sake, even though they would have been more than willing to do so. As he tells his sons, "If you stop leading a normal life, this disease would have killed three people, instead of one.". From the time that he finds out about his disease, till the time of his death, Morrie makes a difference to the lives of millions of people the world over, and continues to do so, even after death.

I really don`t think I am capable of doing justice to this book. One thing, that I can guarantee however, is that you`d be joining the crusade to promote the book once you have read it, because this is a story that just can`t not leave an impression
on whoever reads it.