Thursday, December 25, 2008

More from the "Shopaholic" series by Sophie Kinsella

I bought this 3-in-1 volume on the Shopaholic series; one of these I'd already reviewed. The other two are:

  • Shopaholic takes Manhattan
  • Shopaholic ties the knot

In STM, as you can very well guess from the title that this time Becky goes under debt in Manhattan. The guiding principle that takes her there is "The more you invest, the more you get back". In her case, the investment becomes clothes and accessories; because she's is mass communications she justifies that by buying good clothes,etc. she's investing in her career. The most interesting snippet in this book was: her financial position is ridiculed by the media and becomes a public humiliation for her. Of course, her parents also come to know of it. However, when she talks to them her dad says: "if such a big country (USA) can be in debt and still run fine; then I'm sure you can". Parents can never see a flaw in their child!! :)

In STTK, Becky has other things along with debt to worry about. She's getting married and in TWO places! Luke's mother wants them to get married in New York where she's preparing for the most laving wedding in the city. On the other hand, Becky's parents are preparing for the wedding in their hometown in England. On one side is the wedding of her dreams and on the other side is her parents' dream. She, as we all know, is not so good as saying "no" :).

If you read too many in this series then of course you get the feeling that how come the same character commits the same mistake in every book. However, if you treat them orthoganlly, I think they're a pleasant read. Definitely, not much exercise for the brain :). It makes up for a nice light read!

Bottomline: A light, pleasant read.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Pray for the end; not for the means

I don't know what you thought about my subject but when it came to my mind first it almost felt as if I'm saying "pray for your end" :). That is certainly not what I've in mind!

My subject wants to convey that we should pray for what is our ultimate goal in life and not the small little things that we think we need to add to our basket on the way. If all you want from your life is to be happy; then pray for that. Not something like: "God please give me X, Y and Z so that I'm happy".

Often we pray that I get X (where X could be an object or an intangible) or that Y would happen (where Y is an event). My question is: why do we that?

Isn't all that we want is for us and our family to be happy? Then why don't we simply pray that we be happy? Why do we add clauses to our prayers? If we're praying to the supreme one then that means we believe that he has the power to grant us. Then we must also believe that whatever he does is for our benefit.

I remember that when we were in high school, some students would pray to get good scores/marks/grades. So I asked myself that why don't they just pray to God that they be happy. The answer that I got back was maybe they're too young to understand that.

So I thought of people older than those students. People in that category are praying for a good job or a good house or some such thing. I asked myself the same question and couldn't explain why they do that except that they don't know what they want from life.

How can we be so sure that getting X would make us happy? Why not make our lives simpler (and His job too :)) by simply praying for the happiness of our family. Can you imagine the power of the prayers when everyone in your family prays for the same thing?!?!

I would love to hear what everybody thinks about this!