Besides travelling to my relatives' house in Penang , I went back to Singapore to attend the 6-days drama camp and came back to KL after a week of secondhand textbook-hunting in Bras Basah Complex.
Although I'm pretty busy , I still have time reading , mostly at night.
The book - Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho.
Okey , I know the title of the book sounds......*suicidal*, but it's not that bad , really.
From Wikipedia :
Veronika, who leads a seemingly perfect life, lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She decides to commit a premeditated suicide by ingesting too many sleeping pills. While she waits for her death, she decides to read a magazine.
After seeing an article in the magazine which wittily asks "Where is Slovenia?," she decides to write a letter to the press justifying her suicide, the idea being to make the press believe that she has killed herself because people don't even know where Slovenia is. Her plan fails and she wakes up in Villete, a mental hospital in Slovenia, where she is told she has a week to live.
Her presence there affects all of the mental hospital's patients, especially Zedka, who has clinical depression; Mari, who suffers from panic attacks; and Eduard, who has schizophrenia, and with whom Veronika falls in love. During her internment in Villete she realises that she has nothing to lose and can therefore do what she wants, say what she wants and be who she wants without having to worry about what others think of her; as a madwoman, she is unlikely to be criticized. Because of this newfound freedom Veronika experiences all the things she never allowed herself to experience including hatred, love and even sexual awakening.
In the meantime, Vilette's head psychiatrist attempts a fascinating but provocative experiment. Can you "shock" someone into wanting to live by convincing her that death is imminent? Like a doctor applying defibrillator paddles to a heart attack victim, Dr. Igor's "prognosis" jump-starts Veronika's new appreciation of the world around her.''
I am really inspired by this book. It makes you reflect on your life.
Well , these are the two main reasons why Veronika decides to commit suicide :
" Everything in her life was the same and , once her youth was gone, it would be downhill all the way , with old age beginning to leave irreversible marks , the onset of illness , the departure of friends.She would gain nothing by continuing to live, the likelihood of suffering only increased. "
The second reason is mainly her sense of complete powerlessness as she describe that "everything was wrong" in the world.
Left with 5 days to live , Veronika decided to think about her life.She realised that her life was not that bad after interacting with the other patients in the mental hospital. She did not die in the end , and she cherish the time she had after escaping from the mental hospital.
I did reflect on my life. It is quite ordinary and dull , we pick up learning points here and there , but I guess we'll learn much more as we grow up. Experiences are indeed important.
So do cherish our lives !
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