Eat,Pray, Love

Elizabeth Gilbert. I happened to be introduced to her via the TED website. A talk of her's which was marked in their category 'Earth Shattering'. I get intrigued. Isnt she supposed to be some girly, chick-flick script-writer? What can she have to talk about which gets marked as being profound? Hmm..is TED dumbing down on its intellectual value? However the topic she'd picked seemed to be of possible relevance to me. Something to do with the 'origins of the creative process'. Stuck as i was not doing anything creative for long, (check out the date of my last post!)i felt she just as well may provide me the elixer.

Young, tall, blond, good looking female. And dressed in black. She talked fast, and (voila!) talked sense on what i'd assumed to be an ambiguous and complex topic. She kinda resembled an articulate, down to earth, and more earnest version of Julia Roberts, without the make up but still with a lot more spunk. All without a teleprompter in sight. The sexist Nishith Upadhyaya, who doesnt admit to being sexist, admittedly was hooked. Next search on google-Elizabeth Gilbert.

The cover page of her book resembled a movie DVD cover. Turns out it WAS the movie DVD cover. In the past, i have been hit hard trying to figure out books on spritual journeys. Even though they were considered profound by most. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence for one. I picked it up presuming it to be a book on a journey. But in the end it resembled more a journey through a diseased individuals mind. Paulo Coelho, to me resembles another one such. Fixated on a single idea and covoluted to boot too. But i wouldnt blame him. His works are all translated...and i always feel a lot gets lost in translation.

Eat,pray,love is split into 108 succint sections. In line with 108 beads in a hindu prayer string. Each section dealing with a separate thought within a given context. Breezy and insightful at the same time. To me there was something strongly appealing about an independent single women travelling the globe on her own-with a very loosely predetermined purpose. Travelling for travels sake. Of course its been done before. But mostly, if not all by the men. But really, how many women have done it? And also come out with an extremely witty book at the end of it? Read it for the unique girly perspective which (surprise surprise) can be profound too.