Awakening those sleeping thoughts
Tulip Chowdhury is happy reading an intriguing love story
10 December 2010, 18:00 PM
The Zahir
Paulo Coelho
HarperCollins
The "Zahir" is a mystical force that draws a man, humbles him to the last bone. It is an incredible force that leaves a man sleepless, steals his peace of mind and has him chasing it to the end. To the protagonist of this book, his wife is the "Zahir" to whom he gives his life time. The wife of a famous writer disappears one morning from their home in Paris. The writer is arrested on suspicion of having done away with his wife. He is bailed out by his friends but the police and the public still hint at his involvement in the disappearance of his wife. Leaving the public to muse on their own suspicions the writer takes the unknown roads to find his wife. The story is the remarkable account of the writer's search for his wife through the dark mysteries that seem to pursue all roads that lead to her. An intriguing love story is weaved into the saga; the story of undying love of a husband for his wife.
According to the writer Jorge Luis Borges, the idea of the "Zahir" comes from Islamic tradition and is thought to have arisen at some point in the eighteenth century. "Zahir", in Arabic means visible, present, incapable of going unnoticed. When one comes into contact with it, it gradually occupies one's every thought until he can think of nothing else. This can be considered either a state of holiness or of madness.
The writer, writing in the first person, is very much in love with his wife Esther. They do not fight, do not argue and indeed there has not been any dearth of love but Esther is gone. Her husband has no clue whatsoever as to why she left him. But her passport and her money withdrawal from the bank is the only hint that she must have left for a foreign land. The husband asks himself thousand times "Why?" "What was wrong with our marriage?" Esther had never hinted that she was unhappy. What then had made her leave him and indeed where is she?
Esther had often mentioned Mikhail of Kazakhstan, an interpreter who was taking up her thoughts with his philosophy of spreading love across the people of the world. The writer meets Mikhail and tries to get information about Esther. After meeting him he realizes that Esther had indeed gone with him. Mikhail befriends the writer and has him under his spell. He says that a marriage is like a railway track, two persons running side by side while the bindings between them lay like the cross bars. Mikhail tells the writer that to Esther their marriage had become like a railway track and that is why she is gone. Mikhail has epilepsy and is in a fit while he was with the writer. Mikhail discloses that he hears voices revealing secrets, that during his fits he is in touch with these voices. The story picks up supernatural notes as Mikhail continues to hear voices. The writer believes Mikhail as he finds some proofs that indeed he does hear voices telling him of things not known to the visible world.
The writer is relieved when he learns that his wife is not Mikhail's girlfriend, that Esther has found a visionary in Mikhail. The writer continues to accompany the interpreter to different places as he searches for his wife. The story moves from Paris to Madrid, to Berlin, Monogolia and many other places. Mikhail says the goal of life is to spread love across the world. He says that it is love that gives freedom. Freedom, he says is not the absence of commitments, but to have choices in life. He also says that everyone should live each day as if that was the last in his life. Life axioms come to the writer from Mikhail and the writer finds life opening new doors for him. Mikhail lives with a group of people who have their own philosophy of life, they live without any luxury so that they can experience the hardships of life.
Through Mikhail the writer meets an old man who explains that people are sad because people are prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate life experiences, memories, things , other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dream and become sad.
The writer decides to visit Almaty in Kazakhstan to search for his wife. Here he meets the Tengri, the nomads who live a life so different from his own. Esther is there among these Tengris, still trying to find the meaning of life. The word Tengri means "sky worship" , it's kind of religion without religion. It is the belief of the nomads that Divinity is everywhere. They say the sky is blue even when it is grey because the sky is blue above the grey layer. Here the writer meets Dos who shows the lights of life to the writer in new ways. The writer learns that there is love in the wind. And that love cannot enter hearts that keep their doors and windows shut. He learns that love contained within one's heart is not love, it finds its meaning when it is spread out. He learns that the energy of love has to be allowed to flow freely instead of putting it inside a jug and setting it up in a corner. Through his journey and his search for his wife the writer gradually becomes a changed man. He is no longer a writer waiting to strike the bestseller's list. He learns that there are greater truths waiting to be discovered. He learns that the peace of the soul is not acquired through fame and recognition only but through love and abstentions.
To the writer his wife remains the "Zahir" whom he is still trying to find out through Mikhail, through other strangers revealing secrets. He understands now that Esther was trying to find the greater truths that govern life. Mikhail reveals that Esther is waiting for her husband to find his way to her, that she is waiting for him to find himself also. The writer knows that he will find Esther only when he has seen the true lights of life. As he continues to search the question remains, will he find the man Esther wants him to become? Will Esther allow herself to be found the day he discovers what humanity is? Indeed, Esther being the Zahir for the writer, makes him into a different man with the unwinding of the saga.
Paulo Coelho is a writer whose books are always very thought provoking. He awakens the sleeping thoughts of the reader and opens his eyes to take a new look at the world around him. The Zahir is a book that holds he reader spell bound to the messages of life. It is a beautiful love story with intricate life teachings woven into each and every line. The story begins with a passing thought and ends in obsession!
Tulip Chowdhury is a poet, novelist and teacher.
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