The Alchemist (novel)

 The Alchemist!

It does not tell the story of a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago, who dreams of a treasure while lying asleep in a dilapidated church. In reality, the story deals with the restlessness of a youthful mind willing to sacrifice anything to claim his place in the world. And the way Paulo Coelho has woven the sequence of incidents surrounding, and in many ways dictating the life of Santiago, is peerless. Especially when it comes to the genius of Paulo Coelho’s ability to tell a story and make the reader feel a part of it, by immersing his/her imagination into the kaleidoscope of emotional highs and lows. Where the reader is compelled to subconsciously think of his/her own life and for a moment set it on the trajectory of the character. In this case Santiago.This is what makes it a perfect Best Seller.

As young Santiago wanders through different landscapes of his destinations, that eventually would reveal his true destiny. He is relentless and stays his course in the face of adversity, which reaches its crescendo when he is robbed. Yet he denies to give up and works for a crystal merchant to earn enough in order to get to the Pyramids.

The book's main theme is about realising ones dreams, although, The Alchemist also appears to be "more self-help than literature.” But the entire story revolves around the core philosophy that "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true.” And Santiago’s wish does come true when he realises that the treasure he had been seeking, actually lay under a tree at the ruined church. And this realisation surfaces in his mind via a force that is not palpable, yet it is so ubiquitous that we all yield before its potency in one way or another. And the way Paulo Coelho has dealt with the subject is what makes him a master story teller. 

In the Alchemist, ones belief and practicality are caught in an inevitable collision, yet Paulo Coelho manages to balance the two and retain reader’s attention.The situational realism that the Alchemist tries to achieve by not losing the grip on the plot and not distancing the main character from his passionate quest of his destiny, is what is magical about this novel and makes it the best selling book. 

I wonder how would Santiago’s life have unfolded had he wandered as a young boy chasing his dreams in 2075! Would he have met an Englishman or a robot that could emote and behave like a human? Would AI driven forces have led him yonder from the Merchant where he worked to make a living in his adversity and save enough money to travel to Egypt? And the raven eyed girl with whom he falls in #love, would Santiago have felt the same and would the beautiful girl have experienced similar waves of romance flowing through her skin? Well, these are daring and bold questions that we should address in 2023 and in years ahead. Because as humans are being surrounded by intelligent machines and AI based self aware robots. Very soon humans will be forced to evolve at emotional level, with social and economic implications that will impact our lives directly.

This was one reason I wrote the sci-fi novel, They Loved In 2075. The main character named Saabir, feels like Santiago and at times cries like him too. But with the growing dominance of machines, humans become dangerously dependent on them. It has reached a level where humans are scared to fall in love or express feelings of #love, because they are not sure whether the person they are proposing is a robot or a real human. Read this exciting sci-fi novel, that has moments of romance to make you fall in love and moments of desperation that make you think as a responsible citizen of the planet Earth. 

Dedicated to all the Santiagos out there, who are earnestly pursuing their destiny, nestled within their most beautiful dream. For more details on the sci-fi novel, They loved In 2075, please explore this link.