Hi all with a new week I’m back with a new book review. This one blog per week is not working out for the speed I’m reading books this year. I have two more book reviews pending to write and I’m already starting a new book today. By the time I finish writing these blog posts a new one would be due for sure. So looks like I’m going to switch to two blogs per week. Good for me! Hope I can keep it up. Cheers to all the new things I’m learning this year!

Educated. A book that shook world with revelation of a whole different world in the year of 2019. This had been the most talked about book on social media and I immediately grew interest to read it. My library gave me a wait time of 5 months for this book and I finally got it. I read the hard copy of this book. It felt real holding the book and turning pages, as the lifestyle that the author experienced in childhood was pretty old school. The author who is 32 years old today, is so close to me in the age (I’m 28 today) and yet the environment and values we grew up with were so dramatically different. I come for a fast developing country and the author resided in a fully developed country, in similar time span. Yet our childhoods are nowhere near to be compared. I found it so hard to relate to and yet I had a soft spot as the author was so close to my age. The book made me angry at times, and at times I felt surprised but the most amazing thing I felt was the humbleness. The author showed us, even when a thousands of problems are surrounding you and being on right side doesn’t give you justice, you can still be thankful for the life that you have. That was a mirror moment for me. We don’t realize how simpler our life is until we know about how twisted realities some people live with a grace. That is exactly what this book did for me, it made me reflect, and self evaluate, ultimately leaving me feel grateful for all the things I have learned without much pain.

Whole world has this image of USA being a modern developed country and many dream to come here to pursue education, career and a dream life. Most of us don’t even imagine a few villages in this very country are living in whole another century. The book narrates that side. But the best thing is not for a moment we hate it, it’s written so beautiful that we accept this lifestyle as the personal choice of a small community. This book resides in an era I have never experienced, lived by someone my age. It tells so many incidents of physical and emotional injuries that thankfully not many of us have gone through. At times we feel living like this must have been suffering for them, but the next moment we realize it’s the only known reality for them. If the way they are living is the only way they know, it would have been their normal world. The day they see the outside world must have been more painful for them, knowing how differently they have spent their lives must have been confusing for them.

When each of the kid was exposed to the our version of world each of them interpreted their path differently, or they discovered their true self, which were drastically different from one another. The author never did once blamed her parents for how they raised them, she always respected the fact that there can be more than one right way of doing things, and it’s totally a personal preference. She never played victim card. She never asked for extra benefits. She never abandoned the culture she grew up in. She didn’t drastically changed. All of this makes her evolution beautiful to watch. The choices she made shows the maturity she has. She never for once said a word against her parents, and she respects their beliefs although not agrees with them completely. Values like this are rare to find in today. It won’t be wrong if I say, she has seen and is choosing to be the best of both worlds. She values education more than anyone of us ever can. Education has got a whole different meaning after knowing this story. She spoke a lot about mental health. Which showed a whole another side of her struggle. This book was a very different experience than I have ever imagined. By the time I finished reading it, I found the title ‘educated’ to be the perfect match for this memoir

I’m definitely gonna re-read this book, to find some new aspect. Because it’s that kind of book where you learn something new with every read. Without a doubt I spent days watching interviews of the author, and I’m still not over the book. It’s that interesting! Have you read this book? What was your experience?

More about another book in next blog. Till then keep reading, keep writing!