P Raghuvir’s Five
P. Raghuvir is a Director at Kodak Alaris India. He also handles the Consumer Photo Services Business for India and APR region of the company.
My Top 5 Fiction Books
1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ~ Mark Twain
2. The Razor’s Edge ~ Somerset Maugham
3. The Fountainhead ~ Ayn Rand
4. To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee
5. The Grapes of Wrath ~ John Steinbeck
A Book that made an impression
‘The Razor’s Edge’ and its character Larry Darrell
The Razor’s Edge follows the spiritual and physical journey of Larry Darrell, a sensitive, intelligent young man who refuses to conform to the prevailing social norms of post-World War I America. He travels to India in search of salvation. He then goes back to the US, transformed, and leads an apparently normal life, but one that is full of peace. It is towards the end of the novel that Larry explains what he saw and learnt in India, that makes him so indifferent to the usual trappings of life and yet fills him with peace . It is the philosophy of ‘Advaita’ . Larry goes on to demonstrate how one can live a normal life even though he is for all practical purposes a ‘saint’.
That sparked an interest in Advaita and Zen Buddhism in me . Both teach the value of living in the moment, the Zen that comes from doing something well, however small it might be ( Zen in the Art of Archery is a suggested reading ) , and continuing to live in and contribute to society rather than renouncing everything.
The epitaph of the book reads: “The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard,”- a verse taken from the Upanishads. The book and Larry’s character made me walk that Razor’s Edge, in my own personal search for truth and happiness.
More on P. Raghuvir
Raghuvir’s current reading include Travelogues, Philosophy and books on Climate Change . He is an amateur photographer who is active on Instagram.
About Preeti Singh
the good book corner 