Tuesday, October 12, 2010

From Left to Write Book Club: The Kids Are All Right

The title itself is appealing: The kids are all right. As I was reading this book, different emotions stirred up inside me. Some scary, some relieving and some very very close to real life. If something were to happen suddenly to me.. then what. It re-instates the discussion that SD and I have been having for awhile. Let’s make sure our papers, our wills, our accounts etc are in order. Both of should know where is what in terms of the bigger things in life. Scary thoughts, but very realistic. We both call it symbiotic.
The book talks about an uncle who just turns and becomes greedy the minute the father is gone and wants to lay his hands on anything and everything possible. Hah.. it comes down to money. And I don’t want our life's earning to go to a random stranger while our kids struggle to make ends meet. We are sweating our blood over work to ensure better future of our near and dear ones.
The beauty of the book was in the part: The truth is always twisted. Every person of the Welch family remembers the incidents based on their memories. It’s there truth and its twisted for the other person. So true.
SD and I talk about this very often. I always say: There are two sides of every story. This book talks about that: how four kids cope up with sudden demise of the father and then the mother. They turn out to be all right. They turn out to be closer and though life was not what they had imagined it to be.. things have a way of working them out.
Recently, I was reading Lakshmi's post about her health and the fall which was not so pleasant. One thing which struck out to me was... She only talked about the silver lining. It is very true, in every situation, there is a silver lining. We just miss it.
In the long run, everything happens for a reason and its always for the better. A lot of times, it just takes a while for us to realize it truly was for the better.
This book re-instated that.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the From Left to Write Book Club. We write posts inspired by the books, not reviews. When you read this book make sure to keep the tissue book handy. Trust me.

3 comments:

UmaS said...

Looks like a serious thought, which I shld pay attention to. I think abt it very rarely...but have not discussed with S...may be I shld...

U liked the book ???? Am noting it down for my list !!!!

Lakshmi said...

Looks like a good book to check into; considering I have time to lay hands on it now.

Wills were in our To-Do list(that ever growing list!) since S was born and finally we managed to get it done only when we were packing up few months back after S was 6 years! Now not sure if it is valid in India, but something is better than nothing!

Great post Garima :) I also believe things happen for a reason. Years back, I would have sulked on this fall of mine, but right now I am looking at how it could have turned out if I were not lucky. Love these messages you pass out in your posts, keeps us going :)

Smitha said...

If something should happen to us, then what? is something that I always worry about, and wonder if anything we do will ever be enough, you know..

I have to read this book. Will check if my library has it.