UPSC expects that a bureaucrat must be a well read and neatly groomed person. At foras, you have to represent the nation, at places, you have to address the large audiences, at times, you have to motivate your subordinate staff, most importantly, you need to connect with the core purpose of life when you are fighting against the evils. For all these, you need to have strong moral and ethical backing. Reading of fine books will help you to connect with the personalities of great authors and thinkers. Gradually, your rationale and evaluation of the world around will change for the better. Hence, we will try to introduce you into the timeless books in this InstaMotivation initiative. Hope it helps you in many ways.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull book was written in the 1960s. But it is still being considered as the all time self help classic. It is narrated in a metaphorical way. As you start reading the book, you will connect with Jonathan Seagull. It is a young Seagull bored with the mundane life. It always craves for the higher realm of existence. But other normal seagulls who are accustomed to the food-shelter-life method get offended by Jonathan’s thoughts, and they outcast this one. Undeterred by others’ words and actions, Jonathan perseveres through the goal. On the journey, it will go through many odds and pains. At the end, it reaches the Excellence. The story is filled with monologues and dialogues. But you will be able to relate with every situation. You can keep this as your bedside book. It will uplift your soul when you are burdened with external negative situations. It will be a friend of yours in time.
Excerpts from the book:
1. “Why, Jon, why?” his mother asked. “Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!”
“I don’t mind being a bone and feathers mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.”
2. “For most gulls it was not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.”
3. “Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again”
4. “Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect. -And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.”
5. We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.
Happy Reading!
