The monk who sold his Ferrari

This Sunday I started reading Robin S. Sharma’s “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”. The cover said that the book was “Soon to be a Major Motion Picture” and the title did create a lot of curiosity. The book is no thriller and is supposed to be an inspiring tale that provides a step-by-step approach to living with greater courage, balance, abundance and joy - certainly not my ideal bedtime reading stuff.

But I could surely give it a try. Unlike the protagonist Julian Mantle I do not have a stellar professional reputation, no 7 figure dollar salary, no private jet, am yet to set my foot on a tropical island let alone own one and I certainly do not have a shiny red Ferrari parked in the center of my driveway. Maybe 20-30 years from now all these might be a possibility, maybe.

I got past the first 3 chapters. No shots fired yet, no cars blown up, no conspiracy theories, no dead bodies turned up and no beautiful 2 legged creatures with red lipstick and 6-inch high heels made their entry. Robin Sharma is no Dan Brown, nor is he a John Grisham or an Alistair MacLean. By the time Julian Mantle sold his Ferrari and started climbing the Himalayas in search for the ageless yogis who had mastered the art of mind control and spiritual awakening, I arrived at the conclusion that this book was certainly not written for people like me. Maybe I will read it some 3 decades from now when I become a Julian Mantle.

But suddenly I was obsessed with the idea of having a shiny red Ferrari in my driveway. I checked on the net: How much does a brand new shiny red Ferrari cost? And I checked my bank account. We had a long way to go before the two would be equal. So I decided to settle for the next best thing. It’s a shiny red Ferrari made not by the Italians but by an American company called Mattel, they sell them under the brand name “Hot Wheels”.