When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air is an account of a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi's journey from being an aspiring young boy with a life full of possibilities & opportunities to being a man striving to find meaning in his life while staring at death in its face.
Before I begin writing this post, I’d like to clearly mention that it’s not a review of the book. You don’t review a life, you learn from it. This post is about my experience reading the phenomenal story of Dr. Paul Kalanithi who was not a superhero, he was just a mortal human being...in front of whom even superheroes fall flat.

The way Dr. Paul Kalanithi writes about his reaction when he first discovered he had Lung Cancer, his first thought, the whirlwind of emotions that swept through his heart in that moment is thought provoking. He had his entire life planned out but life had something else in store for him. That grit with which he pulled himself together and strove for meaning in whatever time he had left on earth, not knowing how little or how long, is unimaginable. On one hand, he tells us all about the courageous fight he put up to win his life back and on the other hand he never shies away from expressing his fears, his darkest emotions and his “helplessness” in this battle.
This books stirs your soul, your entire being. It pulls you out from your bubble of self-importance and helps you see just how ephemeral your existence is. It makes you think what battles in life are worth fighting for. And most importantly, it makes you realize that no matter how rich/poor or how beautiful/ugly you are...the only thing that matters is this moment that you have. Nothing else. Cause you never know what the very next moment might have in store for you.


Believe me, I’ve read tons of self-help books to find answers to some common, existential questions that I’m sure each one of us faces in life at some point or the other...but never have I come across anything that makes things so crystal clear.


This book is worth every single second of your time and worth every single penny of your money. I feel grateful & proud that I read it. I hope you also get to experience the emotions that I did and are able to read the underlying message that this indelible book leaves you with.
Here's ending this post with that note & the word of the day:

Concomitant: Naturally accompanying or associated

 Until next time!

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