Book - When Breath Becomes Air

You that seek what life is in death,

Now find it air that once was breath.

New names unknown, old names gone:

Till time end bodies, but souls none.

Reader! then make time, while you be,

But steps to your eternity.

- Baron Brooke Fulke Greville, Caelica 83

A story of life, a story of death and a story by someone who has seen them both from the threshold.

I was watching a youtube video of Dr. B.M.Hegde, a renowned veteran physician wherein he appreciated this book. I immediately amazoned it. There may be many books in this genre but this effort appears sincere and the pain deep. Well versed in the language of the tongue (literature) and the brain (neurosurgery) - a rare combination and also his education in reputed institutions - Yale, Stanford, Cambridge, takes you to deeper depths of existence very convincingly.

The central theme though is the impermanence of all our efforts and achievements (don't mistake it to insignificance) and the rapidity and uncertainty with which things transform. A guaranteed high flying career and dedication to humanity suddenly change gears and in a flash the hunter becomes the hunted. The sand in the hourglass has dramatically vanished and we are left dismayed by the vicissitudes of fate!

A few expressions from the author which I couldn't help but note down:

• what was falling on my retina was precious
• see what courage sounds like
• never tired of the freedom
• Books- finely ground lenses providing new views of the world
• literature provides best account of the life of the mind
• all disciplines create vocabulary and a set of tools for understanding human life
• moral speculation is puny compared to moral action
• the mannequins you pretend are real; the cadavers you pretend are fake
• putting lifestyle first is how you find a job-not calling
• boredom is awareness of time passing
• virtue required moral, emotional, mental and physical excellence
• technical excellence is a moral requirement
• you can never be good enough
• mercy trumps justice every time
• life is a linear sum of choices
• life is lived in the first twenty years the remaining is reflection
• you can't ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving
• Stages of grief- denial, anger, bargain, depression

Needless to say, I finished in the shortest time and gifted to my sister-in-law, a medical student.


Some more:
Religion Medici, William Osler, Shep nuland, slides than strides, Kaplan-Meier curve, Darwin & Nietzsche, The servant song