On Elizabeth Gilbert

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Some people you like instantly. You like them before you know much about them or before you have met them or, in this case, even before you have read what they’ve written. It is therefore strange that I like Elizabeth Gilbert.

She’s the author of the novel ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’ It’s a memoir of her one year sabbatical after a difficult divorce. During her sabbatical, she went to three places to find answers. She travelled to Italy (in pursuit of pleasure), to India (in pursuit of peace), and Indonesia (in pursuit of balance.)

I read about the book some place, then for some reason, I got really curious about the author. When I read about her, I realized why. I am subliminally drawn to everything associated with New York University. All good things and all good people and all good ideas and all good good comes from New York University. Elizabeth Gilbert studied there but didn’t do her MFA program. Instead, she travelled and ‘created her own program’.

I read up some of her interviews and watched a couple of her talks on youtube. (In fact, you know how whatever you think about a lot comes your way? Zigzackly (http://zigzackly.blogspot.com/) forwarded a link of one of her talks. It’s on ted.com. I don’t have the link now, but I’m sure it’ll come up if you go there and search for it.)

She is so sorted. Her best selling book may have been born out of anguish, but she exudes so much…honesty and humility. It’s been a long, long time since I liked someone so much so suddenly. Someone I probably will never meet, our paths may never cross, but someone I wholeheartedly wish the very best for. The last time I instantly felt that way was when I saw a crazy haired girl in a movie. She wasn’t all that perfect to look at, but man – that smile and those really gentle eyes... with so much kindness that her face was like morning light on a hill-top. The last time I got this besotted was when I first saw Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza.

And now, it turns out that ‘Eat, pray, love’ will be made into a movie. And a certain Ms. Roberts is said to star in it.

Takes one to play one, I suppose.

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More about Elizabeth Gilbert: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/

Comments

Aditi said…
hey, i loved the book too!
She comes across as an immensely likeable lady,doesn't she?
2:39 PM
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