Editorial Dil Se From Vimla Patil Health & Fitness Reflections Book Review In Focus Lifestyle Beauty Prev Issue Next Issue

Book Name:Lessons by Professor P Lal
Publisher: Writers Workshop
Price: Rs. 200

Subtitled The Testament of a Survivor, the scarlet sari bound book talks about learning to live again after a near death experience. The author Professor Lal began publishing Indian writers in English from 1958, at a time when there were no presses of the calibre of Harper Collins or Penguin India. He has to his credit the first Vikram Seth book, the first Ruskin Bond and the first Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

Lessons was written after a total physical collapse early in 1989, on what should have been a normal poetry reading at the World Poetry Festival in Toronto, but one that turned into a four month hell. From a suspected ulcer came a total failure of the kidneys, pancreas and liver. With no medical insurance, he was put on three months of dialysis in the Borgess Medical Centre in Kalamzoo, Michigan.

After 100 bottles of blood, endoscopy, intravenous injections and a tracheotomy, his bills came to $ 400,000. His students rallied round and raised the money to pay for his treatment. After he returned to India, he began to work on Lessons. The book asks four vital questions: why are we here, what should our priorities be, why do the things we trust, bank balance, relatives and God, fail in a crisis and what gives us strength? The Professor gives us the answers that he worked out for himself.

God says the Professor is a very good Professor who sets harder and harder exams to test the calibre of his students. The better you are, the more trials come your way, as God tested Job in the Old Testament. The book meticulously acknowledges everyone who helped him. It quotes extracts on death confrontations from sources of wisdom. The Professor also narrates the story of Jewel Lammers, the nurse whose quiet prayers in the night filled him with the desire to live again.

Apart from the Professor’s account of his experience in the Borgess Medical Centre in the USA, there are essays on Susan Sontag and other eminent writers that discuss the inexplicable and sometimes horrifying things that happen to ordinary unprepared people. Like the story of Pamela Basu who was driving her daughter to pre school in America when she was thrown out of her car by two drug crazed hijackers and, since she was still tangled in the seat belt, dragged behind it to her death. Why does God do these things to us? There is obviously something that he wants us to learn. The lesson that the soul can endure despite everything.

Author's Note:

Writers Workshop books can be ordered by emailing Professor P Lal at: profsky@cal.vsnl.net.in Writers Workshop has a website, the URL is: www.writersworkshopkolkata.com

WRITERS WORKSHOP books are not sent by V.P.P. Payment on all orders must be made in advance by M. O. or bank draft. Booksellers are offered 25% discount on the printed price, libraries 10%. Books ordered by post are despatched by registered Book Post (Printed Matter) service; postage and packing charges will be added to the cost of the books ordered. Payment by cheque should be in the form of a demand draft on a Calcutta bank payable to WRITERS WORKSHOP. At current rates registered postage with packing on 10 average-sized books is Rs 100.

WRITERS WORKSHOP books are priced in Indian rupees. The conversion rate is (for sterling) one rupee = 8 pence, and (for dollars) one rupee = 10 cents. Foreign orders paid on the basis of these conversion rates are despatched by registered sea mail free of postal charges. Air mail rates will be intimated on request.

View and Post comment on this article