Book Review – The Story of My Life, Helen Keller

As I was reading this book, an old Zen story came to my mind. Here it is –
 

There was once a man who was a hopeless pessimist. He thought that life had been unfair towards him and he always used to complain to everyone about it. He heard about the visit of a wandering monk to his village and decided to seek the blessings for a better life. Visiting the monk he vented out all his grievances at length. After patiently listening to it all, the monk said that he will take the man to the king and get him all the money that is needed to improve his life. 

Just as they were setting out to meet the king, the monk said ‘See, before meeting the king, let’s decide on the price, shall we?’

Our pessimist wasn’t sure, and he asked the monk ‘Decide the price of what?’

The monk replied ‘For selling your organs. The king pays good amount to the arms and legs, but he lavishes gold more for eyes, ears, tongue and brain. I can get whatever money you want, provided you tell me now itself.’

The pessimist was shocked and angrily said, ‘Are you mad?! How can a man survive without these organs? What will I do with the money if I don’t have my organs to live?!’

The monk smiled and said ‘You’re not using them much anyways. If you were, your life would have turned better long back.’ The pessimist understood his folly, promised the monk that he will start working hard and left.

Helen Keller – one of those names that inspire the whole of mankind, regardless of religion, clan or creed. Born 136 years ago, this lady lost her ability to see and hear – two of those most important faculties through which we learn the world around us – while she wasn’t even two years old. Imagine what a pain it would have been for a child to go through the formative years of her life, deprived of both these senses and with not much of a chance to enjoy the little but precious pleasures of life that we all take for granted!

But Helen was blessed to have a mother that wouldn’t give up on her child like that. Her mother, inspired on learning about the now-less-famous Laura Bridgman, who was the first deaf-blind American child to get proper education, ensured that her daughter got a worthy teacher in the form of Anne Sullivan. The rest, as they say, is history.

Anne Sullivan helped Helen get into a proper learning mode and introduced her to the beauty of life and nature. Taught by Anne to read, write and communicate, Helen went on to acquire a good education, first in the basics of literature, mathematics and various languages and then a proper college degree. This autobiography, written by Helen Keller when she was 22 years old, takes us on a journey to those critical early decades of her life.

There is something magical about Helen’s words. Anyone who reads this book cannot come away from it without developing a love for the life and nature. This is a candid book about Helen’s transition from a helpless little child to a self-confident student in college that faced many challenges in learning but who nevertheless took pride and pleasure in surmounting them all. Helen’s love for her parents, her immense gratitude for her teacher Anne Sullivan and her having taken the deprivations in her stride to enjoy life like no other person with both these faculties of hearing and seeing could, are lessons for us all to learn. I could feel an immense love and hope oozing through her words.

A worthy read and a must have for your home-library. In fact, I am thinking of gifting this book to all my friends. Especially to those that have much to complain about their lives!