Review of the book "I Am Me" by Ram Sundaram

 I Am Me:

I Am Me by Ram Sundaram is a unique collection of short stories. He explains the concept of the body soul relationship between us and God beautifully. He takes us through an interesting journey of spiritual quest that is magical. He makes us examine creation and stages in life in two halves. In the first half he looks at reality and in the second half of the book at fantasy. It is difficult to draw a clear line between reality and fantasy in our lives as there is always a grey area.

For more information on this book please check the following link. The book is also available in Chapters as well as Barnes and Noble.

http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Me-Ram-Sundaram/product-reviews/1462072739/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_next_2?ie=UTF8&pageNumber=2&showViewpoints=0

Synopsis:

Earth’s Child: Symbolizes Rebirth as well as an individual’s relationship with his/her conscience.

Fifty Cents: Suggests that friendship has a price that translates beyond currency. It also ends with the conclusion that an individual’s closest friend is him/herself.

At First Sight: Love is an aberration. A person falls in love at first sight only with him/herself, as is demonstrated when the narrator recalls falling in love when he first glimpses his own arm as a baby.

Reality’s Dream: The elusive word of dreams and illusions is meshed seamlessly with the tangible realms of everyday reality.

Reflection: The answers to life, to existence and to all our questions (even those about matters larger than life) reside within ourselves. Reflection can mean both an optical shadow of our physical form, as well as an introspective journey into our own existence, both of which are presented as separate stories.

An Apple Branch: Prejudice occurs when we perceive recognize another individual as being different from us; empathy stems from relating to another person, to the point of finding common ground. Thus when Max and Macs discover that their lives are almost identical, their hostility evaporates.

Touch of Reality: Desire/ambition is a notion that makes us yearn for an inaccessible treasure, and yet the fulfillment of this desire occurs within us, within our own minds.

Soul Mate: Though we seek that elusive partner that we believe is destined to share eternity with us, the reality is that we are each our own soul mates, our own eternal companions.

Hangman: Death is not the destruction of the body, but the symbolic destruction of our former selves: youth, ambition and wisdom.

Immortal in Death: Though the notion of reincarnation suggests that life is cyclical and that death is merely a passage into another beginning, the truth is that we are our own creators and our own destructors. The cycle of life occurs not on a large, cosmic scale, but on a near microscopic, individual level.

Prologue/ Epilogue (Fantasy): Ishvar, the individual, attempts to salvage pragmatic thought in a world that is fast becoming fantastical. Along the way, he learns answers from messages the sea has deposited on his island. The epilogue ends with Ishvar meeting Krishna, and learning that they are one.

Prologue/ Epilogue (Reality): Ishvar, the individual, attempts to salvage imagination in a world that is fast becoming rational. Along the way, he creates answers to his own questions and deposits them into the disappearing sea. The epilogue ends with Ishvar meeting God and learning that they are one.

Thus both halves of the book end with the same conclusion: that I Am Me or that I Am We.

TV Interviews:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuCgxipp9r0&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZkwHQFBu60&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoR1RuzGHX4&feature=youtu.be

Book reviews
http://harleybearbookblog.blogspot.ca/2012/05/reviewinterviewexcerpt-i-am-me-by-ram.html
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13418154-i-am-me
http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Me-Ram-Sundaram/product-reviews/1462072739/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1