Five people you meet in Heaven

Five-people-you-meet-in-ehaven
Originally uploaded by megarajan.

Title: Five People you meet in Heaven
Author: Mitch Albom

The book "Five People you meet in Heaven" suggested by Bhavya sometime and I remembered the title enough to recognise it when I saw it on a railway station.

This book is about a man who dies and the experiences he gains after his death.

This book has an unusual structure. The beginning itelf is with the death of the Protoganist. But the entire book is interspersed with chapters which go back in time and describe the life of the Protoganist from childhood , a la Mani Ratnam in Alai Payuthe ..

The protoganist is a person who works a odd job man in a circus named "Ruby Pier"

The gist of the book is simple . Every man dies and he has to know somethings which he did not know while he was alive. To impart this knowledge to him Five people ( who were connected in some way to him and died before him ) would be waiting for him in Heaven.

They meet him one by one and tell him how they are related to him and what piece of knowledge they have to share with him.

The five people who were waiting for the protoganist were

1. The Blue Man
2. The Army Captain
3. Ruby
4. Margerite
5. The Child.

These people have crossed the protoganist life in someway.

Lemme talk about one by one.

1. The Blue Man.

The Blue man was a person who was killed in an accident while he tried to avoid a child crossing his car .

2. The Captain.

The captain was a person who was killed in a rescue operation of his team from a jail. He stepped on the land mine and helped his team to move forward.

3. Ruby

Ruby is the lady on whose name the circus was constructed.Her husband was the one who had constructed it and later sold it due to debts.

4. Margerite

Margerite is the wife of the protoganist who died before him.

5. The Child

This was the child the protoganist tried in vain to save from fire during his army days. Though he tried , he was not able to save the child and the child had died in fire.

All these five people are waiting in heaven for the protoganist and they tell their stories and the way they are connected to the protoganist .

They also tell him of the things that he should be knowing , which he never knew while he was alive.

After this , the protoganist himself becomes one of the 5 persons and has to wait for his person.

In all , a good read with a philosophical twist and new perspective of what we are supposed to do in heaven apart from the usual interpretations.

Cheers
Megarajan