Siddhartha
I've known of Hermann Hesse 's (1946 Nobel laureate) Siddhartha for a long time, over a decade probably, but never got down to reading it till last week. As I made my way through this rather short but intense (to me) book, I wondered why it had taken me so long to pick it up! Here is a doubt that must be expelled. I had thought that Siddhartha referred to Gautama Buddha , whose name when he was the prince of Kapilavastu was Siddhartha Gautama. I was surprised that it wasn't him, though the Gauthama figures largely in this magnificent piece of writing. If follows the spiritual journey of Siddhartha, a young Brahmin and the perfect son. He realizes, soon, that the knowledge he seeks, the thirst for spiritual knowledge that his soul craves for, cannot be attained where he is and doing what he does. He decides to leave his home and join the ascetics, and once he obtains his father's permission by awaiting the abatement of his father's anger through pure resilience, w...