Profound True Desire - ANANYA TALES

After reading 'THE ALCHEMIST" by Paulo Coelho, it sort of became my bible. I literally started preaching about this book. This book is about a shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to travel to a Romani in a nearby town to discover its meaning. A gypsy woman tells him that there is a treasure in the Pyramids in Egypt.

This book changed a part of me forever, that is what happens when I read his books. I was inspired to believe in my dream, no matter how absurd it sounded to others. After all “It's better to die in pursuit of your dreams than to live a life without hope.”

But something that really shook me at my roots was "Eleven minutes".

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Eleven minutes: The world revolved around something that only took eleven minutes.

I was 19, when I first read this book. I need not mention that talking about sex was still a taboo, at least where I lived. Even if we did discuss about it, it was like 'one blind guiding another'. The story is of Maria's journey to find what true love is by letting her own life guide her.A young girl from a remote village of Brazil, with innocent brushes with love failures at an early adolescent stage and hatred for love goes to seek her fortune in Switzerland, only to find that reality is a lot harder than she expected.

After working in a nightclub as a samba dancer for a brief period, she realizes that this is not what she wants. After a heated discussion with her manager one night, she storms out and begins to look for a career in modeling. After a long unsuccessful search for a position in that field, and as she starts running out of money, she engages herself for 1000 francs for "one night" with an Arab man. Delighted with the easy money and after compromising with her soul she lands in a brothel on Rue de Berne, the heart of Geneva's red-light district...

This was something I had never heard of, because all movies, stories I read showcased the myth that poverty, helplessness, being deceived , cheated ,forced into, rape were the reasons that pushed a girl into the world of prostitution. Here I saw a women, who chose to be one.

Yes Maria was real, her thoughts : “I am two women: one wants to have all the joy, passion and adventure that life can give me. The other wants to be a slave to routine, to family life, to the things that can be planned and achieved. I'm a housewife and a prostitute, both of us living in the same body and doing battle with each other.”

She befriends Nyah who gives her advice on her "new profession" and after learning the tricks of the trade from Milan, the brothel owner, she enters the job with her body and mind shutting all doors for love and keeps her heart open only for her diary. Quickly she becomes quite successful and famous and her colleagues begin to envy her. Months pass and Maria grows into a professionally groomed prostitute who not only relaxes her clients' mind, but also calms their soul by talking to them about their problems.

At that age, I thought physical desire is the only reason that lure's a man towards a prostitute but this book proved me so wrong. The complicated dynamics between Maria and her clients in explained in a way, which questioned everything I knew about lust and desire.

“Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone.”

Her world turns upside down when she meets Ralf, a young Swiss painter, who sees her "inner light".

Maria falls in love with him immediately and begins to experience what true love is (according to the author, it is a sense of being for someone without actually possessing him/her). Maria is now torn between her sexual fantasies and true love for Ralf. Eventually she decides that it is time for her to leave Geneva with her memory of Ralf, because she realizes that they are worlds apart.

A beautiful exploration of Maria's true love and her soul involved in sacred sex.

How does the story end??

Is there a 'happily ever after' in a prostitute's life?

Well, go ahead read the book, enjoy your own take on it

 

Hey you can google it, easily available. Let me know how you enjoyed reading it