Khalil Gibran.

When I was a teenager, as something very unusual for a teenager, I read Khalil Gibran’s poems and short stories religiously. I was a crazy, huge fan of Khalil Gibran (even now!). A special feeling was there when I get any of his books in my hand. A certain kind of addiction out of admiration developed in my mind for Khalil Gibran in my young age, which influenced me in many ways later in my life. My deep love and obsession for Khalil Gibran caused few problems even, for me that time.I saw Khalil Gibran’s book called “The Prophet “ for the first time when I was sixteen. A friend of mine, who was a medical student and my neighbour gave me this book of Khalil Gibran and asked me to copy the pencil drawing on its third page. I used to do pencil drawings and portraits, which were sort of nice looking. I have not done any of art work for many years now, I don’t know whether I can ever do something like that again. As you all know, when we are children, we show a lot of talents, and do a lot of things like drawing, singing, dancing, sports, etc etc. My “artistic talent” was probably just one of those things, I guess. I did the drawing, just about an OK one, but together with copying the drawing into a white paper, I happened to read that book and instantly fallen in love with it. My friend Dr.Rashid wanted that book back, so I took a new notebook and copied (handwritten) the whole book in to it. In a remote village in Malabar, it was just impossible to find a book of Khalil Gibran at that time, so I requested Dr.Rashid to get me books of Khalil Gibran, and he kindly brought some from Calicut, where he was studying for medicine. Later when I could buy things with my own money, Khalil Gibran’s books were the first ones I bought. The madman, kingdom of the imagination, the prophet, the wanderer , the death of the prophet are few of them.

I always thought that Khalil Gibran was as good as or may be better than William Shakespeare. But, he does not seem to be as famous as many other writers. I remember searching for khalil Gibran books in national library Calcutta in west Bengal. It is the biggest library in Asia. I could not find any books of Khalil Gibran and I asked a library assistant to help me find them. The library assistant looked at me as if he has never heard of Khalil Gibran before. I felt sorry for them as they are missing out on great works of such a great writer. Later I bought some books of Khalil Gibran and donated to our local library in Malabar.

I remember Khalil Gibran when I am trying to write something, without anything in my head. When I read each line from “The Prophet”, I realise that this is a god’s gift, to all of us. Whoever knows to read and write, must read “The Prophet”. The biblical resemblance to it makes it even reverent. My prayers are with Khalil Gibran, God bless his soul !

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