My
Review
Raymond
Walley in his book A Peripatetic Life describes his life and travels.
In the opening pages of the book he says that he is diagnosed with
advanced form of postrate cancer and has good three to five years of
his life so, he wants to share his interesting life for two possible
purposes, one to serve as a warning to young people to plan the
future better than he did and secondly to be seen as a lesson that
achievement and fame can be had by anyone willing to study widely,
learn from their experiences and see mistakes as just another way of
gaining knowledge.
The
author describes his childhood and how his father wasn't able to
afford a bicycle. So, he was forced made a cycle from materials
collected from scrap yard and master the art of cycling with the help
of his father, though after a year he got one for himself, that had
gears and a dynamo to charge the lights. He called it “very posh”.
I
loved the fact where he described that when his father died of a
heart attack, over 300 people gathered for his funeral. I just
learned a life lesson, that loyalty and trust cannot be purchased,
that has to be earned.
He
describes the change of jobs he had, one being a part of railways,
again getting into Army and latter he went on to a Cipher school. In
his life he went into bankruptcy once and worked as a houseman
working as a cook for a wealthy family, getting him to subtle way of
life.
He
realized that this isn't what he can do for a life time, so he went
to Saudi Arabia to to work for an American company who were looking
for military trained communications personnel.
Latter
he also learned psychometrics, to help him access people better and
to improve the recruitment process, for a company called as EDGO.
He
has also described his travels that he took in his lifetime and I
even wish that if it is possible for me to make those trips in my
life. I'm inspired by his travel stories, the people he met and the
adventures he had, languages learnt and even learning photography.
If
you look at the life our author has lived in his 70+ years on earth I
personally can say its a life well lived.
Yes,
there were ups and downs in his career but its said “All well
that ends well.” He simply wishes that he can get to relive the
life all over again, barring the cancer he has.
I
just love the pace and the unique content of the book, as it
describes a person's story rather than a fictional story.
This book was "OnlineBookClub.org Book of the Day"
Read
more about the book at Online Book Club
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