Shantaram.

Finished the novel today after close to 10 months of free-willed reading spurts. As I plan to leave this piece behind with my colleagues and friends at my workplace in the US, which I shall be departing soon after 6 glorious months, I want to savor the last few lines:

"I'd always thought that fate was something unchangeable: fixed for every one of us at birth, and as the circuit of the stars. But I suddenly realized that life is stranger and more beautiful than that. The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad the luck, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love."

I don't know if I'm happy that I've read a book so rich in realism, or sad that it's over.