The Other Wes Moore:One name and two fates Do you have the answer??

“When it is time for you to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were even here.” 

I was thinking deep when I finished reading this book. I tried to answer the question but I couldn’t figure out the right answer. I wonder whether there is a right answer or not. 

Flashback: 

A month back I was strolling in my workplace. I took it as excuse as I was tired by sitting and wanted to take doses of vitamin she. So as a predator I hunted in the wild jungle and my eyes socket were looking for a pretty prey who can  recharge my eye balls who were tired by looking at the dull computer screen for long time. During this strategic planning I met another hunter, Kunal Pundir and I stated doing some chit-shit chat with him. He told me there is a book called The other Wes Moore: One name and two fates and gave me a brief introduction about it. I watched the rating on Amazon and I thought lets go for it. The other reason was I haven’t read anything like this earlier. SO I ordered it. 

Once it arrived at my home I was a bit disappointed as it was very thin and I suddenly thought of the child whose photograph was there in my tenth grade science book suffering from Kwashiorkor :D.

Flash Forward

Now changing the gear once I started to read the book I was deeply immersed in it.

Story revolves around Two kids named Wes Moore who have grown up in similar situations. One of them grow up as a murder convict and the other become a Rhodes Scholar, White House Fellow and a business leader to name a few. It might sound funny but it gave me a taste of Grand Theft Auto and Get rich or 

Die Tryin (See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430308/). 

Locations/drug dealing/robbery/Killing/Greed ,rubbing faced by Moore Duo will give you an insight into their upbringing. There are moments in the book which will make you laugh, make you feel the human greed/pain; you will read about the buzzwords of Drug Mafia and also see some insane stupidity. But at the core it is fight of inner voices of man with the outer world. Beautifully described is the concept of “Society Expectation” a young adult feels. In nutshell it has all the hooks to keep you engraved in the book.

My Ultimate Question

Book will question you “What made the difference between you (Author) and the other Wes Moore”. In answer there are certain thoughts that pop up in your mind like right guidance, education and bla bla which the author got at the right time. It reminded me of the backtracking algorithm taught to me in engineering curriculum and I thought life can't be backtracked to undo actions and there is no predetermined shortest path algorithm for best route. My answer might sound diplomatic but I thought it was their destiny and they are on different paths. I think a magic can happen and the other Wes Moore, after releasing from prison in rest of his life can do wonders. Who Knows, what happens next? 

This book is Similar to Wings of fire by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam because in the end of both books there are few sets of question which are left for readers for further discussion. While searching on Twitter I came to know this book is given to students in formal education and they are told to write a review about it.

Once I read it I asked the questions that can I change my life by changing just two or three incidents or is the big picture already constructed by god and we are just travellers charting the road. If you are reading this blog till here you might think that I am not making any sense which I agree to certain extent. I am not a great Philosopher I am just Alok who is writing his actual feelings about the book which might be a bit unclear. Read to know more. I dedicate this blog to Kaolin Kunal Pundir whom I wish best of luck for a kick ass life in Finance, Maths loaded with some lovely Chicks. 

My rating 10/10 read to know more 

“I sat back, allowing Wes's words to sink in. Then I responded, "I guess it's hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances.” ― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates