Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia.
A celebrated writer's irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life.
Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.
To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world—all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well.
In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way—unexpectedly.
An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society’s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.
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HOW RAILA ESCAPED EXECUTION:
A US embassy official, Mr Allan Eastham, told RAILA that they had intelligence indicating that the government was in advance stages of preparing his execution, he told him that the impending arrest was not to be an ordinary arrest but rather .. an arrest that would cause him bodily harm if not lead to his death, he advised him to be safe and careful.
The police raided his offices at Agip house but missed him since he had gone to Orengo’s office within the same building, a team of Lawyers led by Mrs Karua were called in to witness the siege, this foiled the raid and the police called it a day promising to keep the hunt.After a night in Orengo’s house, Nyong’o, RAILA and Orengo felt that the house was also not safe, they had to find a safer place to hide Raila from the state.
They made a decision to take him Dr kituyi house, Nyong’o drove him to his new home,RAILA stayed with Dr Kituyi family for a week while the special branch hunted down for him. On the first night at Kituyi home, the police raided his house in Kileleshwa.Ida having been used to the battle refused to open the door, insisting Raila was not home, she pretended to be searching for keys while in fact she was calling the press.
She asked the watchman to count the officers in the compound, when he reached 17, he was beaten to black out.After a week, the time to move RAILA to another location came, Kituyi’s wife, Mrs Ling was charged with the responsibility of driving him to the US embassy.
She changed RAILA beards, fixed him with glasses & a wig, she sat him behind while Dr Kituyi following closely with Nyong’oThe trip to the embassy was successful but they refused to host him for fear of crossing President Moi path.
From the embassy Nyong’o and Muite drove Raila to Loresho where he stayed with Jalang’o Onyango for a week as they crafted the next course of action.The Catholic church took the issue of Raila a week later, he moved to his sister in law house to meet his children and promised them that he’ll never go back to Detention.
A white American nun and father Opiyo got RAILA out of Nairobi.They dressed Raila as a priest, gave him glasses and shaved his head clean, RAILA became a completely different person after the changes, sitting at the back, RAILA read newspapers as they passed the numerous roadblocks mounted on the road by the police.When they reached the catholic station in Kisumu, they booked RAILA under the name Father Augustine from Machakos, he was later transferred to Rang’ala mission station and was booked under the same name.
His father sent a car to pick him.At 4 pm, RAILA ODINGA was moved to Olago Beach where he was to be smuggled out of the country through the lake, he boarded the diesel-powered boat and began his voyage to Uganda, they passed by Ndeda Island to pick up some passengers and left for Uganda at 8pm.After 2 hrs, Hezron Orori, the navigator announced that they were in Uganda, a heavy storm hit the lake later & Orori wife began to shiver, Raila lent her his jacket & faced the unforgiving cold himself, he turned to a bottle of Vodka given to him by a friend to get some warmth.
He spent the night at Sigulu. With the help of sympathetic Kenyans and Tanzanians living in Uganda, he acquired Ugandan papers, but changed his name to Joseph Ojiwa Wadenya.Once in Kampala, he was hosted by one of his friends who worked in his company, the friend reported his arrival to UNHCR, the UNHCR advised Raila to remain underground since the Kenyan government had sent special officers to kidnap him and send him back home.
To be moved out of Uganda, RAILA had to be disguised once more, Ahmed Sayyid Farah, a Somali national who was the UNHCR country representative in Uganda decided that they were not going to take chances.
Farah got RAILA ODINGA a kanzu with a fez and a jacket similar to those of Uganda Muslims to wear. His name was also changed from Wadenya to Haji Omar, going to mecca for pilgrimage, when he reached Oslo not even his blood sisters who waiting for him could recognize him