- The narrator's master, J, says, he is trying to become the "King of His Kingdom"
- J tells him that what he is feeling is what he himself had felt some years back. That way, the writer is convinced that what he is in is a phase he cannot withdraw himself from
- The narrator decides to travel and persuades his agent to do a Russian tour where he will travel the country on the Trans Siberian Railroad. In Russia, he comes across a girl, Hilal, who he shares a history of lives past with. She talks about her dream about a friend with a light. Then the two of them see Aleph, which is defined as "a point where everything, the whole universe is contained"
- He becomes obsessed with how the bamboo grows. How, for the first several years the bamboo only grows underground with only a small shoot above the earth and then, seeemingly out of nowhere, it grows 25 meters in the next year. I think this is a powerful message that before success, there are years of hard work that go unseen
- "Karma is not what we did in our past, but what we do in the present to change our future"
- "Only mediocrity is sure of itself"
- "Love always triumphs over death. That is why there is no point in grieving for our loved ones. They will always be loved."
What I got out of it
- A very intimate and touching story of a man who is battling a personal crisis and how he overcomes it through love and faith
