Tiya: A Parrot's Journey Home

Paperback, 174 pages
Published 2009 by Harper Collins Publishers India ltd., New Delhi

Tiya : A Parrot's Journey Home is this little-known book that I picked up as a last-minute purchase at my favorite bookstore. I am a sucker for Alchemist type of books. Tiya sounded so similar to the Alchemist in its premise. Yet, it was different.

Samarpan or Swami Samarpananda as he is better known is a monk. And Paulo Coelho isn't. Therein lies the difference. While the Alchemist was also a fable much like Tiya is, what differentiates Tiya is the veneration of spirituality that surrounds it. Tiya is deeply metaphysical, its spirituality rooted in language simple yet so complex in its simplicity. Tiya is a parrot, not just another parrot, but one who thinks he is different. Haven't we all? He befriends a beautiful swan, Hans, (an unknown presence )who tells him there is more to him than ever will be, and urges him to seek himself.

“You are much more than what you think you are, and you can achieve much more than you are achieving now.”

Tiya sets off on a journey, a voyage of self-discovery to fantastical lands where he meets various creatures, equally fantastical. Through his interactions with them, Tiya learns to identify his own strengths and weaknesses, disseminate his ego, and understand his self. If only I can take such a journey, and find such beautiful revelations to my self! But the path wasn't easy - many times, Tiya almost came to close to losing his life. Yet he emerges - soul singed but freer for it.

Harper Collins, it appears, has not done much to promote the book. I can scarce find an Internet source credible enough apart from Samarpan' own blog. Looking back now, I wish I had read the book a little slower. Yet, there were certain allegorical descriptions that were a bit too difficult for my simple mind to fathom. There is no doubt that Samarpan has weaved in years of his Vedantic learning into creating this charming book and that effort needs to be lauded. Perhaps my cluttered mind too needs to fly, just like Tiya. Maybe then, I might really believe I am more than what I think I am, which is not much anyway. [source]