Read a wonderful fable in novella form by Richard Bach “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” recommended by my wife.  Made an immediate connect as I felt that the story of Jonathan Livingston “Seagull”, who is kind of fed up with daily bickering for food is a story for one and all. The Seagull has fervour for flying high and breaking the barriers of speed. Though, he becomes an outcast, his sustained learning makes him super skilled and makes him able to train some enthusiasts too. Rest is recommended for people to read it.

The book was rejected by several publishers before coming to the attention of Eleanor Friede at Macmillan in 1969. She convinced Macmillan to buy it and Bach received a $2,000 advance. The book is listed as one of 50 "timeless spiritual classics" in a book by Tom Butler-Bowdon, who noted that "it is easy now, 35 years on, to overlook the originality of the book's concept, and though some find it rather naïve, in fact it expresses timeless ideas about human potential."

The novella inspired the production of a 1973 film of the same title, with a soundtrack by Neil Diamond. The film was made by Hall Bartlett many years before computer-generated effects were available. In order to make seagulls act on cue and perform aerobatics, Mark Smith of Escondido, California built radio-controlled gliders that looked like real seagulls from a few feet away. The Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album was composed by Neil Diamond and produced by Tom Catalano. It won the 1974 Grammy Award as Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special. The album apparently also made more money than the film. The Irish actor Richard Harris won a Grammy in 1973 for the Audiobook LP Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Source: Wikipedia

Some interesting quotes from the book:

“Jonathan sighed. The price of being misunderstood, he thought. They call you devil or they call you god.”

“He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all”

“Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect. -And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn't have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.”

 “You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way"

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.”

“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.”