'The Alchemist' autorickshaw in Kerala gets a shout-out from author Paulo Coelho; see viral picture

Do you recall Paulo Coelho’s acclaimed novel The Alchemist? With its story of self-discovery, the book touched millions of hearts worldwide and became a bestseller. Years later, the charm of the novel continues, as this photo featuring Coelho’s name and the novel’s title on an auto-rickshaw in Kerala went viral. The photo features Coelho’s name written in bold font in English and the word ‘alchemist’ written below it in Malayalam. Coelho posted a picture of the auto on Twitter, saying thank you for the photo.

The image went viral on social media, garnering over 24,000 likes to date. Many appreciated the Brazilian author’s gesture and his novels as well. The news of the now-viral picture also reached the owner of the auto-rickshaw, K A Pradeep. The 55-year-old, who drives the rickshaw in Ernakulam, became a fan of The Alchemist when he read the Malayalam translation of the work about a decade ago. He became a fan of the author and named his auto-rickshaw after the novel. Talking about his love for books, Pradeep said he gets reading recommendations and even novels as gifts from customers since he named his auto The Alchemist. Adding that he was fascinated by the novel, he said “even if it’s for a short distance, I am also a person who travels in my auto and decided to name it The Alchemist”. He was stunned when he came to know that Coelho had seen a picture of his auto-rickshaw. He said he first came to know that his vehicle had become famous on the internet when someone sent a picture of the viral tweet to his son. Since pictures of his auto-rickshaw have been clicked several times, he does not know who took this particular photograph. Pradeep has read nine of Coelho’s works and dreams of meeting the author one day. He has said that if the Veronika Decides to Die writer ever comes to India, he will try to meet him, no matter where he is in the country.