K.P. Yohannan shares his transformative journey of friendship and personal growth while serving in North India, where cultural differences often led to arguments and misunderstandings. A pivotal moment came when a friend recommended Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People,' which opened his eyes to the power of loving communication over criticism. This book, along with others like 'The Calvary Road' and 'True Discipleship,' profoundly changed his attitude and approach to relationships, steering him away from loneliness and towards a life focused on pleasing Jesus and influencing others positively. Yohannan emphasizes that while he has mingled with many people, the impact of these books has been far greater in shaping his life and purpose.

In 1966, when I was serving the Lord in North India, I had a lot of friends. All of them were from different places and countries and spoke different languages. Because of these differences, staying together was not easy. Food, dress, behavior—everything was different. People had different behaviors and cultures in all areas. Because of this, differences and arguments were common among us. Here, I got a chance to learn a lot of things, especially how to mingle and behave with others. I still remember, most of the arguments started with a silly thing and ended up in a big fight. I was very good in arguments. Most of the time I won single handedly. But in reality I failed miserably. I temporarily lost some good friends due to this. My friends became my enemies. I was in a dilemma. Under this circumstance, one of my friends advised me, “Read this book once.” He gave me a book named How to Win Friends and Influence People, written by the famous Dale Carnegie. I started reading that book; it’s a book with 300 pages. When I finished the book my inner eyes were opened. We cannot win people over by criticizing, complaining, arguing or talking in a loud voice. Don’t even think about criticizing others. That will only hurt them. We lose them through criticism. We win friends through loving, peaceful talk. The book influenced my attitude with its examples and stories. My behavior, the way I mingled with others, changed. If I didn’t read that book, I would have made more enemies and lived in loneliness, pain, depression and sorrow. This is not a joke. When I look back to my past, I feel that book saved my life. book-67049_960 Like this, a habit of reading grew in my life. After that, I read The Calvary Road, written by Roy Hession. This book also affected my life positively. This book helped me to apologize for my mistakes, leave my “self” and be humble. The Calvary Road is a book which changed my life in a huge way. Another member in my collection of books or “friends” is William McDonald’s True Discipleship; this book also influenced me a lot. Reading books changed my way of thinking. The feeling strengthened in me that “I should not plan my life for a small period of time; instead it should be planned for eternity.” Pleasing Jesus, living for Him, following Him, bringing others to Him became the ultimate aim and goal in my life. Within this short span of my life, I mingled with many thousands of people. But the influence they made in my life is small compared to the impact books had on me. They are not just books, they are blessed books.