It is a superb story – a mixed bag of emotions. The little boy (Amir) around whom the entire story keeps revolving and the situations he goes through from his childhood to his days of youth are so very close to reality. All of us will be able to relate to the situations and the story never seems like a fiction. The emotions that he is filled with are so beautifully framed in words that the reader can actually imagine the entire scene vividly in his mind. The story is set in Afghanistan, before the Taliban intervention and paints a very different view of the country. I for once realized that Afghanistan too could have been like any other country – terror free, with humans around and normal life for all.
The writer Hosseini, very tactfully deals with several issues – social life, double standards, class difference, childlike innocence, love, betrayal just everything and just when you thought that now things are smooth in the story there is an interesting angle added to it each time. The book takes you into the story as if you were one of the characters witnessing everything.
One of the incidents after the kite flying competition was so painful that I ended up crying. There was pain, helplessness, fear of a child, weaknesses exposed and indecisiveness. One realizes how crushing it is to know what is right and still not be able to find the courage to do it – the guilt that stays with the boy and how at the end that guilt makes him do something grand, really grand, so profound that it washes away all the sins away.
What stole my heart away was the character named Hasan. There is so much honesty, simplicity in the character that one cannot but fall in love with Hasan. There is devotion, complete surrender, dedication, strength, purity and much more that even words fall short for an apt explanation.
There are few beautiful lines from the book that I am going to carry with me for a long, long time –
Amir’s father tells his son that there is no other sin in the world other than theft. When you lie to someone you steal his right to truth. When you kill someone you steal his right to life. When you make someone unhappy you steal the right to his happiness and so on. I wonder if there is any simpler explanation of what life is. (all of us are thieves is one way or the other, only that we are capable of convincing ourselves with great conviction that we fell prey to situation, destiny and ignorance).
Another beautiful line was the last line of the book – that says that when the spring approaches, first layers of ice start to melt and you get to know this is ‘the new beginning’ – this is how life is….it goes on and everything around us teaches us the same. It ends the story with a hope that your life may have been a tumultuous journey but there is always hope that things are going to be good. There is more to life and more to live!!
No comments:
Post a Comment