Thursday, July 16, 2009

Kite Runner

In my short term memory, I have never had a week of nothing to do. Once I got that, I grabbed it with open hands. Planned and went for a trip in that week. But still had couple of days left. Seeing my wife's adulation of the book Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, I decided to give it a read. Before starting my PhD program, I used to sit with a book in a corner of a room and read the book till I felt hungry or the book got done, whichever happened first. I took the opportunity of reading a book in the 2 days left in my vacation and decided to give Kite Runner a try. I would like to say that it was one of the best fiction novel I have ever read. The book was full of staid sorrow, 'gham', which I normally do not like to read. But Kite Runner, which was full of 'gham', kept pulling me deep into the book and never let me out of its grip. It might be because I related to the context of the book or of the deep empathy the book evokes from the reader, but the book is just phenomenal. The author revels in creating 'gham' through the book without actually writing about it much. The book dishes out in open sight ironical twist of life, i.e. we as human always get a chance to correct things when it happens the first time but we always end up seeking for a second chance to correct it, which either never happens or happens too late to be of any use. For some reason, the book provides what Hosseini calls as a 'cathartic experience'. Thanks to the author kindling the fire to read books back in me again. Lots of the classics referred in the book (like stories of Rostam or the Mullah Mohammed stories) were my child hood favorite and I plan to read through it again.