Archive for December, 2011

Howdy!!!

Just after receiving a call, everything flashed right in front of his eyes. His childhood, his childhood friend, his home land, the kite-fighting tournament, the moment when everything ceased, the guilt, and the kite-runner. The only way to satisfy himself he considered was to going back to his past, in order to complete what was left.

Twelve year old Amir, lived in Kabul with his father and they were served by their servants Ali and his son, Hassan. His father was a very respected man, in Kabul, but he did not see any of the qualities of him in Amir, and he was bothered with this and he often used to discuss about this with his friend Rahim Khan, the only person whom Amir considered as a well wisher. In order to prove himself, Amir, with his friend Hassan, decided to win the local kite-fighting tournament. He won finally, and the best kite-runner of Kabul, Hassan, ran to fetch the last kite that fell from sky. And it appeared to Amir, that Hassan ran from his life, forever and more important than that, Amir could have stopped him from going away.

Things changed, and Amir with his father came to America, where both struggled for a better life. Amir, fell in love with a Kabul girl in America and married her, while his father was counting his last days, but refused to get treated as his father thought he had lived his life. Everything was going well, when Rahim Khan called him one day, and called him back to Pakistan and said, his days are almost over.

Reluctantly Amir decided to go, as conditions were not well in Kabul, due to intervention of Taliban. When he found Rahim Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, Rahim Khan explained how things were there in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He informed that, Hassan, his friend was shot to death by Taliban, they were living in Amir’s home as Amir’s father had asked Rahim Khan to take care of his house, and Rahim Khan found Hassan and his wife to stay with him. Rahim Khan unveiled some biggest secrets related to his life and he felt dejected. Rahim Khan, asked Amir to bring the son of Hassan from Kabul, who was in one of orphanage now.

courtesy: google images

First, Amir, found this task impossible, as he had heard all about Taliban. But he thought, it was the chance for his redemption. It was his time to pay back, what he could have done that evening of the kite-fighting tournament can be done now.

What happened next, how did Amir managed to go back to Kabul and find his friend’s son with Taliban all over Afghanistan. This book is all about the early life of Amir and Hassan in Afghanistan and his journey back to Afghanistan to bring Hassan’s son and get the redemption.

I suggest, it is a must read, even if my review doesn’t look interesting, but I am telling you, I am not an author of his class, so probably I cannot express what he, Khaled Hosseini, has. For convincing you, I am quoting my Facebook status updates, which I wrote while I was reading, this book.

last night….i felt my eyes were wet..I touched and felt droplets….dammit!!! it was just a book…how do they insert feelings on paper with words….I smiled and closed the book to read the cover page once again, it said “The Kite Runner”…

I don’t know…I have read many books..but this one..it was different…I felt like I am living it…I was one more character, standing right beside the man narrating this story, watching silently, smiling when he smiled, crying when he cried, laughing when he laughed…I didn’t just read the book…I lived with “the kite runner”

Will be here always

Dear God,

I had tried to write a letter you back when I was in first year( BTech), and as you haven’t replied till now, I thought let’s make another try. They say, everything is possible…huh…so are you going to send a reply? By the way, I don’t care, because you haven’t done anything that’d please me, so I don’t expect yet another time. I am writing you for complaining, because perhaps, you have no idea how miserable, you can make someone’s life. They say that, you write people’s fate, then why have you given sorrow to people; don’t you want your followers to be happy? To this many would answer that it’s the punishment for the sin you have done in your past life, I have heard it many times, then why did you allow that person to commit that sin in his/her past life at first place? I guess, you want people to remember you. If you’ll make someone’s life perfect that person will forget you, do you think that?

You have not made life easy for me, till now. But I was happy as many of my friends were happy. But you couldn’t see that also. You made my friend sad, and now you have made me sad too. I think you are happy now. Is it? The person, who taught me to smile in the worst conditions of life, is now not smiling. Huh…why don’t you just let people live there life happily. Why you have to interfere always and twist things so that someone gets hurt. Don’t say that why I am complaining now? Why I didn’t thank you when I felt happy? I did, but you were busy thinking something else for me, you received my thanks, and started making plans, so I think I should stop thanking you. You mind your business and I will mind mine. But as you are superior to me, the fact that cannot be denied, I have a request, please do not make those people sad, at least, who, when smile, several other people feel relieved and smile back. Don’t make everyone’s life perfect, because nothing is perfect in this world, as they say, but you can do this, don’t give them all the happiness in this world but you can at least save them from being sad. I know, you know about whom I am talking, because they say this too, that you know everything, so if you are reading this, umm…if you are reading my mind, make things as it were. You can see smile on many people’s face if you return that person’s smile.

Yours etc,

A friend of a friend

Kaixo!!!

So, Manchesters are out of UEFA Champions league, and as a result I saw a little bit of chaos on my Facebook wall. People who supported either Manchester United or Manchester City are obviously disappointed and of course they feel a little bit odd and unfair when some other people who are happy to see either of these two teams out, are commenting or updating a status which are in some way depicting as these two teams are worse than most of the football clubs around the world. Wait a minute, why do these people are happy to see those team out, rather they should be happy to see their team are performing well and through to the next round.

I support. I support a team. I do not own a team. I support Manchester United as a fan. So do other people support Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona, Manchester City or Real Madrid etc. Why don’t people support or are fan of teams like West Ham United or Everton or Real Betis or Getafe? There are people who support them, but not people like us. We support the best clubs. I support Manchester United because I liked David Beckham and he used to play in Man U. Now, he does not but I started to follow this team and now I am a fan of this team. Similarly, people like Liverpool for Gerrard, Chelsea for Terry and Lampard, Arsenal for Henry (former Arsenal player), Arsen Wenger and RVP or Barcelona for Messi. My point is we are not living at those places, so we do not have those feeling of which are possessed by natives, we support them because we like the way they play or based on some other reason like favorite player.

So, do we have to prove that some other team is not good? I would like to ask those people who have wrote on their Facebook wall (please find some time to comment here, if you can write on Facebook wall and write comments on comments then you can surely write your view here too), which result made you happier?

a)      The team you support are through to the next round

b)      Or the other teams could not make it.

If your answer is A then surely you should have shown that you are happy, which most of the people didn’t. If your answer is B then I doubt that you truly support your team.

I am sure, if Man U would have entered the second round I would have updated that I am happy because Man U are through, on my Facebook wall.

Football is a sport; a single tournament does not decide which team is better. It takes more than that, perhaps a history of tournament or rather how they played in a few seasons. Even Sachin Tendulkar is struggling for his 100^th century, and Sehwag scored 200, does it prove Sehwag is better than GOD???

Will be here soon

Kaixo!!!

I recently finished reading this book and I am very much impressed with this book. So, here I present what this book is about. You should read this book, it’s a wonderful work by Cecelia Ahern.

Have you ever donated blood?? If no, then do it and if yes, have you ever wondered who received your blood. I have donated but I have not thought about it. But Cecelia Ahern thought and she represented her thought in a beautiful way in her book, Thanks for the memories.

The story start with a Justin Hitchcock, professor of art, culture and architecture visits a medical college where a lady doctor, Sarah made him donate his blood. At the same time the narrator of the story Joyce Conway was receiving treatment after her accident. After her treatment, Joyce is experiencing something unusual. Now she had all the knowledge about the historical places and everything related to art.

As a reader you’ll know at the start of this story that the blood of Justin was transfused into the body of Joyce. But the beauty of Cecelia’s writing lies here. How beautifully she has organized their encounter where Joyce knows everything and Justin doesn’t. Joyce is now possessing Justin’s memory, she dreams about his wife and daughter. She also possesses his experience, knowledge, taste etc. She is able to speak Latin, French and Italian in one night.

Since, Justin’s blood was running inside Joyce’s veins she is attracted towards him. She dreams about his earlier life. She dreams about her daughter and it worries her. Their first meeting was at the hair salon and after that they met many times at different places. One day, Joyce called the emergency number and her call was connected to emergency number of Justin’s daughter, Bea. Joyce started to understand what is happening, but Justin had no idea, he thinks it as coincidence only.

After talking to Bea on phone, she went to London with his dad in a hope to meet Justin at the Ballet show in which Bea was performing. There is beautiful narration of how a person acts when he is going to fly for the first time, his dad Henry Conway. But some twists appeared and even though both of them saw each other at the show, they couldn’t meet each other. Instead, Joyce met his daughter and came to know that Justin had donated blood at the same time when she received someone’s and his daughter also told that his dad, Justin felt very happy about he saved someone’s life and expects thanks from that person every day. Joyce decided to do that after that meeting and she started to send him unnamed thank you cards. It became a mystery for Justin. He had a lecture to give in Dublin, Joyce’s home town. Joyce came to know this and she arranged a good welcome for him, again unnamed. At the end of his trip Justin received two tickets for an Opera show; he knew it was him/her whose life he has saved by donating blood. He gave wrote his reply in same envelop, accompany me? Justin.

But in the meantime, Justin and Joyce met in Dublin with family and friends and their family and friends organized a date for them at the same time, Justin was invited for Opera show. Justin did not know, Joyce was same person so he was unsure because as much as he wanted to go on a date with this girl, he wanted to meet the person whose life he had saved.

What happened next? Did Justin go on date or he went to meet the mystery person? What did Joyce did? Did she go on date or she went to Opera Show to wait for Justin to come? Did they really met, if yes how did Justin reacted by knowing that a person is possessing his memories and experiences, if no why didn’t Joyce directly told Justin that she was the girl whose life he had saved someday.

To know the answers of these questions, read Thanks for the memories authored by Cecelia Ahern. A book worth of reading. If you are into novel reading then I would say it’s a must read.

will be here soon