A Thousand Splendid Suns

The next book by Khaled Hosseini - describes the life of Mariam and Laila - two women whose age difference is by more than a decade who end up being married to a guy who is decades older than both of them.

This book reflects the male-chauvinistic Afghan society and the domestic violence and callousness which are a part of the daily life of women there.

Mariam is a 'harami' and is uneducated and is brought up in a hut outside a city with no knowledge of the outside world. Her world comes crashing down one day and she is married off to Rasheed, a man who is thrice her age! She resigns to fate and starts life as his bride, but when suffers six miscarriages in a row, Rasheed starts ill-treating her and she becomes an unwanted addition to Rasheed.

Laila is a daughter of a progressive parents in Kabul who is in love with Tariq, a one-legged childhood friend. She is quite beautiful and is her dad's darling. Her dad wants her to complete college education and take up a job in Kabul. Days before her house is destroyed by a rocket in the battle ridden Kabul, Tariq and Laila give in to a momentary urge and end up in the bed. Tariq moves out to Pakistan immediately afterwards and Laila's home and world come crashing down the moment when a stray rockets lands on her house and kills her parents and her hopes.

Laila is saved from the rubble by Rasheed. Rasheed sets up a person who lies to Laila that Tariq is dead in Pakistan and when Rasheed declares he wants to marry Laila who is less than one-fourth his age, Laila to safegaurd her still unborn baby of Tariq, decides to marry Rasheed, causing Mariam to hate her.

Mariam and Laila start off life together in animosity - with Rasheed calling Mariam as a volga while Laila was a benz. But later when Mariam finds out why Laila agreed to be married to Rasheed and also her attachment to Tariq-Laila's daughter Aziza, she softens and befriends Laila.

Meanwhile, Rasheed has turned against Laila also and regularly beats both the women. The remainder of the book is about how Mariam and Laila escape Rasheed and how Mariam makes the ultimate sacrifice to enable Laila get back to Tariz, who is still alive in Pakistan.

A fast moving story, which captures the battle torn Afghanistan much better than the author's first book.

In one word, Excellent.


For more info.

The Kite Runner

I'd heard about this book by Khaled Hosseini - albeit for the reason that it was a very disturbing story about Afghanistan and I somehow wasn't interested in reading it. It was on a recent trip that I saw a Borders bookshop. I've had an affliction since childhood that I can't pass a bookstore without walking into it and having a look at the books, reading blurbs and etc etc. Since a recent financial upgrade in life, I was tempted to buy a book and I settled upon this and the other book by the author - A 1000 Splendid Suns.

Plot:

Amir and Haasan are friends in the deeply feudalistic society of Afghansitan. Amir is a boy who craves for attention from his father. He is disappointed that he is not what his father expects him to be - an aggressive, proactive leader of men. While disappointed that he is not upto his father's liking, Amir finds it irritating to find their servant's son Haasan being liked by his father. Haasan has had a bad familial background where his mother had eloped with a group of gypsies as soon Haasan was born. Amir is a budding story writer, which is despised by his 'baba'. In this while, his only solace is Rahim Khan, his 'baba's business partner who encourages him to continue writing.

Amir and Haasan share a passion - kites. Amir is a good kite fighter, while Haasan is a Kite Runner nonpareil. In one of the annual kite flying competitions, Amir, determined to prove his worth to his father, cuts the last of the flying kites and emerges winner and when Haasan tries to run the kite for Amir, gets sexually assaulted by Aseef (a Nazi sympathizer and who is a bully). Amir gets to see this, but out of fear for his own safety, doesn't do anything to prevent it. Haasan doesn't talk about his plight to Amir or any of his family members, but goes into a shell. Amir is guilt-ridden and plots a scheme to drive Hassan and his father out of the house, in which he succeeds.

Afghanistan is torn apart by successive political meltdowns and Amir and his dad leave behind all their material possessions back in Kabul and take flight to San Francisco - where Amir becomes a successful writer, his 'baba' dies and he marries Soraya, an Afghan girl with previous 'history'. While life goes on for the couple (they are diagnosed with unexplainable infertility), Amir gets a call from Rahim Khan from Pakistan asking him to come over as there was a task for him.

Amir goes to Pakistan learns what happened to Haassan and his son, and lo behold, learns a truth which shatters his image of 'baba', Hassan and himself. He goes back to the Taliban controlled Afghanistan to rescue Hassan's son and adopts him as his own.

The last line in the book, where Amir says to Sohrab (Hassan's son), "For you, a thousand times over" - the same line which Hassan tells to Amir before he goes to run the kite on the fateful day, is sure to strike an emotional chord in you.

The first part of the book is excellent - Amir's childhood and his adventures with Hassan - beautifully described. The second half feels cinematic and a bit over-dramatic. The author's projection of Amir and his moral dilemma is so realistic, that you've got to read to believe it.

Don't miss an opportunity to get to this book.

For more info.

Love and Longings in Bombay

My first experience of Vikram Chandra, thanks to Mumbai Media Baron.

This book is a collection of short stories narrated by a energetic old civil servant in a bar at the waterfront. There are 5 stories.

1. Dharma
A laid back thriller story about a deception played by a young mind, coming back to haunt him in his old age.

2. Shakthi
A tale with a twist about a socially ambitious person, with the malabar society of Mumbai as the backdrop.

3. Kama
A cop investigates a murder which has links to a sex racket with a intelligent twist at the end.

4. Artha
A story about a not-so-straight pair of friends working in the computer programming industry with the underworld of Mumbai as a principal player.

5. Shanthi
A story about a woman's search for her husband (who is missing in action) and ultimately life and how she finds life, albeit in a different person.


This book was a surprisingly good. The only Indian author I have completely read has been R.K. Narayan and generally, I hold them in contempt as I feel when it comes to Short stories, Indian writers have to be called artless, compared to authors around the world. The stories had a common thread - they start off pretty divergently and in the end, you find yourself travelling in just one direction without all ends tying up, without allowing loopholes in the plot. Awesome effort, I should say.

Surely, a must read.

One Night @ the Call Center

The second from Mr. Bhagat does come with an interesting premise - there are 6 people who work in a call center and each of them has his/her own personal and professional problems. The entire story happens on a single night when after a series of unfortunate events, the six of them receive a call from God, when they are on the edge of falling into a gorge. Interested?

My interest in reading this book was twofold:
1. I got the two Bhagath books for a good deal online
2. I was so in sync with Five Point Someone, that I wanted to see whether it was a flash in the pan or not.

The book appeals with realism and you tend to accept Shyam, the narrator for what he and at the same time, you can't help feeling that he is not a go-getter, which is why he faces his problems in life.

The call from God has not been overdone and over hyped - rather, as it was with Life of Pi, the caller/speaker could be anybody else - even one amongst the 6 people facing death, but the narrator/Bhagath chooses to call it God. I think the book hints at this possibility too.

The only bad thing I found about the book was the cinematic ending - was very contrived and that ending spoils the effect of the book, at least for me.


Verdict: Time pass. Definitely not a Must Read.

5 Point Someone

I was inspired to read this book quite lately - I saw some reviews on wikipedia, some other arbit websites and of course, Orkut!

The book is basically about 3 friends - Ryan, Hari and Alok - 3 guys who have nothing but their courses and hostel in common. The book starts right at the moment these 3 guys enter the "hallowed" portals of IIT. What follows is a downward spiral for all 3 of them - from being one of the nations best minds to some anonymous five point "something"s and in the end how they turn out to be "someone - the journey is realistic and keeps you hooked.

To many Indians who consider IIT as nothing short of a temple and people who study there as direct descendants of Einstien, this book tries to show that people at IIT are also normal human beings with their share of emotions and not walking talking encyclopedias.

The way in which Ryan keeps questioning the need to stick to dogma at the institution where India's best minds are supposed to revel in engineering creativity, touches a chord.

Overall, the book was an amazing read. I really loved it and really hope that Bhagat comes up with a sequel of some sorts. Click here to know more.

Verdict: Must Read

Waiting for the Mahatma

A book I'd been meaning to read for long, was finally available at the school library. The book starts out as an idyllic romance between Sriram and Bharati, setup against the backdrop of India's Freedom Struggle and Mahatma Gandhi.

As the story moves on, Sriram, an idle-brain is sucked into the vortex of the Quit India, courtesy his love for Bharati. When Gandhi advises all satyagrahis to surrender in jail, Sriram gets separated from Bharati and gets entangled with an extremist faction. Due to his ultra radical activities, Sriram is arrested as an extremist.

The rest of the book is about Sriram's travails in and out of jail and whether he is able to locate Bharati and marry her. There is a final twist in this story and it would remind tamilians of Kamal Hassan's Hey Ram.

Verdict: 2 day time pass!

Grateful to Life and Death

This was the title of a R.K. Narayan book which I found in the school library. I was surprised initially to hear of this unknown book from RKN and eagerly checked it out. I read the first four lines and it didn't take me long to figure out that "The English Teacher" in India was called as Grateful to Life and Death here in the United States, published by the Michigan Press.

The storyline is quite simple - Krishnan, a Lecturer in Malgudi, is happily married to Susila and life is chugging along on expected lines when tragedy strikes in the form of typhoid which leaves Krishnan a widower with a Leela, their 2 year daughter. The rest of the book is about how Krishnan copes with life after "death".

As is always the case, there isn't much of a story track. The winner is Narayan's subtle humor, tinted with emotion. I've always been amazed by Narayan's ability to reflect real life in his writings and every dialog and every action seems so natural that you only wish that you were a part of the proceedings.

Apart from the lead character, the child Leela, steals the book, especially in the last part, with her own way of responding to situations, quite opposite to that of Krishnan's expectations. The book is a take off on Narayan's own life and so you are able to relate to the psychic experiences in the later part of the book.

If at all I find something lacking, I found that the ending was a bit hurried and Narayan could have elaborated a bit more on Krishnan's change in his outlook an life - but then Narayan being what he is, expects you to understand subtleties!

If you are a Narayan fan and haven't read this one yet, grab a book!!

Bi(bli)ography!

Being the first kid in my family meant I had to grow up alone in my childhood and my proficiency, or rather the lack of it, in English, forced my parents to make me get into the realm of reading for pleasure. I wasn't sure when my parents said many people read for pleasure as the only books known to me till then were the ones associated with my school lessons! And moreover it was sort of a retrograde step for me as till then I had been collecting video cassettes of cartoons - I still remember - of Tom and Jerry, woody wood pecker, Pink Panther, Popeye and Looney Toons. My baptism started with a bedtime stories book and continued with Panchatantra and Akbar - Birbal stories. Comics (Amar Chithra Katha) the closest to my cartoons on TV dominated the literary field for me then. Tinkle Digest was eagerly sought after every month and my parents were very distressed to find me reading "trash"!

As soon as we had settled down in Madras (it was called so in 1992), two things happened. I joined a school where everybody spoke better English than me and the next was that my father bought me "Swami and Friends" from a book fair. The book took me in its grasp from the very first, as I was able to identify myself with the lead character Swami. I was so engrossed in the book that I finished the 140 page novel in 2 days, an accomplishment of sorts for me. I was hooked on to R.K.N and I went on a rampage in the school library - Tiger for Malgudi, The Bachelor of Arts, Talkative Man, A Grandmother's Tale, Mr. Sampath were read and re-read. Hardy Boys were a parallel craze too. Mysteries and Case Files were read with frenzy. I still remember Ashwin Bharadwaj (one of my closest friend in school) and me trading library books every week as our library had a one book per week quota. Now my parents were beginning to sense that what they had thought as a healthy diversion was beginning to develop itself into huge distraction! It was at this point that I went into high school and the new high school library had a far wider range of books and I still remember the first book that I took - The Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I had seen the movie and had liked it immensely. But even then I was bowled over by the book and a Crichton mania followed. Lost World impacted me deeply and when I saw the movie onscreen, it was such a bad onscreen adaptation - it never did any justice to the amazing story telling abilities of Crichton. Congo, Sphere, Andromeda Strain and Great Train Robbery were enjoyed. It was at this juncture that two books made me realize that I was a fiction only guy. The first was Five Patients by Crichton and the other was Coma (it took me into a Coma everytime I tried reading it) by Robin Cook.

The next stage of my reading was dominated by two giants of fiction - Ludlum and Forsyth. The first book which took me in this strain was The Bourne Identity. The book affected me so badly that for the next days, I tried to think if I would do something new at every corner of the school corridor. These authors were basically Cold War Period authors and so every book was a CIA Vs KGB or a full scale USA VS USSR story. Memorable books in this strain are The Day of the Jackal (One of the finest pieces of fiction to date and again, a bad screen adaptation), Matarese Circle (Beowulf Agate and the Serpent haunted me for long) and Icon.

Alongside action packed stories, two authors left the most deepest of impressions on me - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and P.G. Wodehouse. I had had an old copy of Laughing Gas with me from childhood but the cover design and the print from Penguin left me in distaste of the book and I had locked it in my trunk and one afternoon with nothing to do, I tried to give the book a glance and by evening had completed it and was trying to read it once more. This led to the "inimitable" Jeeves and "effervescent" Psmith. I read every Jeeves and Psmith book I could catch hold of, mostly in the form of "Omnibus". The other fanaticsm - that of Sherlock Holmes - made me read all 53 cases in one go and ever since I've re-read every Sherlock Holmes story atleast 20 times and I think this itself is an understatement.

The end of the PGW series and SH series marked the end of Junior College and signaled the end of my manic reading too. College was a place where I developed a liking for films with Rajini Kanth, Ajith and Madhavan in tamizh, Tom Hanks in English and SRK/Hrithik in Hindi. Though the first two years of college was a non starter in terms of books, the third year marked my introduction to one of the classics - "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny less" by Jeffrey Archer. I should say that Archer is the author, who along with Narayan has affected my writing a lot. An archer frenzy followed - Kane & Abel, The Prodigal daughter, Shall we tell the President?, As the Crow Flies, Sons of Fortune, Honor among thieves, First Among Equals, A Matter of Honor, The fourth Estate and the Eleventh Commandment followed. Somewhere around the same time, one of my closest friends in college, Sathya told me about a news article in the Hindu which told that the number of visitors to the Louvre had increased because of a novel by a man called Dan Brown. I'm a strong believer in Hinduism and have been irritated by taunts from people of other religions about Hinduism and so when I started on the Da Vinci Code, it was basically because of my curiosity. The book proved out to be such a taut thriller that subsequent books like Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress and Deception Point just happened. Of these, I would definitely say the Digital Fortress was a very bad book and in fact, I would rate it amongst the worst books I've ever read. With this series along with Barons (:D), my reading phase in SVCE came to an end.

It was the summer of 2005 when I successfully read the first non fiction series - The Prison Diary (I,II,III) by Jeffrey Archer. His short stories collections such as To Cut a Long Story Short, A Quiver Full of Arrows, A Twist in the Tale, Twelve Red Herrings and the Collected Short Stories also appealed to me and I've ever since aspired to be a short story writer.


Currently, I'm trying to develop my reading skills further - reading books like The Alchemist, The World is Flat and Freakanomics.


As a popular poet says,

" And Miles to go before I sleep,
and Miles to go before I sleep"

I think this applies to my literary sojourn as well.


P.S: I get the feeling that this has been one of the worst blog entries from me in recent times - cant help it, as I'm feeling nostalgic about books and have lots of time on hand!