A Thousand Splendid Suns

It has been a long while I posted anything on my blog. For most part of it, it has been a total lack of inspiration and the remaining would be laziness. But today, after spending almost an entire day reading Khaled Hosseini's - A Thousand Splendid Suns, I have finally found something to write about.

I am not an avid reader of any kind of book, my enthusiasm to read books wanes as fast as it surges up and I have left quite a few books half read, but I must say that Khaled Hosseini might have changed that. I have read both of his published books - The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns within a day from the time I picked each of them up to read.

Both the books are fictional stories about people in Afghanistan with a backdrop of non-fictional political and social turmoil that the country has been seeing for the last several decades.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is about two women Mariam and Laila from two different generations who are raised in completely different circumstances and how their lives get intertwined due to various circumstances. The way Khaled Hosseini tells the story is really touching, gut wrenching at times. The characters come to life with every chapter and after reading a few pages your mind gets transported to the villages and cities in Afghanistan, sometimes to the lush green fields of Herat, and at other times to the busy streets of Kabul One can almost feel and smell the war torn, bomb shelled streets and hear the whistling of rockets as you read through the story. It is the connection that you develop with the characters is what keeps you from keeping the book down. What happens to Mariam as she waits at the door steps of her father home, does he let her in or does he not, what happens to Laila as she gets hit by a rocket, or do Mariam and Laila escape out of Kabul without getting caught by the Taliban soldiers...every time I thought I could keep it down, there were always some questions like these that kept me from doing so...

After finishing the book, there was a spontaneous sense of gratitude for all that I have and felt so lucky to born in a country like India, free and democratic. Also, one cannot but feel empathy towards all the Afghani people for what they have been enduring for last few generations.