{..continued..}
I'm posting this from a different city, and a good 4 days after I posted part-1. The primary motivation remains the same: the sheer power of his writings.
There is however an additional impetus, in the same direction, in the form of A Mighty Heart which I happened to watch on HBO yesterday. The movie captures the sequence of events that describe the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Daniel Pearl, the journalist of the Wall Street Journal. The whole episode was so gruesome, mysteriously factless and haunting that I still remember seeing it over the pages of TOI years ago.
In a nutshell, here's what happens:
Daniel Pearl tries to meet religious leaders and is misguided into an appointment with a leader Gilani, who, (as investigations reveal much later) had never granted him one, which means Pearl had been tricked and trapped by some unknown parties.
Mariane Pearl (played by Angelina Jolie in the movie), wife of Daniel, who delivers a baby merely three months after Daniel was beheaded, an unbelieaveably calm girl of mixed race, describes Pearl as a man who was Jewish by birth, as one who'd never advertise his religion, but as one never denying it if confronted. This, she believes, could've made him more vulnerable in the eyes of his captors.
The investigation is so complex and confusing, (with suspects having multiple identities, missing links in the communication chain leading from Daniel Pearl to the leader Gilani) that the viewer realizes how terribly messy the whole situation in Pakistan really is. All men dress alike. Terrorists, policemen, investigators, common men, religious clerics. Everyone. So frikkin confusing. For you, me, the US, and anyone else interested/bold enough to try distinguishing between the lot. They all wear clothes characteristically Muslim.
No offense meant, but in one single sentence, here's my point:
Religious leaders must never be allowed to govern a nation or even as much as a valley in it.
The Swat Valley "peace" deal is a shocker. The Pak Government's attempts to distinguish between the Good Taliban (as they call it) from the Bad Taliban are such a pathetic eyewash that it is absurd, shocking, unfair and insane all at the same time.
When we talk of religion in such terms, I sometimes seriously wonder if we have completely forgotten the aspect of GOD in a religion. The close association of every religion with Him, the former merely being an illuminating path to attain the latter. Because the moment one remembers this, a number of questions arise.
Has any religion ever described norms for governing a large populace? Does any religion have anything remotely resembling (in principle or otherwise) a constitution that describes rights of an individual - social, economic, civil ? Does it identify the definitive rights of man as equality, libert,y fraternity, social justice and the most fundamental of them all - freedom? Does any religion even so much as treat all its followers on an equal footing - does it ever prescribe or define equality of all men in the eyes of God? On the contrary, every religion has some form or the other of sub-division: sub-sects, sub-castes, types, forms etc etc etc. The list is endless. My objective here is not to criticize religion, but to try, identify and understand its goal.
The purpose of religion was never to equalize men. It was (and still is, I trust) to teach us the best way to attain, understand and feel God. Although it does prescribe morality, ethics and a general heuristic model of acceptable behaviour at the most - these are never enforceable and binding upon anyone. This is exactly why religion is purely a matter of choice - because it tests one's own understanding of its teachings, which frankly might be quite complex for some and very simple(and beautiful) for some others. In short - every follower of a particular religion X will never understand it(and hence abide by its teachings) to the same extent. And that is why it can never be law. It has never been understood to the same level by all men.
Unlike a nicely put down constitution whose first declaration is that all men are equal in its eyes.
Be it in India or in Pakistan, religion can never be law. It is a non-enforceable guide that attempts to teach us something very complex : God. And we, the citizens of a nation, will learn it differentially - as a function of our ability/willingness to understand and appreciate them.
Muslim clerics cannot and must never try to rule a place. Their tools, they must not forget, are God, religion and faith. Which are not exactly what is required of an administrative Government. Radical Islamic groups can better utilize their energies in uplifting the people, in bettering their current standards of living and rescuing them from their impoverished states, which I am confident is a much, much more challenging task than what they pursue at the moment.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
A thousand Splendid Suns
Completed 4 years of engineering! Took my last exam last week. (Where on earth did the 4 years go?? Seems like just yesterday that I joined! )
This post is not about my life in these 4 years though. Wanted to post something on that subject, but I've consistently put off the idea.
I cannot put off this motivation though. After Jonathan Livingston Seagull (which strongly reminded me of The Alchemist, by the way), I finally began to read A Thousand Splendid Suns, a birthday gift I received almost a year ago.
Khaled Hosseini. He must feel like God. Having control over the emotions of total strangers. Having such power over his readers - their emotions, their feelings, thoughts. He is a powerful writer, for I have not been moved by anyone's writings in a very long time. (The last book that gave me a sleepless night was Night by Elie Weasel, because of the descriptions of the Holocaust, and the horrific concentration camps at Auschwitz.)
A thousand Splendid Suns has a lot in common with the Kite Runner.
1) For one, both stories are set in similar backgrounds: the story ranges through the periods of the the Soviet Union controlled Kabul, followed by the period during which factions including the Hazaras, Uzbeks, Pashtuns and Tijeks killed each other, and finally the fall of Afghanistan into the Taliban's Sharia' laws.
2) The second striking resemblance is the contrast of characters in Mariam-Laila and Hassan-Amir. Mariam and Hassan are both illiterate, very strong, steady, unfailingly patient, never faltering in duties assigned to them, religiously working for thankless chores and ungrateful people. Both sacrifice their lives in ways that the other pair (Laila-Amir respectively) can never forget. Laila and Amir are similar because of their educated background and their role in seeking redemption: in the way they each visit the dead's place or seek to remain connected with the lives of their beloved.
3) The third common factor is Hosseini's formula. His recipe. The first half of the stories hurt the reader in ways that will pain the reader most cruelly ( he most certainly hurt me badly enough for me to hate each book at varying points of time). In Hassan's pain, I could feel my own. In all the brutality Mariam faced, I was being burned with her. I could feel every blow dealt to her with Rasheed's belt. The second half of each story heals the wound. In the most beautiful, unforgettable manner.
4) The fourth common factor: outstanding conclusions. The last pages are worth reading a thousand times over.
5) Hosseini's love of the number thousand. "For you, a thousand times over." The most unforgettable dialogue of The Kite Runner. And the Farsi poetry lines on how 'one cannot count the thousand moons on the roof or the thousand splendid suns behind the wall'.
6) Finally, Hosseini has flooded his stories with beautiful Farsi. Words like koshteep(handsome), tarakosh (thank you), the suffix of jo/jan/agha, 'zendagi megzara'(life goes on) and so many more I cannot forget in a very long time.
7) The plight of Afghan refugees brought out in both books which nobody who reads his work can fail to notice. He has conveyed to us how war leads only to destruction - of a magnitude and scale that can scarcely be estimated with accuracy, let alone be reconstructed or rebuilt. He has highlighted to the world how difficult and important the task of rebuilding Afghanistan really is.
8) Hosseini's USP remains the same- his ability to create characters that are so powerfully convincing, that he can etch them permanently to our memories alongside those of the story itself, that the first thing we will think of when we remember his works are the characters themselves, however insignificant they may be. Be they that of Giti, Hasina, Tariq, Aziza, Rahim Khan or Asif - each one has a totally distinct characteristic nature and behaviour pattern.
{ .. to be continued.. }
This post is not about my life in these 4 years though. Wanted to post something on that subject, but I've consistently put off the idea.
I cannot put off this motivation though. After Jonathan Livingston Seagull (which strongly reminded me of The Alchemist, by the way), I finally began to read A Thousand Splendid Suns, a birthday gift I received almost a year ago.
Khaled Hosseini. He must feel like God. Having control over the emotions of total strangers. Having such power over his readers - their emotions, their feelings, thoughts. He is a powerful writer, for I have not been moved by anyone's writings in a very long time. (The last book that gave me a sleepless night was Night by Elie Weasel, because of the descriptions of the Holocaust, and the horrific concentration camps at Auschwitz.)
A thousand Splendid Suns has a lot in common with the Kite Runner.
1) For one, both stories are set in similar backgrounds: the story ranges through the periods of the the Soviet Union controlled Kabul, followed by the period during which factions including the Hazaras, Uzbeks, Pashtuns and Tijeks killed each other, and finally the fall of Afghanistan into the Taliban's Sharia' laws.
2) The second striking resemblance is the contrast of characters in Mariam-Laila and Hassan-Amir. Mariam and Hassan are both illiterate, very strong, steady, unfailingly patient, never faltering in duties assigned to them, religiously working for thankless chores and ungrateful people. Both sacrifice their lives in ways that the other pair (Laila-Amir respectively) can never forget. Laila and Amir are similar because of their educated background and their role in seeking redemption: in the way they each visit the dead's place or seek to remain connected with the lives of their beloved.
3) The third common factor is Hosseini's formula. His recipe. The first half of the stories hurt the reader in ways that will pain the reader most cruelly ( he most certainly hurt me badly enough for me to hate each book at varying points of time). In Hassan's pain, I could feel my own. In all the brutality Mariam faced, I was being burned with her. I could feel every blow dealt to her with Rasheed's belt. The second half of each story heals the wound. In the most beautiful, unforgettable manner.
4) The fourth common factor: outstanding conclusions. The last pages are worth reading a thousand times over.
5) Hosseini's love of the number thousand. "For you, a thousand times over." The most unforgettable dialogue of The Kite Runner. And the Farsi poetry lines on how 'one cannot count the thousand moons on the roof or the thousand splendid suns behind the wall'.
6) Finally, Hosseini has flooded his stories with beautiful Farsi. Words like koshteep(handsome), tarakosh (thank you), the suffix of jo/jan/agha, 'zendagi megzara'(life goes on) and so many more I cannot forget in a very long time.
7) The plight of Afghan refugees brought out in both books which nobody who reads his work can fail to notice. He has conveyed to us how war leads only to destruction - of a magnitude and scale that can scarcely be estimated with accuracy, let alone be reconstructed or rebuilt. He has highlighted to the world how difficult and important the task of rebuilding Afghanistan really is.
8) Hosseini's USP remains the same- his ability to create characters that are so powerfully convincing, that he can etch them permanently to our memories alongside those of the story itself, that the first thing we will think of when we remember his works are the characters themselves, however insignificant they may be. Be they that of Giti, Hasina, Tariq, Aziza, Rahim Khan or Asif - each one has a totally distinct characteristic nature and behaviour pattern.
{ .. to be continued.. }
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