The Kite Runner

"For you a thousand times over!"

We won! We won! was all I could say.

"I know", he said. "Inshallah, we'll celebrate later. Right now I am going to run that blue kite for you", he said.
"Hassan!" I called. "Come back with it!"

"For you a thousand times over!" he said.

I got a chance to read this book quite late. Maybe because I never had set my heart on it. Now that I have read it, I feel, a few words over it are necessary, especially because this book has made it to my list of favourites. There's something about this book that stays, lingers on, haunts. Its like living amidst Amir, Hassan and the streets of Kabul. Its like weaving in and out of a dream, with big poplar trees, shady alleyways, warm sunlight over the hills on a winter afternoon and knee deep snow. It echoes. It is set against the backdrop of the life and times of the country itself. Another line that hits me hard is, "there are a lot of children in Afghanistan but little childhood."
It is the story of 2 little boys in Afghanistan who grow up together. One was the master and the other his playmate, ready to sacrifice everything for his friend. It is the story of the varied faces of human nature...It seamlessly dwells on the realms of honour, love, betrayal, fear, struggle, remorse, redemption and passion.
I have just put it down, but feel like reading it all over again.

A very honest book and I love it.

Mahashweta

I read the review on my friend's blog ( http://wishes-and-world.blogspot.com/2007/03/mahashweta-book-review.html ) and had been interested in reading the book 'Mahashweta' by Sudha Murty ever since. I read it today and am glad I did. It defines relations in such a different light. Strength and belief are all one has to fall back on.

In the world I live in, I had almost forgotten cruelty and segregation of the sort still exit. Apparently they do and on a big scale, however much I shut my eyes and keep the real world out. I will not dwell on the content of the book. Although it is a small book and not more than one or two hour's worth, I would never be able to do justice to the depth it has. I am still in a trance. It sure has volumes to speak.

Scarlett - 2

"The old ladder is under my quilts, Momma. Grainne told me to save it"
From cold war to Irish insurgence and unrest. Horse races, Dublin, River Liffey, Georgia, Charleston. This book never tires me. I can read it while I am walking, while I am talking, or on a bus to work and even when I am half asleep, and still remember everything as though I had been watching a movie.
Scarlett has surely changed and matured into a real person. Although she had to face greater hardships and bleak times in Gone With the Wind, she did not learn humility once she was victorious. She was trying hard to be someone she was not. And she lost Rhett eventually.
I am done with reading the book and surely regret my premature review - 1.
I have never seen a more determined person. She builds a lost town almost single handedly, raises her daughter, never once looking for help. She never gives in to the insufferable agony, and rejection that she has had to face all her life with her people. It is only when she is in Ireland on the lands of the O'Hara's that she discovers herself. Rhett hasn't changed much. He is the same infuriating, loving character he's always been.

I am glad I read the book. It has definitely changed my opinion about Scarlett 'O Hara. I simply love it when Rhett and Scarlett are back together. She belongs with him and it should have been like that all along. Their little girl Cat(Katie O'Hara) is another character I will remember for a long time.

I'll take you home again, Kathleen
Across the ocean wild and wide
To where your heart has ever been
Since first you were my bonny bride.
The roses all have left your cheek.
I've watched them fade away and die.
Your voice is sad when e'er you speak
And tears be-dim your loving eyes.
And I wll take you back, Kathleen
To where your heart will feel no pain.
And when the hills are fresh and green
I will take you home, Kathleen

For all Gone With the Wind fans, this book is a must read.

Scarlett

Years back I had read the book "Gone with the Wind". It is a big book and very interesting. Revolves around Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, Ashley, Melly and a host of others. War, misfortunes, struggles to keep her home Tara alive and losses.
Now I am reading its sequel Scarlett. The book is not very different from the previous. Another set of losses and mishappenings. What keeps me going is the one statement I love about these two books..." I will not think of it now, I will think of it later ".

She is a strong woman. The only good attribute to her. A little crazy and shrewd at times. I do not like her much, nobody does. Some people even pity her. That makes me relent and let her be.

The author Alexandra Ripley writes in a fashion a little different from Margaret mitchell's and sometimes overdoes my favourite line. She has succeeded in doing 'part justice' to the sequel. Anyways sequels never are a match to what the first books are. Good attempt.