May 30, 2010 04:10 PM
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(Updated May 30, 2010 04:28 PM)
Post 9/11 all eyes in the world were focused on Afghanistan as the country became the topic of discussion for the entire world after the WTC incident in USA. That’s one side on the coin that almost everyone knows.
Afghanistan is like a coin with the other side as well, which is the pre 9/11 era that no one seems to be interested to know. If at all there are people who discuss those times, are them who suffered the hardship or have lost their near & dear ones during those times.
‘Khaled Hosseini’ the author of ‘The Kite Runner’ was born in Afghanistan & took asylum in USA in the 80s after the country was invaded by Russia. With a work of fiction he takes the reader through the lanes of Afghanistan that was once a happy country then invaded by the Russians & eventually became the region that gave birth to the Taliban.
Kite fighting tournament was an old tradition in Afghanistan where many participated. One such tournament changed lives of Amir & Hassan, the two main characters of the book. The latter being a low caste servant of the former belonged to a community called Hazaras,which was looked down by many upper caste people. But Amir’s father had no such problems as he treated Hassan like his son.
Amir gets rid of Hassan largely due to the guilt feeling as he could not help Hassan on the eventful day of the kite fighting tournament, which he didn’t do & watched as a spectator.
Due to the invasion of Russia his family had to flee to Peshawar for survival before landing in USA for the political asylum.
Years passed, Amir never bothered to find the whereabouts of Hassan though a guilt feeling always lived in him. He is married to a Afghan woman & is living a happy life in USA. One fine day he receives a call from Rahim Khan, a friend of his father in Kabul, who now lives in Peshawar, which brought back memories of the olden days.
He goes to Peshawar to learn the shattering truth from Rahim Khan about the killing of Hassan & his wife by Taliban. He is shocked to know that Hassan was his half brother as he too was sired by his father. Hassan has a son, Sohrab, who is now in an orphanage in Kabul & Amir is asked to bring him to Peshawar, where an American couple look after such children.
Hence begins the journey of Amir from Peshawar to Kabul only to find that Sohrab is in the custody of Taliban.
Can he free him from the Talibans & take him to Peshawar safely?
Would he ever be able to disclose the truth to Sohrab?
Would he leave Sohrab as he left his father years ago?
Will Sohrab forgive him?
Would it be easy for him to take Sohrab to USA?
Read the book to find the answers to above questions because as you turn the pages & head towards the climax, you are still unaware of the final outcome.
Khaled Hosseini being a Afghan national has done full justice to the book. The pain of a person who had to leave the nation due to the invasion & other reasons can be felt with the happenings incorporated to the main story.
The sufferings of low-caste community Hazaras from upper caste, the hardship of Afghans when they flee their nation for shelter after they were invaded by Russia, the exploitation, the taking over of Taliban, the cruelty & brutality of Talibans for the others, everything is presented so beautifully that the reader gets immersed in the words magically written by the author.
Khaled Hosseini deserves full marks for generating the main characters of Hassan & Amir. The silence of Hassan as a low-caste servant speaks a lot while Amir’s character is sure to win the heart of the readers as it becomes so close to being a human.
The beauty of the book lies in the honesty shown by Khaled Hosseini that forces the reader to think that Afghanistan is not only what we know post 9/11 as there is lot to learn about the people who live there.
