A Thousand Splendid Suns

Only some writers are able to suck you into the Black Holes of life...into another dimension...where you have never been in your entire life and give you the experiences of being with someone whom you have never met...to listen to them...to see them...feel them...and almost touch them !! Khaled Hosseini is definitely ONE of such writers !!!

His words brings every moment so alive that when i finished this book....i felt like i had been in Afghanistan myself....living and growing up with Mariam and Laila. I still have the memory of travelling through the dirt roads...to the flat field where poplars and cottonwoods grew high.... along lovely streams...i almost feel like i walked that path..holding hands with 5 years old Mariam in some strange realms..honestly it doesnt seem like a BOOK that ive been into reading !

And it hurts to have followed the lives of this two Iron ladies in the true sense only to in the end , succumb to the cruel reality ..its hard to see a friend you know for about 35 years walking into the stadium to be stoned to death especially when you know what she had been through all her life !!

As you read those final lines...you feel like running into the stadium to stop it or at least wish the author doesnt end it that way ... but then it happens still ...no matter how hard it maybe to put any sense into it ...it just happens...while the rest of the world...is planning on weekend outings ... booking tickets to catch a movie....baking ..or getting frustrated that it started raining when you were just about to go jogging....or while someone is screaming at the waiter for spilling some drink on them accidentally....also while family members are gossiping about each other...crying over the slightest remark made by friends....complaining that the internet connection isnt good....phone signals are not stable ....feeling terribly upset for not being able to get the very expensive toy our kids wanted for their birthday...for thinking God hasnt answered your prayers as HE didnt get you enough money to buy the bungalow you always wanted..yes exactly at that instant in onother part of the SAME world ...a beautiful and innocent women walks helplessly into the stadium and....


" Yet as she closed her eyes , it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the Harami child of a lowly villager , an unintended thing. a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a women who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving as a friend, as a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No . It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a illegitimate beginnings.

Mariams final thoughts were a few words from the Koran

" HE HAS CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH WITH THE TRUTH; HE MAKES THE NIGHT COVER THE DAY AND MAKES THE DAY OVERTAKE THE NIGHT, AND HE HAS MADE THE SUN AND THE MOON SUBSERVIENT; EACH ONE RUNS TO AN ASSIGNED TERM; NOW SURELY HE IS THE MIGHTY; THE GREAT FORGIVER'

"Kneel," the Talib said.

But unlike most Afghan stories...this one had an happy ending too...Laila, who managed to live through Kabul bombings which took her parents away...leaving her an orphaned teenager in the very same streets she used to hang out giggling and chatting with friends...separating her from her childhood (boy) friend...to be married to a 60 years old man as a second wife...enduring the beatings and emotional tortures ...and going through a cesarean without anesthetic , oxygen, or even antibiotics..but still she managed to find her love again...fleeing to live away from her homeland...but in the end cant help going back to Kabul with her husband and children to help the rest of the victims, after Taliban were driven out.

Its shocking though to know how far the human souls can be stretched and strengthened to no limit !

And yes of course Mariam and Laila here are labelled as "fictional characters" but then...the world knows ..doesnt it ?

So once again...i felt like Thanking God a Zillion times for this paradise i am living in....and everything else life has offered abundantly .... occasional flashmob events arent enough to rejoice ... we should be dancing on the streets every day ...hahaha..yup...lets enjoy this beautiful life and not waste precious moments sulking over insignificant things ! :)

Have a joyful day :)