Hassan -
*For you, a thousand times over.

Amir's father -
* verdict on sin - There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.
When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father.
When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth.
When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no act more wretched than stealing.
* Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.

Rahim Khan -
* There is a way to be good again.
* Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.

Amir -
* In ref. to Hassan
- If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty, then he'd toy with me, test my integrity.
- He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him.
* In ref. to father -
- Baba and I lived in the same house, but in different spheres of existence. Kites were the one paperthin slice of intersection between those spheres.
- I'd write him a hundred stories if I thought he'd read one.
Maybe he'd call me Amir jan like Rahim Khan did. And maybe, just maybe, I would finally be pardoned for killing my mother.
* I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running was that 'Nothing was free in this world'. You had to pay a price whether its fair or not.
* There is only what you do and what you don't do.
* Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence.
* Perspective is a luxury when your head is constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.
* Forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.
* Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the VOLUME knob on life. Silence is pushing the OFF button. Shutting it down. All of it.

yelda - longest night of the year. Compared to : The starless night tormented lovers kept vigil, enduring the endless dark, waiting for the sun to rise and bring with it their loved one.

These are just few samples. I found lots of them in the book - which ripped my heart. Cried over several passages in the book. I know sounds crazy. I keep telling Raghu, when I like a book or a movie, I need to feel the characters. I'll get so involved that I'm amidst them as a onlooker. And the characters in this book without doubt moved me.

The Kite Runner

When I first heard of this book by Sundar, I didn't even know what a kite runner meant and the author was unknown. So, with my curiosity piqued I started reading this book.

I felt the characters in this book alive - I had a complete picture of the events unrolling throughout the entire book like a movie - scenes kept flashing by. The childhood of Amir, Hassan with all its innocence brought back memories from my childhood.

The relationship between Amir and his father is interesting. His father considers Amir to be a weakling, one who cannot stand up for himself. He wants his son to take active participation in sports - the games in which he himself had excelled during his childhood and youth. Amir on the other hand loves his father v much and craves -
for his attention - to reach out and understand. He wants to be considered important in the eyes of his father.

I was thinking how so often it happens that adults want to relive their life or some unfulfilled desires of theirs - forcing them on the kids without letting them be the individual they are and nourishing whatever they are.

In this book, Amir gets his encouragement to write stories from his father's friend Rahim. When Amir writes his first story and tells it to Hassan, the reaction and feedback from Hassan is amazing. The thoughts of the two boys are clearly differentiated in this instance. Hassan, a son of a servant who has been serving Amir's father since a child is an illiterate - loves the company of Amir and shows complete faith and loyalty towards him. I cannot forget the words 'For you a thousand times over' - the emotion that swells up in me when I think of these words is indescribable.

Also I wonder how childhood choices affect our adult life. In this book, look at Amir, Hassan, Assef - how their life turns out to be. Basically, you grow up to be what you are as a child with a little variation but the core principle would remain the same(?) Debatable - yes. I was remembering Raghu's words when had told me that - he feels that he is the same person as he was when he was a child when we were going through his childhood photos. Then, I had argued with him that it cannot be so - it changes with environment and experience and you aren't the same as u were. But I'm rethinking abt this. Would love to here comments from others on this.

I must confess I didn't know much abt how Taliban rose to power in Afghan and how different the country was before that. The book presents a rich slice of Afghan culture too.

And one other thing which reminded me of Raghu's thoughts were when Amir comes back to Afghan to get Hassan's son Sohrab. He looks at his house and wonders it doesn't look as big as it was when he was a child. Raghu was mentioning that how as a child he use to ride his cycle to some circle in the city - which he considered to be huge b'coz of big wide roads and lot of activities. And later he didn't find it as big as he once felt. Even I share this feeling.

I'll put up some words later from this book which struck a chord in me. All in all, loved this book a lot.

Reading group

A set of friends with a common passion to read decided to start a reading group and to share thoughts on the book we read. Hope this platforms turns out to be as fulfilling as the idea promises to be to each member.