Shahar pathar ka, log pathar ke
Zakhm ristey rahe mre sar key
JK’s Philosophy fundas!: A man takes more time to understand about a city, and takes less to understand a woman. A man’s accuracy of learning about a city can go maximum up to 100%, but accuracy level can never exceed 10% in case of learning about a woman. The more you live in a city, the more you understand it or learn about it, the more you live with a woman, the more confusing you get about your understanding or learning POWER (or weakness!!).
MaNzar-e-aam par nahiN aaye
dagh chand ek mere andar ke
The Writer: This is Khaled Hosseini's second novel in a row. His first “The kite runner” was released more than a couple of years back (3 or 4 years back), and was a big hit throughout the world. That book was on top 20 almost all this time. Khaled is an artistic writer converting beautifully human feelings into words. His writing is flawless, evenly threaded and rhythmic. His stories touch one’s heart and mind together. Thereby force to read his work without losing and interest and getting burdened. Hosseini is working with UN High Commissioner as an envoy for Refugees.
Jab jaley baaNs ke ghane jungal
baNsuri royee nauhe kar kar ke
JK The Book: A Thousand Splendid Suns is published by Riverhead Publishing, this book is of 384 pages and has a hefty price tag of US$25.95 for the hardcover. The paperback print is yet to be released. (ISBN-10: 1594489505, ISBN-13: 978-1594489501. It is a classical-emotional stretch widely propelling reader through the emotions. The book is released this month only (May’07)
Dekh kar wus'ateN samaNdar kee
hausley TooTtey haiN taiyar ke
The Title: I loved the title very much. Infact the title prompts to pick the book off the shelf and start reading.
Gar jhuke bhi "feroz" to aisey
aastaaN ho gaye tre dar ke
The Story: The story revolves around two women (far apart in their ages, of different generations) and their 30 years in Afghanistan witnessing the ups and downs in their life as well in their country, all three (country and the two women) passing through violence, fears, emotions, humanity, inhumanity, rise & fall of hopes, trust & distrust, happiness, sadness, survival, non-survival, emotional jerks-clashes-crashes, friendship, love. They witness the violence, the missile attacks, the tragedies, the bloodbaths, the wars, the Soviet invasion, Taliban era, and post Taliban Taliban-era. The book talks about a time that has passed in Afghanistan that was unwanted and uninvited. The time, that would have never happened, anywhere in the world.
Mariam is an illicit child. She lives in a poor state in a small house with her mother and works as a servant for rich families around. Her mother is neither willing nor has the money to send her to school. As per her mother only thing a women needs to learn is to accept anything that comes in her way in life (good or bad) without a bit of resistance and be patient always. Her unlawful father, a very rich man, used to come occasionally to meet them. When Mariam is in her mid-teens, her mother kills herself one day. Mariam tries to meet her father but is not allowed to enter his grand house. Her father is legally married to three women and is having nine children from them.
Shortly after her mother’s death, she is forcibly married to a shoemaker, Rasheed, by her father’s family. The man she marries with, in his late forties, is a strict, horrifying man finding out the ways to torture Mariam.
Laila, who lives in their neighborhood, and is daughter of liberal, educated parents loses her parents in a bomb attack but Rasheed saves Laila from the debris of her house. As per rule the savior is the owner, and thus Laila becomes the second wife of Rasheed. The two wives, far apart in their cultural values, one in total acceptance mode and another in rebellion mode, one totally orthodox and illiterate and another educated and liberal.
Both feel no difference between the Taliban and their common husband.
mahsus kar mujhe tu, kabhi paas aa ke dekh
mere jahan-e-dil meiN apna ghar basa ke dekh
What next: do get hold of the book and read…
koi aisey ajnabi bhi nahiN is shahr ke log
kuchh keh to ranj-o-gham ki, sab ko suna ke dekh
JK’s take two on the Book (Take 1 is the funda at the top): The book is a must read for everyone, all ages, to learn, the pains through which Afghanistan went through during these three decades. Keep aside Afghanistan, pains and gains come to all countries, ages and breeds. The soft side of human nature and the hardness of idealism, the taste of love-hatred-friendship-human-inhuman et. al. All above is beautifully narrated in this classic work by Hosseini.
maiN muNtzir huN roz-o-shab, aiy dard-e-do_jahan!
be-dard, jab bhi waqt miley, aazma ke dekh
Good bye & njoy. Be Happy, make others happy.
All Sher’s from – unpublished works of Dashmesh Gill 'Feroz'
