Mosaic

When I was in my senior year in college, our Professor made us watch a movie about a Pakistani husband who kidnapped his American wife and their children. This movie has made a very deep mark in me that when I tumbled upon Mosaic, and read the synopsis, I just cannot ignore it.

I guess the 9/11 attack has opened a lot of people’s minds and made us think about many things in our lives. This was exactly what happened to Dina’s family.

she's beautiful, isn't she?

This book will leave you dumbfounded on the “ridiculousness” of Karim’s psyche. But at the same time you cannot blame him for his being protective to his children. At times, you will find yourself scheming, holding your breath, and even planning for the children. And when everything was set to motion, all you can do is to join along the ride and hope for the best.

For the mothers who will read this, you will look at your husbands is a different light, and will love your children more. It might make you more cautious, more strict, more protective; or, you might be more loving, more affectionate and more understanding. But one thing that I’m quite sure you will do after reading this is to pray and hope that you will never get to experience what Dina has went through.

 

The Kite Runner

One Word: Intense.

I do not even know where to start! The book was as excellent as A Thousand Splendid Suns, although I have yet decided which one is better. I like them both!

Khaled is such a good storyteller, he takes you to the old Aghanistan, a place both familiar and unfamiliar to us. Afghanistan has been very common to us; or rather, Afghanistan has stirred our curiosity only after the 9/11 attack. Before 9/11, we are not really that interested with Afghanistan or Afghans, and they live their own lives, conduct their own business without anyone giving them a second look. But now, Afghanistan is very common and such a novelty to us at the same time. It is a novelty in such a way that we do not even know before that they have their own war even prior to 9/11. We are not fully knowledgeable that Afghans have been fighting for peace for the longest time, only to be caught up in another war of the current generation. And these, Khaled has painted in this novel very intricately.

Reading The Kite Runner would make you realize how important honor, honesty, and loyalty were. You will also learn how precious second chances and self-redemption could be.

In the end, I think Hassan will always be my hero in this novel. Nobody can question his loyalty, and everybody will envy Amir for the unconditional love Hassan has given him.

It is only at the last page of this novel, after the very last paragraph that all of the emotions that evolved throughout the book came hitting my chest. It is only then that I felt everything. It is also only then that I cried.

And so I think everything that Hassan has endured for Amir were all worth it. And I also think that Sohrab is Amir's redemption. 

Thus, for Amir and Hassan, "a thousand times over".