Happy Diwali!!

Happy Diwali to all my friends out there. For most of the people in India, Diwali is a festival everyone looks forward to and so do I. It is a major festival of the year. This Diwali in UK here was very good. At least we got the feeling of Indian Diwali to a large extent. My son was very excited on doing "decorations" for Diwali. We had a gathering planned for some friends and we had a surprise visit from few more friends. It was actually full of fun and excitement with sweets flowing in.

The surprise factor of friends meeting each other on Diwali makes it more special. I feel, the growing advancement of technology has filled life with more of inhibitions than convenience. One particular thing that I not so like is visiting friends by appointment. The sophistication of our lives tempts us to call in advance to meet each other. But it cannot match the joy of meeting without purpose and without appointment. The technological revolution has brought people apart I feel, rather than bring them close.

Being away from home(India) also makes us slog for the Indian sweets. I found that everyone here has put in enormous effort to make some or the other Indian sweet. And homemade sweet has never been valued more I guess. It was fun exchanging each others' handmade sweets. When we were young all sweets were made at home. At that time we valued the sweets purchased from markets more. And now when most of us can afford readymade sweets, home made sweets have become so precious.

All in all it couldn't have been better. A wonderful and memorable Diwali!!

THE KITE RUNNER

Recently I got a chance to read "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. And I must say the book is brilliant. A very good book in a long time.

The story is set in the pre-Talibani Afghanistan and touches many issues together. It gives a glimpse of the Afghani culture in their happy days, the invasion of Soviet, the Taliban rule and also a very personal and emotional issue of friednship. The Taliban attrocities will surely make you scream with frustration.

The story of two friends Aamir and Hassan is very moving. The undying love of Hassan for his friend makes me cry. Hassan there is so innocent and pure that he actually presents you with an aspect of uncoditional love which I find hard to imagine. Then the redemption of Amir for his sins is also very touching. It actually presents the meaning of commitment in a new light. Unconditional commitment...pure 100% love. Makes me feel very small for the level of my love and commitment.

There is a very good conversation of Amir and his father(Baba) about sin which gives us some food for thought. I couldn't resist putting it down for long keeps:

Baba said, "No matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. do you understand that?"
"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, Amir," Baba said. A man who takes what's not his to take, be it a life or a loaf of naan...I .....".

As my husband also says that taking more than your rightful share is a sin and multiplies and comes back to us. Maybe it needs a deeper pondering afterall!

If it is actually fiction then it is the work of a genius. But even if a small percentage of it is true then it is very moving. A must read book.