A Thousand Splendid Sun

I read the book as slow as I could. I savour every page, reading and feeling lines by lines. It amazes me how a guy can tell a story from a woman's perspective. As if he has seen it through his own eyes. Or maybe he understand people more than any of us would. Irregardless, his work is a masterpiece.

This is the second of Khaled Hosseini that I read, A Thousand Splendid Sun. Its a story about two women, from different generation but brought together by fate.

Mariam, a girl that was a product of man's ignorance towards sin, being called a 'harami' even by her own mother. She lost her mother in pursuit of seeing her father. As if losing one parent is not enough, another sold her away to some stranger. She was pushed into marriage to a person that is no more than a man herself. He uses her to bear his offspring, and when that did not happened she is downgraded to a housekeeper cum his punching bag.

Laila, a girl that was brought up not in the conventional Afghan way, she sees the world differently, she was the one that will make headlines someday. However, Taliban's ruling made her lost everything. She ends up being married to a man that is even older than her father, for the sake of survival.

Any women in the world would never agree to share her husband with another woman (no matter how badly she is being treated), what more to woman that is way younger than her. That is what brought these two women together, they are married to the same man.

A relationship that was at first hostile, later turns out to be the best things that ever happened to them. The poignant plot breaks my heart. The women were treated as less than a second class human being. Its a similar theme among the stories from middle east, woman has no place in the society, apart from their function to produce heir. Its sad that all these happens in countries where deemed 'Islam' as their pillar of faith. Whereas in Islam, women is treated equally as men, at times even more distinct. Al Quran itself has a whole surah on women, Surah An-Nisa. To learn on how to be and how to treat a woman, its all in the surah.

Clearly these guys that use Islam as façade, has not really understood the gist of Rasullah's SAW teaching, maybe if they did, they only took that will bring advantages to them.Religion aside, those women that is portrayed in the story has been treated inhumanely, and I am sure any religion in the world would not condone such act. 

Khaled's way of story telling was such in detail, that most of the time I was pretty sure I was not reading a book, but more of watching the film rolls...I really hope that we would be seeing this on the big screen.
For this edition, look out for page 120, line 7, word 3, my name is on it :D

Has been on my bed for the past few months....

 Meanwhile...some random photos on what my life has been up to for recent 2-3 months.....
 

What I had for lunch on Sunday - L-R: Lettuce,tomatoes,sausages + chic balls, toasted bread, Campbell's oxtail soup, and a glass of tea :)     

The latest babe in the house :$

The most expensive chocolate I ever ate......serious...