Occupying Time and Mind

Currently reading:

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Recently Finished:

The Dancing Girls of Lahore by Louise Brown
I am glad that I read the book as it added to my Pakistani-culture knowledge base. The book is a biographical account of one professor’s studies of escort servicing and prostitution in Lahore. The author takes the issue very seriously and touches on the social implications of women used and abused and the never-ending cycle of tarnished women and their “bastard” children. This issue is undeniably real and the children of the “dancing girls” are doomed into a life-sentence.

I do feel that the book was lacking in substance and was not written with the best clarity. While I appreciated the author’s attempt to paint a real picture of Lahore and its culture, religion, landscape and language; I couldn’t help but feeling there were more history, psychology and sociology lessons to be learned by the professor. I felt the story being told just to be told and far more factual details could have been interlaced into the tale. I was surprised to learn that the author had spent several years living in Lahore for several months at a time while developing this story. It would seem that one who has that kind of first-hand experience would have a lot more to report and more culturally relevant insight on the issues.

Overall, it was a good read, but it dragged on to long and left me longing for more.


The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
I cannot adequately express how much I enjoyed this read. The book is a fantastically written fictional account about a boy growing up in Afghanistan. The book is fiction, but owes its huge success to the fact that it loosely mirrors the author’s own life experiences having grown up in Afghanistan.

The tale begins in pre- Russian invasion and Taliban rule and chronicles the joy-hood of two mother-less boys living the life of tree-climbing and kite-running. In the beginning, the boys are vaguely aware of their differing class (the author being the son of a wealthy business man and his best friend the son of the live in servant) and religious affiliations. It is with time and one act of cowardice compounded by family secrets and politics that the boys drift apart.

An escape from the Taliban and all things from the boy’s childhood begins with a near-death suffocating ride in a gas tank. It ends with the boy returning as a man to pick of fractured pieces of his childhood best friend’s and half brother’s remains.

The Kite Runner is beautifully fluid and is a must read.

Just Watched:

The Message
A tasteful and creative account of the Prohet’s life; another must see and own.

Life is Beautiful
A wonderfully written, produced, and acted story about human perseverance in the ugliest fate ever: the Jewish holocaust. This movie was so emotionally intense and beautifully written, one has to remind her/himself to breathe while watching.