The Kite Runner...

If you haven't heard of this phrase before, I'd rather that you don't read this post. Most of my readers are aware of my reading habits (If you don't, better try not to !) and the genre of books that I read. The *only* investment on books that I made in the past two months are on a classic by Dickens (The Pickwick papers) and 'The Kite Runner' by Hosseini. Modern writing is something that I am wary of after several lessons sponsored by Dan Brown and Adrian D'Hage. After deliberating quite a sizable time within myself I finally decided to buy 'The kite runner' for a sum of Rs.350. At the outset, I would say that it wasnt a bad investment...The Kite runner is certainly not of the class of Ayn Rand, but I would dare to say that it was remarkably lucid and pacey. It had the right blend which would suit all kinds of readers, not too bland yet not too grotesque.

The story line is based on the sands of Afghanistan, and Hosseini does full justice to his nativity but depicting a remarkably sketched lifestyle typical to that place. The entire script is in first-person which makes the transition of the reader into the character more easier. The narrator essays his life with occasional allusions to the future. Though the hero is the narrator, he eulogizes his friend with all the affable characteristics. The narrator is the son of a rich Afghan who has lost his mother in child-birth and his friend is subjugate to their family by nature of his birth and position. The author gives a vivid description of the mind of young kids with all its joy and aberrations. The author has packed in a couple of unexpected turns to the story. The narrator consistently projects himself as a person lacking in bravery and with quite a number of other detrimental qualities that we can identify with a 'normal' person. His friend on the other hand is a simpleton who is ready to stand in and protect his master-friend.

A kite tournament brings about a sad turn of events where the fear factor prevents the narrator from helping his friend. The friend happens to have an amazing ability to judge the aerodynamics of a kite and thereby able to 'run-down'(retrieve) a battle lost kite, hence the title 'The kite runner'. The narrator thereby loses his friend and his peace of mind for the most part of his life. He is forced by the ravages of war in Afghanistan to flee the place and seek refuge in the US. He and his once Royal father are forced to build a life from the scratch. The rest of the story deals with how the narrator manages to refurbish his long lost peace of mind.

The author has very clearly captured the state of a disturbed mind, a mind which has to reconcile with a conscious choice of cowardice taken which had etched an irrevocable and indelible mark on the future. He has been able to streamline the chain of actions that would flow out of such a mind. The author has given an honest attempt at raking up the emotions from within the reader, and I should say that he has fairly succeeded in doing so. The later half of the story can be appreciated if the reader becomes miscible with the narrator and steps into his mental-shoe while we read it. The story is so remarkable written that there is no redundant drags in it, it achieves what it was meant to achieve...touch the reader's heart. There are the right mix of emotions that usually accompanies a novel, repentance and soberness are in ample. The way the author has essayed the 'happiness of atonement' is simply astonishing. When I finished reading, all I could feel was
'I ran.......'

Say.. An intuition.....

A lazy mind is Devil's workshop..A weekend resonant with sleep is the most susceptible for contemplating odd topics. Very recently I chanced to ponder upon the word 'intuition' which was raised by one of my kin. It seemed such a mystique thing that I wanted to document it for clarity of thought, and thus this post came into existence. Pardon me if this post seems to be a broken array as I am literally penning down my thoughts in no particular sequence whatsoever. It would be better to start off with the definition of intuition which I would put it this way(because I simply failed to contrive anything better!).. Intuition is something that cannot be defined by its occurrence. It is defined by the absence of something else (I would replace 'something' with 'Logic').Ideally intuition is a thought which has absolutely no logic/analysis involved in it. It is easier to say this than personify this, because the word 'thought' is again very hard to be defined. These are abstract concepts that we are talking about and one should visualize his own version.
It is a know fact that there are various levels at which the human mind involves in each activity/inactivity performed. Most of the things that we seem to have forgotten are quite clearly recorded by our sub-conscious mind. A possible reasoning for this fact could be that our logical mind 'shelved' these items to be not worth remembering. That is how we sometimes blurt out certain thoughts, which make sense once we try to trace its origin. Such is the indexing power of brain. But this is not what we are talking about now, the only reason why I gave this particular example is to prove that intuition could be easily be confused with such shelved thoughts/analysis. These would easily pass to be intuitions whereas it could be a shelved thought in reality. Intuitions could also be simple reflexive or natural actions like ducking when a stone is hurled at you. Since most of us don't have the ability to read the differences between these, it is very difficult to say if intuition is a true concept or not. Due the absence of proof we say for now that there is no such thing called intuition.

Having said that doesn't mean that we don't have to trust our 'intuitions' as they very well could be one of our shelved out logical thought. There could be so many concepts that we have just seen working but have not bothered to analyse.. these could very well come out as intuition. Please note that here i use the word intuition as there is no logical analysis done by the mind, it is just an observation. In most of the cases these 'intuitions' would work perfectly as they are the results of a working concept that we might have just observed. It could also be the result of a very quick logical analysis of our mind. Something like calculation of the distance we jump. Now a disclaimer, intuition could also be a half-baked thought or a wrong perception of a fact. Moreover the moment you find that your intuition works awesome for you, the more you try to 'intuition'alise your thoughts. This could be disastrous as we would end up doing something that has absolutely no possible hidden rationale. So what would be a probable solution ..? I would say 'don't fabricate an intuition, analyse your intuition if time permits, if not go by what your intuition says'... it could after all be one your pre-analysed thought !