As usual I had planned a lot for this vacation; I will do
this and that, but again as usual, I was unable to see the unforeseen
circumstances I am facing now and thus all my planned activities are in backdrop. I haven’t done any reading except Kite runner
which I started when I boarded the train from Bangalore; I am not able to
catch up on the subscription magazines of Forbes India which I brought here,
thinking that I will finish these here; but all in vain.
The first book which I mainly read on train was "The Kiterunner" by Khaled Hosseini. It is a story of how Amir matures from a young boy to a man and the changes in his life in the middle of Afghanistan. Amir who is son of one of the richest person in whole of Afghanistan has a childhood friend and servant named Hassan. Hassan likes Amir and serves him as a master, and stands up for him in front of local guys. But when the day comes for Amir to return the favour, he is not able to gather enough courage. This incident causes a great dent in the relationship of two boys. Even after knowing the betrayal by Amir, Hassan tries to reform his friendship, but Amir couldn't and finally Hassan leaves the home. After this incident, Afghanistan's atmosphere starts to change rapidly. The country gets stuck in between a fight of Soviets and local warlords which completely torns it apart.
Amir and his father leave for Pakistan and from there to US where they start a new life. Amir becomes a writer and marries another Afghan girl relocated there. But then the story takes a turn when his father dies due to cancer and he has to go to Pakistan to meet his father's best friend for one last time. There he knows that Hassan had come back to his home after they left to safeguard it and still remembers Amir. Hassan has married and has a son now. But Taliban kills Hassan and his wife and now their son Sohrab is living in an orphanage in Kabul. The same Sohrab who was named after Amir's favourite chrachter in the Persian epic Shahnama. This time Amir gathers the courage and goes back to Afghanistan to bring Sohrab back, but this time he finds the same Afghanistan he grew up, very different. The story is very well narrated and sometimes one can feel nostalgic. I found it to be a good read.
And finally after lots of time wastage i read three stories from a book I borrowed from my cousin in the last two days.The book is "I have a Dream" by Rashmi Bansal. This is the third installment by Rashmi Bansal in this series of books written by her on success stories of some of the famous entrepreneurs of India. I read the first book two years back - Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, which compiled the stories of 20 people having MBA from IIM-A, which have created successful companies from scratch. The second book "Connect the dots" is about people who have been successful entrepreneurs without any MBA degree. I haven't got the chance to read it yet. This third book is on people who have centered their endeavors around the social cause rather than money.
The book is same like the first one, inspiring;even better in some aspects. Till now I have read stories of three people - Anand Kumar (Super 30), Arvind Kejriwal(Parivartan) and Bindeshwar Pathak (Sulabh). One interesting feeling I got is that as I moved from the first story to the third, the level of inspiration and awe was increasing. Super 30, an innovative approach by Anand, a cognizant of mathematics to teach poor but intelligent children and train them for IIT-JEE is a splendid and heart moving approach. Moreover, the results show the effectiveness. This is a perfect example of the potential held by the poor section of society, how if they can be provided with correct resources, they can excel. The second case of Arvind Kejriwal, now famous in news everyday for taking on government head on is even better. It narrates the story how a bureaucrat challenges the government for accountability. It shows the live example how accountability and transparency can bring a revolution in the lives of people. Before reading this, I had heard about 'The Arvind Kejriwal', but now I came to know really about his struggle and constant endeavors to bring a change in our society.
The third story I liked was the best, the story of Bindeshwar Pathak and his journey to change one of the most gravest problem of our society - casteism. It is a story of how a small town guy creates Sulabh International to change the lives of scavenging people and changed the toilet model all over India. How he not only relieved the low cast people of this menial job, but even gave them self esteem. In his words, ' you cannot put a price tag on such an intangible thing called feeling'. I am really impressed by his model.
