The Kite Runner:Sohrab's Story

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I read 'The Kite Runner' in 2015...about 13 years after it all happened,and I was very thoroughly intrigued,it was a beautiful ending,nothing amiss,but I wanted to know Sohrab,I wanted to know what he had felt,how he had endured everything that came his way,and he was just about 11.

So I decided to seek him out,I knew his name,where he lived,his adoptive parents,what more did I need? An address,nothing,and at this I hang my head in shame,a spot of money can't fix.Yes,I bribed officials,but it had to be done.

My visa already on my passport,I left for America in the summer of 2015.It was an arduous journey,one I most definitely could have done without,but I needed it,I needed to know,and like Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters travelled to the Netherlands to know the ending of their favourite story,I travelled to San Francisco to know a huge piece of mine.

I reached San Francisco on the 8th of June,I wanted to be quick,with the month of Ramadan approaching,I had to be back home in 10 days.

I stepped off the plane and breathed in the humid Francisco air,it was hot,peeling hot,but the air had an excitement in it,a mystery,a great book.

The cab ride to my hotel was not long,and after getting checked in to my room,I sat on the bed and went through everything I needed to ask him,how I would greet him,persuade him to look into his tragic past and fill the empty voids about him in my brain,which 'The Kite Runner' had left.

The sky outside changed from blue to pink to a deeper shade of blue,but I did not move from that bed until my stomach growled,oh dear,I hadn't even had lunch.

I finally strolled out on to the streets of one of my favourite city's of the world.It's beautiful streets,crazy roads,all the places I had seen in 'Monk',the wharf,it's huge orange inflatable boats.

I walked by the water,the street lights casting a comforting glow on the dark water,the salty wind ruffling my hair West-wards,everything was so beautiful,and mixed with excitement for tomorrow,it looked all the more breath-taking.

I purchased fresh,fried fish from one of the street vendors and sat by myself on an isolated bench.Digging into what is now known as the best fried fish I've ever tasted in my entire life,I found my thoughts drifting back to the book that had brought me here.It was a story so much more breathtaking than San Francisco,and that is saying alot,and maybe I'm exaggerating at my description of the place,but it's one of my favourite places,what's a girl supposed to do.

The book that changed my life,it made me feel almost every emotion known to mankind,pride and surprise at the extent of Hassan's loyalty,anger at Amir's disloyalty,his stuck-up,annoying ways,tears at everything that happened to Hassan in his life,and then later tears,sadness,depression and oh what not at what Sohrab had to go through,hatred for Amir when he threw pomegranates at Hassan,happiness,a strange emotion but if you've read the book and not felt happiness at the part,then you my friend,are inhuman,when Sohrab does what his father threatened to do to Assef all those years ago,trying to keep the story from ruining for all those who haven't read it yet,I'm surprised people haven't,but oh well.Countless other feelings that just spilled out of me like an overflowing dam,flooding the banks,otherwise known as my cheeks.

But not just all the emotions,which are a pretty natural thing and can occur for any great book,'The Kite Runner' got me thinking,really thinking,how blessed we are,how amazing our lives are,we have everything we need...and more,it got me thinking about all those people who suffered from the disease called human.

I learned about extremism,I learned that everything in life is a matter of perspective,I learned that it is true,we really do need to be the change we want to see in the world,I need to take the first step,I need to be the first to lift my face and look all the evil that befalls this earth in the eye,I shouldn't have to wait for a them,a them who'll man up and stand up,because all of us tell ourselves we're waiting for them,when those them are really us,waiting for a wake-up call,a glance in the mirror to realise it.

A 391 paged book which changed my outlook on life,on this world,on good and evil,on the true nature of humans...forever.

I sat on that bench,that windy San Francisco night and thought about myself in an exotic country,eating exotically delicious fish,looking for a man with a story as exotic as of those who predeceased him.

I stood up and walked back to the hotel,ready to turn in for the night.Tomorrow would be a long day.

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