Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan

"Wanting Mor" by Rukhsana Khan. This book is published by Duckbill in March 2013 and has 206 pages. Rukhsana Khan is a well known Pakistani-Canadian writer.

This is the story, set in 2001 Afghanistan,
after US invasion, of a little girl Jameela who stays with her father (Baba) & Mother (Mor) in rural Afghanistan. Jameela has a cleft lip. Her mother dies. Father brings her to Kabul and marries a widow. Step mother doesn't like her. One day her father takes her to market place asks her to wait and disappears for good.

What will Jameela do? Where will she go? Will she remain safe? Who will take care of her? Will she ever meet her father?

Author states that this story is inspired from a real life story. Probably that's why the author has preferred to keep it factual and realistic. She has resisted the temptation of dramatizing the story.

Jameela misses her Mor. She follows her teachings. She searches her Mor in the ladies she meets. Author ends the story with Jameela becoming Mor to an orphan girl.

The story highlights goodness of Jameela but also demonstrates that though she is good she is not a saint. She too has feelings of love, hate, sympathy and even mild revenge. Unfortunately character of Jameela's father, though very important, remains under developed.

A number of things could happen to a young girl abandoned by her parents. This story takes her to the good orphanage. Her safety and security is thus assured and the focus remains on main story.

Narration is decent. It's a brisk story consequently the novel is also not lengthy. Afghan background provides exoticism to story.

Read it for a change.

And the mountains echoed by Khaled Hosseini

"And the mountains echoed" by Khaled Hosseini. This book is published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2013 and has 416 pages. This is Khaled Hosseini's third book.

Pari & Abdulla are siblings. Their mother is dead and father has remarried. Abdulla is five years older and takes care of Pari like a mother. One day they go to Kabul and Abdulla loses Pari. Nabi works as driver, cook and helper to Suleiman Wahdati & his wife Neela. Years later, in Paris, Pari's mother dies. Pari becomes older and gets a call from Dr. Markus from Afghanistan.

What is Suleiman's secret? Why does Abdulla lose Pari? Will Pari retrace her routes? Can she unearth her past?

Is this the story of Pari or Abdulla or Parwana or Nabi or Idris or Markus or another Pari? Well, it's not of any one of them but of all of them. And that's why it appears a bit scattered. Khaled Hosseini has a knack of story telling. In this book he has woven a number of stories and presented us a garland of a novel. Common thread that runs through this garland is Afghanistan and human emotions.

This novel covers more than 60 years. It starts around 1947 or so and continues till  present day. This is a very big time period to cover. Consequently some periods are covered superficially. Half way through the book, Pari's story is narrated in a staccato burst. Very fast, without making it interesting, like a news bulletin with multiple time leaps.

This book includes stories of a number of people. Although the stories are loosely related the book makes a riveting reading. This book is like a kaleidoscope. A number of items come together to form a beautiful design, though it may not be entirely cohesive. Every time you turn it you find a new design that is hardly repeated again. At the end you can not name one design that you saw just that you saw beautiful designs.

A good book. Read if you have liked previous books of Khaled Hosseini.

The Kite runner by Khaled Hosseini

"The Kite runner" debut novel of Khaled Hosseini. This edition of the book is published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2013 and has 352 pages. Khaled Hosseini Is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician. This is his debut novel and he has written two more after this

This is the story of Aamir, a motherless child born in 1964-65, to a wealthy father. They live in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ali and his son Hasan are Hazara's and are their servants. Hasan is also a close friend and confidant of Amir. Amir is also close to Ibrahim Khan, business partner of his father. One day there is a kite tournament and timid Amir unexpectedly wins it. Hasan is a kite runner and he runs the last kite Amir cuts for him. But something terrible happens and they do not remain friends anymore.

After Russian occupation, Amir and his father flee to America and start a new life. Ibrahim Khan calls Amir to meet him one last time in Pakistan after 15 years. A secret is revealed.

What marked the end of their friendship? Is Amir repentant? Does he marry? What career does he choose? Who had betrayed whom? Can he reunite with Hasan? What was the secret? Will there be a redemption?

Character of Amir is the most important character. His refusal to acknowledge Hasan as friend when confronted, his possessiveness about Hasan, his repentance about not standing by him in his hour of need, his anger at his own cowardice, his attempts to forget everything, his return to his roots and his attempt at redemption is all captured beautifully.

Khaled's description of war ravaged Afghanistan, the destruction it has caused, the resultant loss of business, loss of jobs, consequent poverty and level to which human beings stoop when defeated by hunger melts your heart but it is also objective at the same time. Readers start thinking 'what have the poor Afghans done to deserve this treatment'. When economy, way of living and life comes to a standstill, hollowness occupies all the spaces. There is no future, no destiny and no hope.

Afghanistan before and after war and the difference of life is depicted powerfully. The period in America is relatively slow and less interesting. Hearts of the readers goes out for Sohrab and they wish him well.

Why Amir's father leaves Hasan behind, why Hasan's letters never reach Amir and why there is little to no control on Afghanistan Pakistan border remains unanswered. I was surprised to find that there are a lot of words common in Hindi, Urdu and Farsi.

A very good book. A must read.

The Anza deception by P.R. Ganapathy

"The Anza deception" by P.R. Ganapathy. This book is published by Hachette in 2012 and has 373 pages.

India and Pakistan have worked out a peace deal. There is opposition from both sides. Mr. Kirmani, Pakistani prime minister who worked out the deal with Indian prime minister Mr. Singh, has won a landslide majority in general elections in Pakistan.

Major Anwar Islam is ex military and now works for Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's spy agency. His commanding officer in army,  Colonel Gupta, now heads RAW.

Islam is stationed at Indian embassy in Islamabad and runs a spy network. One day he gets a news that a very important cargo would be transported from Pakistani city to Afghanistan. Islam intercepts the cargo. He is shocked to see a catch of 55 Anza Mark III missiles. These are shoulder fired, heat seeking, surface to air missiles. Taliban or any other terrorist organization has never possessed such an advanced wepon system. India has never got hold of Anza missiles till date. This catch will allow them to study and device counter measures for these missiles.

Gupta informs PMO, that they have acquired 40 missiles. He instructs Islam to take remaining 15 to Xinjiang region of China and hand them over to Muslim Uighur rebels.

Will the Uighur's accept them? Will they use them? Will Kashmiri terrorists get them? Will they deploy them? Will they use them? Will they succeed?

Author has used names of Indian politicians which sounds very similar to real life politicians like Manmohan Singh, Jaswant Singh, Sonia and Rahul. I felt that this was unnecessary.

First half of novel is paced moderately. Once  the action moves back to India, the pace improves. Second half is written like a thriller. Ganapathy has displayed his knowledge of the working of intelligence agencies, bureaucracy and aircrafts.

The plot is good, but the narration is jerky. Some important events like change of prime minister or death of a Major are covered only in one sentence. Fate of Karandikar is left for the readers to imagine. The person who pulls strings from behind the curtain is revealed on the last page, but intelligent readers can guess him about 100 pages earlier.

Although it's a very good first attempt, the amateur style of writing is evident. Finess in writing is still not there but should come in subsequent books.

Full marks to the good cover design. It summarizes the book. Use of blue color is also very effective.

An OK book. Read if you have time.

The edge of the machete by Abhisar Sharma

"The edge of the machete" by Abhisar Sharma, 2nd book of The Taliban Conundrum Trilogy.

All the terrorist organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan have decided to come together, at a secrete facility called 'The Beast', to prepare & launch attacks against America and it's allies. This facility is so secret that it's not known to any government or intelligence organization.

CIA has infiltrated 'The Beast' with one of its operative called  Ed Gomez aka Sarfaraz Khan, whose friend has been executed by the terrorist Amir Sherzai. There is a white Muslim (Shaun Marsh aka Shahid Khan), whose mother was a Kashmiri, at The Beast; who wants to be a Jihadi but doesn't know if he can kill. An Indian journalist Rahul Sharma is a captive at The Beast.

How lives of Rahul and Shahid are intertwined? What is the big plan? Does Ed Gomez become Sarfaraz for a cause or has the raw power of Sarfaraz taken over Ed? Can he  avenge killing of his friend?

Author has taken a very big canvas for the book. The story moves between Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, England and America. There are a lot of characters. The nature of plot requires proper development of three main characters and author had to spend considerable space for that. Abhisar has used flash backs liberally to establish the story and relations of characters.

Converging three stories for the finale is a Herculean task and Abhisar has almost succeeded in it. There was a possibility of developing this seed into a fantastic tale. Although the story has come out good, it could have been better.

Abhisar had a fluid writing style and does not allow you to get bored. Portrayal of main characters is good. Sarfaraz and his dilemma of completing the task after infiltration or becoming a mighty terrorist, Shahid and his dilemma of whether his identity is white man or a Muslim, Rahul's state of mind in captivity and Aamir, a terrorist & killer of Ed's friend, who is cruel beyond imagination & who wants to be recognized as most feared terrorist.

The climax is slightly mellowed down and a bit abrupt. Author has created the preamble for the sequel in the end.

An OK read. Read if you have time.