Thursday, May 12, 2011

Amir and me...

My recent past had me traveling across US with long flight journeys and even longer layovers which gave me ample time to finish "The Kite Runner", the book I wanted to read for a long time. There are few books which can pull you physically into it, make you laugh, make you think, make you shed a tear... and haunt you for days to come and this - was one of those! A very close contender to "Shantaram" - my favorite fiction yet!

I could relate to "Amir" the narrator and by relate I just don't mean that I could empathize with him, I was able to relate certain incidents in my life - the bygone memories. It was as if Amir sat and watched all of my life so far from around the corner and after 25 years he stopped watching and told me a story from the darkest parts of it and made me relive those days! Those days which I never thought I could remember!

Whenever you read a good book, or finish reading it, it will leave you with questions... questions which are very personal.. very clandestine.. questions which you are afraid to ask yourself.. or to others. Or to put it better, only those are good books! :)

And the questions this book left me with, have no right or wrong answers.Because sometimes asking the right questions is the answer. From those questions I would like to share a few.. these questions really meant something to me..

One might wonder how can "The kite runner" rise such questions... but you have to be me to undergo the thought process it took to land on each and every one of these questions!

  • How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
  • If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?
  • When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?
  • What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
  • If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?



  • Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?
  • If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
  • To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?
  • Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?
  • If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?
  • Would you break the law to save a loved one?
  • Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity?
  • What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
  • How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy?
  • What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?
  • What’s holding you back?
  • Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?
  • If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?
  • Do you push the elevator button more than once? Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster?
  • Why are you, you?
  • What does friendship mean to you? or to anyone?
  • Why is it so important?
  • Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you?
  • What are you most grateful for?
  • Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?
  • Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first?
  • Has your greatest fear ever come true?
  • Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset? Does it really matter now?
  • What is your happiest childhood memory? What makes it so special?
  • At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?
  • If not now, then when?
  • If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?
  • Is it possible to know, without a doubt, what is good and what is evil?
  • If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?
  • Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing?
  • Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before?
  • When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in?
  • If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?
  • Why are we always so afraid to make a mistake? After all we are going to learn from it!
  • What would you do you knew nobody would judge you?
  • When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing?
  • What do you love? Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love?
  • In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday? What about the day before that? Or the day before that?
  • Decisions are being made right now. The question is: Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?
  • If others are making it for you, do you really want them to?
Happy thinking folks! :)