A Thousand Splendid Suns

Click here for an elaborated explanation of the novel

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a second novel by Khalled Hosseini, the author the international best seller which has been made into a movie, "The Kite Runner". It mainly discusses the issue of vast discrimination against women in Afghanistan. I sobbed and had t stop reading to calm myself down at least 3 times while I was reading the novel. It really touches my heart to learn how bad is women are being discriminated in Afghanistan.They were not granted access to education, were forced to marry a stranger at a certain age (in which in most circumstances the suitor is way older than the girls; for example Mariam, one of the main characters in the novel is forced to marry a man who is 20 years older than her, old enough to be her father!) and were denied from getting proper health care service in the hospital. If I were to live there, I probably could just survive only 5 minutes of my life there! The two main characters in the novel, Mariam and Laila are just two examples of Afghan women who have to suffer from the consequences of war and tradition (which is upheld by religious extremists in the country). The story really reminds me of how I should be thankful that even though there are many things in my life that upset me (for example for having to be far away from my friends and losing freedom), these things or circumstances are not comparable at all as to what Laila and Mariam are going through in their life; being forced to marry a stranger who is 20 years older than them, suffer from physical abuse from their husband (they share a husband, Mariam is the first wife and Laila is the second wife. Laila married Mariam's husband after she lost both of her parents from war and because he was being tricked by Mariam's husband, Rasheed), being beaten from walking on the street without a "Mahrim" (husband) just to get to see her 7 year-old daughter at the orphanage and having to see their parents tragic deaths at an early age( Mariam's mother commited suicide by hanging herself from a tree; Laila's parents died from war, Laila saw her father's headless torso flying in the air from their bombed house).

Pressies

These are the presents that I received from my little boys, I almost went into tears when they gave me all these. I had no idea how much they really loved me before.

I did a farewell party for them on my last day. I brought them some doughnouts and a cake. Glad they enjoyed the party! I so miss them all now!!

These are the pictures from the party!

(From the left: Thibaan, Mitvindra, Sureswaran, Danish,  New Jone, Sanjivan Gabriel, Harinder, Jacky Chan)

(Sanjivan, Oliver Chiam, Deva, Weleon, Shahrul, Harinder)

(My boys with the hamper they gave me: Harinder, Deva, Sanjivan)

                                                  ( Sureswaran, Rajarajeswaran)

(Ahmad Shafiq, Harinder, Sanjivan, Shahrul)

This is the party from another class I taught form 1Tekun (1T).

(Chunkit, Asadullah, Fahim, Sanjeev Raj)

(Syafawie, Basilius, Sureshkumar, Syamil, Naim, Alimi)

Reading like a Vampire

I started to read a lot like a Vampire  (like a vampire cause I read from midnight till dawn , ah well at least like Edward Cullen, haha!). I finally finished reading The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory. A really interesting story about the raising plots mainly in Northern parts of England which are aimed to dethroned Queen Elizabeth and put Queen Mary of Scots on the throne instead. It ventures the possibility of how men can easily be deceived by good looks or beauty. Yesterday I went shopping and book 4 books, all of them are literature piece, one of them is a great work of the legendary Jack Keruoac, On The Road which I am so excited to start reading! Im guessing this one would be similar in its theme with one of the Aussie writer Wayne Grogan Vale Byron Bay. I got 2 books of the writers J.D. Salinger and Ken Kessey free with my purchase of Jack Keruoac! And another book I bought is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I also borrowed some books from the library, one of them is my favourite novel the Wuthering Heigh by Emily Bronte. Hopefully I can finish reading them all during the weekend.

My cuz

This is my cuz, he's my childhood crush. hehe. And I think he looks a little bit like my friend, James's little brother, Graeme.

Graeme is the one in the middle, the one in grey-ish shirt. 

Last Day in School

Yesterday was my last day teaching the boys at the school. And today here I am, in my little room, sobbing over the facts that I might not see some of them anymore at all. I have grown myself used to them, I remember the name of each of them,  I even remember some of the students by their full names.I received some pressies from some students, even from the class that I did not taught! I am happy to know that at least some of them if not all really appreciate and love me the way I love them.