For You A Thousand Times Over

“Do you want me to run that kite for you?”

His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed. The wind lifted his hair. I thought I saw him nod.

“For you, a thousand times over,” I heard myself say.

Then I turned and ran.

It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn’t make everything alright. It didn’t make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird’s flight.

But I’ll take it. With open arms. Because when springs comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting.

I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn’t care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips.

I ran.


I've been catching up with my reading lately and a colleague of mine introduced me this book. The excerpt above was from that book and this particular part amongst others gave me goosebumps.

The book to me, was a story of friendship, betrayal, loyalty, second chances and maybe even redemption. A story of how being trutful can really change a lot. How a single lie can change somebody's life.

Set in Afghanistan, the book tackles family and friendship between Amir and Hassan and how social differences mattered at the time. How one cannot challenge the norms dictated by the society they live in and how a kite tournament changed it all.

I will not critique the book nor challenge it, I will merely say that I had the best time reading it and that I would recommend it to everyone.

"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini was definitely a good read!