People often refer to an “accident of birth” by which we are born to a particular race or religion or in a particular country or to a social class all of which eventually shape the kind of person we become. While the “the accident of birth” is something that is beyond our control, what happens later on in our lives is very much within our control. However, one thing I can say is that if not for accidental meetings with people, who otherwise would have crossed our paths like thousands and thousands of others and gone unnoticed, life would be without its spark.
For me one such meeting took place a few weeks ago which in turn led to the realization of a dream I’ve had for a long time of forming a Book Club. Being a ‘book-a-holic’ , I am on the lookout for books all the time. A mention of a small place which sells second hand books caught my eye which made me, along with a friend, an equally book crazy young lady, drop by. What we found was a perfectly cozy book corner, warm and welcoming very much like the lady who runs it.
I will refer to her as L from now on. Once we realized our mutual addiction to books, I floated the idea of starting a ‘Book Club’. It’s something I’ve thought of for a long while but being the “Mistress of Procrastination” as I like to call myself, I usually think up great ideas and let them remain just that. But L was the exact opposite who jumped at the idea and got things rolling and a little over a month after we first met, we had our inaugural Book Club meeting last Sunday evening. It was a group of seven near strangers, of varying ages, brought together of course by their love for reading but also because of the desire to dissect in detail the contents of a book we had all enjoyed reading.
I had the privilege of picking a book for discussion and I chose the ‘Kite Runner’ by Afghan born writer Khaled Hosseini, an almost universally acclaimed book first published in 2003. Everyone who has read the book speaks about the lasting impression left on them as well as opening their eyes to the fact that some of the things we take for granted in our lives comes at a price for others all because of that “accident of birth”. The story is set against the backdrop of the tormented recent history of Afghanistan, one of the most beautiful and haunting countries in the world and each of the members of our Book Club found their own connection to the characters in it.
And as the saying goes, truth is strangers than fiction, we all agreed that the reason the book and the different characters in it so endeared themselves to us was because of how close they came to being so much like us or like the people in our lives. While for Sri Lankans the culture, customs and lifestyles of people in Afghanistan are almost totally an alien experience, what the book taught us was that whatever differences we have on the outside, as reflected by our external appearances, inside we are all the same.
We experience the same emotions, we all have our own strong notions of what is wrong and what is right, and the social pressures on us to live our lives according to stereotyped role models in society are almost the same. And so while we discussed about how life in Afghanistan was so different to our lives back home, we also realized that we had so much in common with people, as part of the human race, how ever apart we were physically. That insurmountable mountains and vast oceans that separate people don’t change what is innately human in us.
Philosophical reasoning aside, our first Book Club meeting concluded on a happy note with L going the extra mile to serve us some of her culinary specialties, all inspired by Afghan cuisine. Whatever the “accidents of birth”, which we may or may not be happy with, accidental meetings with certain human beings help enrich our lives. And this was one such instance for me. And for the others too, I hope.
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