Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea, a book by an American humanitarian, Greg Mortenson, is about his journey to villages and rural area of Pakistan and Afghanistan, in order to make schools for education of the poor children, mostly girls. He aims to change the conventional thinking of the poor, illiterate elders of different tribes and areas, of not allowing girls to get an education. But upon arriving there, he discovers that many of these illiterate people possess wisdom, far more than anticipated, Greg himself admits that he learned a lot more than he had planned to teach, and thus his plans are met with a hearty welcome. Tribal leaders try to compete with one another to gain Greg’s favor to build them a school. But he decides to make his first school for the tribe who’s chief, Haji Ali, becomes his mentor. In the book, he narrates several incidents that take place during his journey, which range from kidnappings to gun fights to encounters with the Taliban etc. He had initially come to Pakistan, to climb the second largest peak in the world; K2, but after failing, he finds himself ready to climb another peak, and it’s glory is far greater than the former, and he doesn’t fail this time.

Greg has narrated several inspirational lessons he learnt. My personal favorite quotation by Greg is as follows: ‘If we try to resolve terrorism with military might and nothing else, then we will be no safer than we were before 9/11. If we truly want a legacy of peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will ultimately be won with books, not with bombs’-Greg Mortenson. I’m definite you will enjoy this book, and will get to see the positive side of Pakistan.

Looking forward to your comments and opinions. Happy Reading!

A Thousand Splendid Suns : A Memorable Book

I recently finished the book ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hossieni ,after being moved by his first best seller ‘The Kite Runner’.This book is about the tragic lives of two Afghani women, during the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. The contrast in the lives which appears after the invasion is certainly sufficient to move the hardest of hearts. It tells about the hardships they face as women during the tyrannous reign of the Taliban, prosecutions they have to suffer and sacrifices they have to make in order protect their own and the lives of their children.Personally I think this novel is the better of the two, despite the other being the worldwide bestseller. It just isn’t possible to read this book without being moved.The way I can tell that, is because whenever I read a book, I keep track of the number of pages I’ve read to know how fast I am, but while reading this book, I literally lost track of the pages, I was truly absorbed in the book. I strongly advise you to read this book and once you’re done with this, there’s no chance you will keep yourself from reading Khaled Hossieini’s other novel, The Kite Runner, if you haven’t already read it. Truly Khaled Hossieini’s greatest masterpiece.

Happy Reading!Looking forward to you comments and opinions.

In case you’re looking for an e-book, you can download it from here: A Thousand Splendid Suns