A Book Review: And The Mountains Echoed

I have read both 'The Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini. I read the former first. There was plenty of hype surrounding the book at that time, and when I finally finished it, I thought that the hype was completely justified. The prose was rich and readable, the characters and setting was interesting, and as strange as it might sound, the whole book felt very fearless. Though my recollection of the actual plot has become diminished, as it happens with all books, I still remember moments from the book which hit me really hard.

When I started on 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', my expectations were high. I dived into the book with gusto...only to find myself bored, listless, skipping whole passages, waiting for something interesting to happen. Perhaps it's because the subject matter was different, or perhaps the author just couldn't pull everything together. The second book was a thoroughly forgettable affair.

When 'And The Mountains Echoed' hit the bookstores, I was immediately excited, and then crestfallen, and finally, hopeful and filled with unfounded optimism. I got myself a copy and started reading in earnest. I'm glad to say that I wasn't disappointed.

'And The Mountains Echoed' follows the lives of an Afghan boy, Abdullah, and his sister, Pari, who are forcefully separated, their relationship pried apart by the harsh circumstances of life in Afghanistan, in the 1930s. The book begins with this, and then it rockets off to all sorts of fascinating tangents. True to its name, the book functions like an echo, where at the end, you get something which faintly resembles what you started off with in the first place - something which has been distorted by time and circumstance.

Each chapter features a different character, and tells his or her story from their point of view. One of the more exciting aspects of the book comes from trying to guess which character will be featured next, and what new perspective he or she will bring. This form of story-telling also allows us to see the difference between how a character views himself, and how another person might view him. Khaled Hosseni does really well in juggling the characters - he's able to give them just the right amount of personality, voice and story, such that no chapter is quite like the other.

In addition to the unique story-telling, the book is also written in flowing, readable prose, and covers a whole range of topics from feminism to filial piety, and from closeted homosexuality to the true meaning of beauty. I guess you can think of this book as a collection of short stories, which unfold over time, and are linked by the sibling's relationship. To say that it is about one particular thing is difficult...to put it simply, it's a book about life, and where life will and can take you.

If I had a gripe about the book, I would say that all the characters are written a bit too perfectly. Everyone's very talented in their field, and somehow, everyone succeeds. It's all too neat for my sadist self, and it's just simply too unbelievable. 

Now should you read the book? Mmmm, if you have the time, and are looking for something to help you pass it, then do read this book. It's interesting, well-written, and poignant. It's a master-class level of work...but it doesn't have the same gravitas that "The Kite Runner" had. It paints a very rich tapestry of life...but it's like eating a meat platter, I guess. You get bits and pieces of everything without tasting the whole steak. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Choice Quote: Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift, given randomly, stupidly.

23 Things I Learned in the 2 Years I've Spent in SMU.

1. The SMU library is equidistant from the Starbucks at City Hall and the Starbucks at The Cathay. Either way, you're taking a 5 minute-walk there, and then a 5-minute-walk back. It sucks. The Coffee Bean is not an option, even if there's a student discount because seriously, Coffee Bean??

2. The worst place to sit in a seminar room is the outermost corners of the last row. The professors barely glance in that direction. 

3. On the topic of seating arrangement in SRs, the person behind you will look at your screen and judge you. It is not intentional nor is it out of ill-intention. The seminars are just really long, and sometimes, the most interesting thing is whoever the person in front of you is stalking on Facebook.

4. You're going to make lots of friends, but after awhile, you're going to lose touch with most of them. It's part and parcel of university life. The fact of the matter is that it's impossible to stay equally close to everyone. At the very least, try to stay friendly with everyone.

5. If you really want to maintain a friendship, you have to make an effort to keep the spark going, or else it'll just fade away. Go for meals together, or go shopping, or study together.

6. The gym will only be crowded in the afternoons and evenings at the beginning of the term and after the exams. After week 6, it becomes cozy again. The gym is never crowded in the mornings.

7. A lot of the things you learn in your seminars aren't very useful, especially in your first two years in SMU. Be discerning and try to identify the knowledge that you need for your examination and the knowledge that you need for your life and then take those in.

8. The waiting time for Tea Party is really really long. Even if the queue is short, there's probably a whole lot of people waiting for their pasta ahead of you. If you want a quick bite lunch or dinner, avoid Tea Party.

9. During fundraising season, avoid the concourse. There'll be stalls selling snacks, tauhuay and other things at higher-than-normal prices. Chances are, you'll know at least one person from these stalls, and it's very hard to say 'no' to them (especially if they're cute girls).

10. Class participation is important. It encourages you to pay closer attention to the class, and to identify who in the class you don't want to be friends with, really. Speak up, think for yourself, and try not to get too worked up.

11. Bring a marker for all group meetings in GSRs. Writing things down on the board is the best way to keep the meeting moving. If nothing is being written down, your meeting should be finished.

12. If you don't prepare for your classes, you're pretty much wasting your time. Before your classes, at the very least, practice the key concepts which were taught in the previous class, if it's a Mathy-Mod, like Finance. If it's one of those...marketing/comms mod, read up so that you can keep up with the discussion.

13. Good friends don't always make for good group mates. It may sound like a good idea to have a friend in your group, but not everyone's working style is compatible. The reverse is also true; good group mates don't have to be your good friends.

14. Don't be a lousy group mate. You know the type...doesn't turn up for meetings, doesn't contribute much to discussions, submits substandard work. Don't be like that. If you're lucky, you're group mates will pick up the slack for you, but don't be surprised if nobody wants you in their group ever again. News spreads fast in SMU, especially when it comes to this.

15. Fluffing is perfectly acceptable, and people who complain about them are just lazy. Fluffing, if relevant to the presentation, can be really great. Also, fluffing happens in the real world all the time.

16. You'll meet plenty of brilliant people along the way. Those mythical scholars, or those with perfect GPAs. You can be one of them too. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

17. You'll learn way more outside the seminar rooms than inside it. Go join an organizing committee or a CCA or even better, look beyond SMU for your opportunity to grow. There's something out there for everyone - if you want to learn about investment, banks, and whatnot, there are clubs just for you. If you want to get a firsthand experience at say...marketing, or HR, go join a org comm doing an event which interests you.

18. You shouldn't join everything though. Learn when to say 'no'.

19. Most of your friends will be from something that you've joined. That's just how things are. Maybe it'll be your campmates, or your CCA mates, or your Organizing Committee. Point is, in this environment, it's sometimes difficult to find a reason to "belong", and we need that pillar to hold on to. (I hope I'm making sense)

20. With a good grasp of time-management,  you can rule the world. Some people in SMU will seem like superheros - they're able to get the A's, and be presidents, and be involved in other stuff too. It's all about setting aside time and making sure you get things done in that given amount of time. Do what you need to do, and after that, do what you want to do.

21. You're going to second-guess yourself in your SMU journey. You're going to ask yourself whether you're in the right place, whether you've made the right decision. You're going to wander what it'd be like to go over to the other side. All the would-haves, could-haves, and should-haves will start running through your head, and it's not going to be pretty. 

But at the end of the day, the hand that's been dealt to you...has already been dealt. You can go with it, and make the most out of your experience. Or if you really think that you can go elsewhere, and that things will be better for you once you're there, then by all means. 

Just don't go through life with a chip on your shoulder, gathering up bags of regrets, complaining the whole damn time about what a shit situation you've somehow found yourself in. We have to make the best out of what we have, and frankly speaking, what we have in SMU is pretty damn great.

22. Stay positive and have fun. Upon rereading this post, I realize that I sounded very...study-focused and serious. Life's supposed to be fun. You can have a lot of fun in SMU, and still do well - it's all about your attitude towards things. Stay positive, be open, and be nice to everyone. Crack jokes, hang out after school, do stupid shit...and maybe even fall in love...?

23. Life doesn't end at SMU. It's easy to get absorbed in the school environment, and to devote everything to your studies and your CCA and your new friends. However, life out there still goes on. Remember your friends from outside SMU, remember your family who's always waiting for you at home and most importantly, remember that school isn't everything.

~

And that's it for me. The list above is not exhaustive, of course, and reflects my personal opinion on life in SMU. Maybe you agree, and maybe you don't. Either way, to each his own. Have a great semester, and I'll see you around.

Timetable for Semester 1.

My Singapore Story

My brothers and I first came to Singapore in the year 1996 to visit my parents who had found work here. While my parents were away, we stayed with our grandparents, in a little corner of the Philippines called Calamba, Laguna, which is near Manila, I think. I remember being really excited back then because it was my first time getting on a plane, and my first time travelling out of the country. When we touched down, I was struck by how clean everything was, and also how different the people were - Chinese people, Malay people, Indian people, and the works.

During my first visit, we stayed at a flat my parents were renting at Bukit Batok. We went to Sentosa, the Jurong Birdpark and of course, the Zoo. It was just a vacation, and I had little idea that I would be moving over here permanently. 

My brother and I, on our first visit to Singapore. I'm on the left.

After that faithful vacation, my brother and I (my youngest brother wasn't born then), went back to the Philippines. We spent another year studying over there, and then my parents broke the news that we would be joining them in Singapore. The 7-year-old me was devastated - I would be leaving behind my friends, my schoolmates, and most importantly, my grandparents, who had been taking care of me all the while. In the airport, I cried a whole lot. I was 7 though; when you're at that age, you just do what your parents tell you to do.

So we shifted over to Singapore. We stayed at Potong Pasir for awhile - me, my two brothers and my parents. It was good to have the family together (even for a little while), but I really really missed the Philippines. It was only a few months later that we started school, my younger brother and I. We went to Stamford Primary School, which is located at Bugis, and I joined when in Primary 2, and my brother, Primary 1. At this time, we moved to Beach Road, which was closer to the school.

From what I know, we were the first Filipinos to join the school. I think my parents tried a few schools before they finally found one which were willing to take us in. Thinking back, we were really blessed. It was already halfway through the school year when we joined, and with the school system here and the Philippines being so different, we had plenty of catching up to do.

I think I made friends quite easily. Maybe it's easier when you're a kid, but I got along with my classmates surprisingly well. Occasionally, people would poke fun at my accent. I pronounced the 'r's differently you see - fouR, chuRch, and all that. It got to me, a little bit, and I made a conscious effort to adapt the way I speak. The rest of Primary School passed by with little problems - I made friends, I fit in, and I did well in terms of grades (with the exception of my mother tongue). 

And the rest is...history. I grew up just like any other Singaporean kid from that point on. After Stamford Primary, I went to Queenstown Secondary, where I met even more wonderful people. My nationality was hardy ever an issue. Sure, people would call me 'pinoy', but that was that. I did typically Singaporean things, like chatting on MSN, and playing soccer, and playing arcade after class. I even had like...a stead of sorts, but that's another story.

One thing that was atypical, I guess, would be that I had more independence than most Singaporean kids. My parents let me go wherever, as long as I reached home by a certain time. This meant that even in my teens, I was venturing out on my own to visit bookstores, and look for comics, and things like that. As a result, to this date, I have an excellent grasp of the Singapore public transport system.

My parents finally applied for the Permanent Resident Status, and I took it in my stride. I'd have to do NS, but so do my classmates, and if they can do it, then so can I. Queenstown Secondary was preceded by two amazing years at ACJC, and then it was followed by two years in National Service, where I served as a Chemical Defense medic. In that space of time, I moved around a couple of times, from Beach Road, to Geylang, and finally, to Tanah Merah, where my father bought a flat.

National Service has this thing against PRs and....you know how it is. I understand where they're coming from I guess, but I'm still kind of bummed. Anyway, NS was followed by studies at SMU, which is where I'm at, at this point in life. It's given me an excellent education thus far, and it promises even better things in the future.

Oh. Sometime after National Service, I finally received my Singapore Citizenship. Having served NS, it was a given that I would get it, as long as I registered for it. Becoming a Singapore Citizen meant that I would have to relinquish my Filipino Citizenship. I thought about it for a little while, and looking back at my life, I'm more Singaporean than anything else. I registered for it, and around April this year, I officially became a Singaporean.

Today is the first National Day I spent as a full-fledged Singaporean. I should have made plans to watch the show or do something memorable, on hindsight, but I didn't have the time to come up with anything. So here I am, being all retrospective and nostalgic and shit. 

Today, I ask myself...what does Singapore mean to me? Singapore's this amazing place where I spent my formative years. It's where I learned, where I grew up, where I loved, where I made glorious memories, where I lost weight, where I found life-long friends, and where I found the person that I am today. It's the place which have the person that I am today, possible. No matter where I go in the future, Singapore would have played a huge part, and for that I am thankful - thankful for the opportunities and thankful for the people. 

My mother tells me about how she had to force my dad to send us here. Apparently, my dad was quite content with us being in the Philippines. My mum nagged at him until he changed his mind. Thanks mum. 

Maybe it's too presumptuous to say that my life would have been worse had I stayed there, but at the end of the day, I like who I am now, and Singapore is part of who I am, and for having blessed us with this wonderful life, let's celebrate this fucking amazing nation, and let's make it even better that what it is today. Majulah Singapura.

Spoiler: It's supposed to be the Merlion.

Broken Pottery

I was doing some thinking earlier today on the nature of our lives as human beings. What if when we come out of our mothers' wombs, it's like a....perfect pot falling from a height. A fetus is pretty much perfect, pure, but when it enters this world, it changes to become something entirely different. It's shattered by it's environment, it's upbringing, it's circumstances until it finally becomes what it is.

What if a lot of the things in life are decided not by us, but by life, and we come into the world with a lot of things already laid out for us. Like a broken pottery - when it hits the ground, there's no way of telling what the broken pieces will look like, but it's still the same old pot, and the broken pieces are beautiful in it's own way.

What if our mission in life is to make sense of the fallen pieces. We're broken. We're so fucking far from perfect, but that in itself, is perfection, and we've just got to make sense of it. For example, when you look at clouds, you may see clouds, but you may also see a face, and it's up to us to see that. Ughh, i'm not sure whether I'm making sense. My head hurts like crazy.

I'm getting really frustrated with Illustrator, and Photoshop. Why can't we have one software doing both, seriously. Toggling between them is...terrible. I'm starting to realize that I may have too much on my plate.

Just think about it.

I took the bus home, and on this ride, this girl who was quite pretty sat beside me. She sat beside me because all the other seats were taken. As the ride went on, more people left the bus. 

Seats became vacant, and pretty soon, the upper deck of the bus where we were sitting was mostly empty. Yet, she stayed by my side. If it was me, I would have moved so that I had two-seats to myself...but maybe that's just me. 

The ride was a long one and she sat by me the whole way. We were close enough, such that our arms were touching, but it wasn't weird or creepy or gross - I guess it was just there. It was nice. 

I was reading this book by Kurt Vonnegut called "God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian". I've read most of his stuff, but not this one. I don't know why I've waited so long. It's such a good book. It's a series of fictional interviews with dead people. The dead say interesting things, at least, that's what he assumes.

He said that Hitler regretted everything that he's done. And that Newton is irritated that he didn't discover relativity, or evolution. He also brought up people that I've never heard of. Did you know that the only successful genocide in human history was in Tasmania? I hope that such atrocities won't happen again.

So at that bus, on my way home, on a relatively peaceful evening, I had a book in my hands, and there was a pretty girl beside me. She was real, and in that quiet thirty minutes, we were side by side. From time to time, I tried to sneak a look at her, but I could never find the opportunity. 

I got off the bus before she did. As I was seating on the inside, I had to say "Excuse me,". She didn't say anything in response - she just shifted a little to make room for my exit. I hope that she found the bus ride to be a nice one too. May she have a nice evening, and may all of you have one, too. 

Peace.

Ghost Protocol

Just watched it. I was really hyped up because I suddenly recalled this HIMYM episode where they were using it as an adjective to describe something really awesome. It's okay, on the whole. Some set pieces were excellent, while didn't really have a good payoff. I thought that the story was quite difficult to follow, and once you do follow it, it's not that interesting. The characters were likable enough as individuals, but they didn't really come together. Still, awesome action sequences...the beginning was great but the movie wasn't able to sustain it.

Oh well.

Missing.

I missed yesterday's post and today's post too. Trust me, I didn't wish for it to happen, but that's just how things turn out. I wish I had more time in the day. I think that once again, I'm trying to cover way too much ground for my own good. I have...a constant stream of things that I should be doing at the back of my mind.

Anyway, I'm really jealous of people who don't have to exercise. I literally work my ass off to be like this. And I'm so far away from my ideal that trying feels pointless, and I feel like giving up. The only thing that's stopping me is the fact that I know that if I stop, the alternative is going to be much worse. I'm just maintaining, or at least, it feels that way. Other people don't even have to try....and here I am, trying my hardest and not getting there. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but man, at least I'm trying. And that's how I know that the world is not fair. 

Also, my internet's acting funny once again. It causes me to lose sleep, literally, because there are things that I'm trying to get done, but my slow (or lack of) internet connection is preventing me from doing so. I spent more time than I need to just staring at my computer being fucked up. It's screwed really. I think technology should work perfectly all the time, and if it doesn't, somebody should be punished. But that's now how it works. Technology fucks with you for no reason...and that's how I know God doesn't exist.

So I said two things that I know to be true, somewhat, using everyday occurrences. Maybe I'm making a leap of logic somewhere. Sometimes, when things like this happens, all I want to do is literally smash my head against the wall. Or throw my laptop to the ground. Or something. I don't know what to believe and that sucks. 

Okay, I'm out. This thing isn't turning out at all like what I had in mind.