PEOPLE WHO DON'T WANT TO SHUT ME UP

Saturday, March 12, 2011

this post is about Kamila Shamsie too

I was really bored and sleepy and had an ice-cream stick and wanted to do calligraphy. Except I'm not too good at it.


It reads: I don't believe in first sight, and neither do you. But I know, and after today you know also, that sometimes it takes only a few minutes to recognize that a person is capable of breaking your heart. Sorry, the ie got cut off from Kamila Shamsie. The quote is from Salt and Saffron, a book everyone should read because it's awesome and by Kamila Shamsie and honestly I think I talk too much about Kamila Shamsie and Milan Kundera but it is because I love them so much and you should too. I actually get traffic from people searching for KS which is awesome and this post is for them and for everyone who reads KS.

I actually really just need an excuse to talk about KS. Why so? Because, well, this is the first sentence of Salt and Saffron:

All right, don't scoff, mock, or disbelieve: we live in mortal fear of not-quite twins.

I know this line by heart. Which isn't to say much, but still. The next chapter starts off with this sentence:

Yak's milk is green.

Honestly. Doesn't that make you want to read her? Here's more quotes.

I'm leaving the comments open to anyone who wants to say anything about KS, or her books (which one's your favourite? Why?). Please throw your favourite quote at me (one of my current favourites is Your neo-imperialism anticipates my post-colonialism LULZ). ALSO if you remember your first KS book, tell me about the experience. The first time I read KS was when I was like, 12, and I couldn't get through Salt and Saffron. Then I read it again after a couple of years, realized what an idiot I'd been at 12, and since then I've read and re-read and re-re-read and given it to people to read and it still remains one of my favourite books. It gets better each time, as I've said before.


A friend of mine and I actually have this whole thing about KS and whenever we feel like it we go all quote-reference on each other and it's pretty cool. Just a couple of days ago (I re-read S&S this week), I was on the part where Aliya and Sameer are at Sea View and the guy with a tray of sweets comes around going all cheeng-gum, chaklaait, bubbly-gum and after lol'ing for a whole minute I imagined KS at Sea View, with this amused expression on her face, taking in all the sights and thinking, Well, this is gonna go in my book. How can I express the delight I feel when I see Karachi in print? It's just amazing. There's a part in Kartography when she talks about The jet with the flame coming out of its ass and when I read it the first time I laughed so hard my family thought I'd lost it, even though I'd been laughing pretty much like that throughout Kartography. Then I told them about what I'd read and they remembered and it was awesome.


OH BTW. Have you all read the piece she did for Granta? Read it here. It's awesome.

4 comments:

  1. I think i'll have to read salt n saffron.
    You made me love it before i read it.

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  2. I fucking LOVE Kamila Shamsie. She went to my high school, and got her MFA from my college.
    Salt and Saffron's definitely in my top 5 favorite books.

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  3. @Dawson YES! IT IS ONE OF THE AIMS OF MY LIFE TO DO SUCH THINGS.

    @Tinuviel: ME TOO. and waaaaow, very cool. can i expect you to write a really really cool book (or five)? =D

    And yes, S&S <3

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  4. Normally. NORMALLY, I would mark this chhipa thing as spam. But it's a towel company and towels are important #hitchhikersguide

    ReplyDelete

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