On Hassan, Whose First Word was 'Amir'

I read novels through my teenage years. It offered asylum from the many things I didn't like about life at the time. It offered different people to know and understand and relate to, different countries to live in, different vehicles to ride on, different feelings, different cultures, different troubles to think about, different foods to eat, different lives to live and different worlds altogether. And in most parts, these different things are much better than reality.

We knew the characters, their deepest, darkest secrets, we knew what they thought of, their struggles, their preferences, their pet-peeves, their motives and their feelings. And it wouldn't be too much of a pretense to say that we can predict them in the entirety, how they would act or how they would feel if something happens to them.

We know them by heart. We know that Harry Potter would do anything to save his friends and was the bravest boy in his school, and thus the image of an 11 year old boy going back for a girl- friend, into the haunted girl's toilet and going against a big monstrous beast with such composure is something we don't really question. Neither were Artemis Fowl applying cryogenic science to delay the death of his bodyguard, nor Alex Rider who got into his uncle's office through the outside window of the however many storied office building. Or Hassan whose first word was 'Amir' or Charlotte Doyle, a 13 year old girl who joined a pirate crew. We take it as truth because we know them.

Our books became witnesses. The pages absorbed our tears when our characters cried, they saw how our lips curved into uncontrollable smiles, too hard to suppress when our characters win or found redemption, they felt our breaths quicken when our characters had to run on the way to the rendezvous.  Such power these stories and characters have on us. No wonder we feel so connected to them!

Upper class English lass turned pirate...Really...~

2 things I would like to point out. The first is that these characters only belong in novels. As much as we would like someone on the face of this huge earth to actually be like them, we need to understand they are simply fictional.

Why do I make this point in the first place? Its because throughout my reading, I have fallen into the trap of thinking that they are indeed possible. That these characters are alive in the people around me. And so I look to find perfection and such characters in the people that I know. I looked out for Atticus Finch and Hassan. Reepicheep and Samwise. And when real people fail to meet my expectations of perfect courage or standing firm on their principles, or acting out on the pure basis of friendship and love, I feel disappointed. But it's with great relief that in recent years I have come to accept the realities of life. That there are always real things that people worry about and real, practical (and totally boring) reactions of people towards a situation. And hurtful it may be, it has made accepting human flaws easier for myself.

The second thing I would like to point out is that in the midst of us knowing our novel characters, how much do we know the people around us? The people whom we meet and talk to everyday? Is it enough for us to know what they would do in certain situations? Their preferences in personal matters? Even if they wish to donate their organs if they are someday unfortunate enough to be hit by a truck? Do we know that exams aren't the only worries that our friends have? Or would have? Do we know that apart from the things we bothered to ask about, there's this huge ocean of things about them that we never really knew? Like a friend of mine who said to me "I don't think I know you that well" to which I answered "But we have known each other for four years!". Words that I meant, every single one.

What do I wish you readers get before clicking on the next tab to the much more interesting posts of other bloggers?

1. Give people leeway to make mistakes and be human. Novel characters are only perfect because they are not real.

2. Get to know the people around you as you would get to know your novel characters. Much easier said than ever practical, considering the nature of relationships around us, and people's preferences of whom to talk to and not, but sometimes the answer to a simple question could tell us so much about a person.

I don't know if I will continue reading children's books after this. I enjoyed them very much, even until early adulthood. But maybe its time to read biographies instead. And get to know real people with real stories.

Maybe I should start with yours, if you would be so kind so as to offer me the pleasure.

I'm only a man in a silly red sheet,

Digging for kryptonite on this one way street,

Only a man in a funny red sheet,

Looking for special things inside of me

(Superman (It's not easy), Five for Fighting)

Yours faithfully

Azfar

p.s.: Superman in all his glory, may have wanted with all his heart to be normal. Do we know?