Karma Chronicles - Is Khaled Hosseini Right?

May 24, 2013


I came across a very interesting interview with Khaled Hosseini, published in the Economic Times.

Q. In your new book, And the Mountains Echoed, one of the main characters is an Afghan-born physician in America, like you. He is embarrassed that he's sweating the details of his new home theatre while his countrymen are suffering. Do you have similar guilt?
A. Of course. I always have. The only reason I'm not where they are is just pure luck; it's just a stupid genetic lottery. It's an unmerited gift to have this life. My books became successful way beyond any reasonable expectation and were about those people on the streets. I felt that in some way I had profited from their wretchedness.

Q. Do you imagine it would have been published if September 11 had not happened?

A. Who knows? You have to be honest. It opened doors. But believe it or not, as I was trying to find an agent in June 2002, I received a rejection that said, "We like your book, but we're really looking for stories about Iraq now."

Q. Incredible. Even publishing was banking on an Iraq invasion?

A. You expect to be rejected, but what upset me about it was what it meant for Afghanistan. That was a foreshadowing of what happened - that Iraq would overshadow the campaign and absorb military resources. I landed in Kabul the day before "shock and awe" in Iraq, and you could all but hear the collective groan.

The interview is fascinating in itself; this post is should not distract from that. Khaled Hosseini is a fantastic writer and I wish I could write like him. His latest book (the interview was published to highlight news of this latest publication), "And the Moutains Echoed" has been published to rave reviews and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Yet, the excerpts I quoted above, provide a nice segue to some thoughts on the Law of Karma. From the perspective of the Law of Karma as Eastern religions tend to see it, there are a few flaws in what Mr Hosseini says:

• Ours is not an unmerited life. Adi Shankaracharya makes it absolutely clear in the Vivekachudamani that this human birth is the result of numerous lives of merit. It also provides us a unique opportunity to gain moksha, liberation from the endless cycle of birth and death. So, this is not a "stupid genetic lottery".
  
• The author's karma (act) of writing the book and the take-off as a bestseller thanks to the interest in Afghanistan following the tragedy of September 11th is just a fateful juxtaposition and he need bear no guilt on that count. I do understand the emotional reaction when one thinks of the Afghans who do not have a choice of leaving it all behind.
  
• I shudder to think of the incalculable cost of the war in Iraq that Americans and everyone in the world will have to pay for many more years to come. That karma payout will be infallible, inexplicable and has already set off countless cycles of hate.
  

For previous posts of Karma Chronicles, click here. Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post