Wednesday, December 25, 2013

What is the summary for Chapter 21 of The Kite Runner?

On the way to the Ghazi Stadium Amir and Farid see the corpse of a young man who had been hanged recently and a lame man selling his artificial leg. Shortly afterwards they arrive at Wazir Akbar Khan district and Amir identifies his childhood home correctly with the help of an old landmark.This neighbourhood is better maintained than the other places, because as Farid points out this is the  locality where the Taliban and foreign VIPs reside.

Amir peers through the rusted iron bars of the gate of his childhood home and is transported back in time and a wave of nostalgia brings back all the memories of his childhood Eden.The entire house and its surroundings had suffered neglect and Amir remarks sadly, "like so much else in Kabul, my father's house was the picture of fallen splendor." With great difficulty he resists the temptation to go in. Farid is impatient to get to the stadium, but Amir tells him that he has look up one more thing. Amir climbs up the hill north to Baba's house visits the cemetry where Hassan's mother is buried and then sees the same pomegranate tree on whose trunk the legend "Amir and Hassan. The Sultans of Kabul" had been inscribed. 

They spend the night in a very cheap hotel which had no electricity. Farid tells him about his past and they share many 'Mullah Nasruddin' jokes. Amir feels disgusted when Farid finds it difficult to believe why he should  risk his life for a 'Shiia' boy and he loses all sleep while Farid snores away blissfully.

The next day, they go to Ghazi Stadium to find the official who bought Sohrab. The stadium is filled with people watching a game of soccer. In keeping with the strict rules laid down by the Taliban the players are wearing "long pants" and the spectators are prevented from cheering too noisily. During halftime, a man and a woman are stoned to death for adultery on the same soccer field by a man in white and wearing "John Lennon sunglasses" - the same Taliban official whom they had come to meet. After half time, the bodies are removed and the soccer game continues. 

To their pleasant surprise and relief Amir and Farid arrange for a three o’clock appointment with the official.

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