Did you know that the 4th of March is the National Grammar Day? Bet you didn't! The part of the world that I live in has little concern over National Grammar Day. Having said that, the schools I've attended when I was younger; as in about a decade ago (OMG! that's young?!!) still has English Observation Day for one whole day every week. I never had too much problems with it, but I do remember my classmates and friends struggling a little - having fined 10 cents per non-English word spoken. I digress. >.<

Sometime not so long ago, I remember posting a blog entry of The Chaos, a poem by Gerard Nolst Trenite. The poem itself highlights about 800 irregularities in the English language. You can have a go at it here.

This time round, I'm going to be talking about grammar and how some sentences can sound crazy, but are grammatically and sensibly correct.

Let's start off with a line from Grucho Marx :

One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas I'll never know. 

Those with a perverted mind (like me) gets it the first time. For those of you who are innocent, let's corrupt you! Muahahaa!!!

Take advantage of the fact that the same sentence can have more than one structure. Consider the first sentence :

[One morning] [I shot an elephant] [in my pyjamas].

[One morning] [I shot] [an elephant in my pyjamas].

Got you thinking yet?

Let's move on, shall we?

The horse raced past the barn fell. 

hamaigaad.. what the fish?! (as my good friend would put it). Hold on to your horses, readers - I promise you will be amazed! If you do study grammar to the letter, then you would know all about reduced relative clause. In a nutshell, this particular clause allows us to restructure our sentence from, for example, "The mobile phone that his uncle gave got broken" to "The mobile phone given by his uncle got broken".

Has the realization setlled in yet? No? Well, consider the following :

The horse [that was] raced past the barn, fell.

I added the comma before fell to help you out. Get it now?


Let's move on. I promise I have a lot more baffling sentences that are still grammatically and sensibly correct!

Let's try this one out.

The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families. 

This one is simple. >.< . I'll give you a hint : Try to identify the nouns, verbs and adjectives.

---------Hey, no peeking! Give it a go first!----------

---------Can you make sense of the sentence on your own?----------

"Complex" is so commonly used as an adjective - a complex problem, a complex arrangement etc. However, consider it as a noun - a housing complex, an apartment complex etc.

"Houses" is also commonly used as a noun, but in this sentence, it played the role of a verb.

As for "married', it usually is a past tense of the verb "marry", but let's change it's role here to an adjective and voila!

[The complex] [houses] [married and single soldiers and their families].

Feel free for laughing your butt off for reading that as

[The complex houses] [married] [and .... well you didn't even finish the whole sentence, did you?


March 4th!!

The rat the cat the dog chased ate the malt. 

Hehe! Let it be known that by now, I am smirking at your misery and pain! (yeah I'm sadist that way).

This is a good example of multiple center embedding in English language - meaning putting a clause in another clause. In this case, look at the 'malt'. What happened to it? The 'malt' was 'eaten'. By what? Can you continue from there?

If you can figure out the sentence above, take a piece of paper (or copy and paste this next sentence into a word processor and try to make a sense out of it.

Anyone who feels that if so many more students whom we haven’t actually admitted are sitting in on the course than ones we have that the room had to be changed, then probably auditors will have to be excluded, is likely to agree that the curriculum needs revision.

If you've made it this far (with maybe one or two extra wrinkles), CONGRATULATIONS!!! Here's a riddle to just relax yourself. Just remember, sometimes, it's ok to take things literally.

What is a word made up of 4 letters yet is also one made out of 3. Although is written with 8 letters, and then with 4. Rarely consists of 6, and never written with 5. 

<<< Good luck! >>>

Rated 4.3/5 from Goodreads, A Thousand Splendid Suns is the second novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, following the best-seller 2003 debut The Kite Runner. If you've already read The Kite Runner, this book will definitely rip your heart into pieces if not already. 

Set in Afghanistan between 1960's to early 2000, it tells the story of Mariam, a young girl born out of wedlock to a rich businessman father, Jalil, and lives with her mother Nana. As far as cliche goes, the story is well fat with it - the suffering of a fatherless child, the mother finally having had enough and took her own life, an unfortunate marriage to an abusive husband, miscarriages and so many unfortunate events in the life of the little girl from her childhood to her death. 

But, in contrast, while The Kite Runner tells the story of friendship and bond between men, A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the story of a bond between mother and daughter, and of friendship between women. The storyline is also something contrasting to The Kite Runner, where the story is rather linear and gains momentum as events after event unfurls. 

One notable theme of the novel is addressing women oppression in traditional Afghanistan - depicted clearly after Mariam, in her early teens, was married to Rasheed, an old shoemaker, against her will. Rasheed forces Mariam to wear a burqa, to not speak to any men and were to stay in her room when there are male visitors in the house. After she failed to give birth to a son, instead bearing a daughter after a few miscarriages, Mariam was treated even worse, subjected to mean scorn, ridicule and insults especially to her cooking by Rasheed. 

Reading the book, to me, felt like taking a glimpse of what life in Afghanistan must be like back then, between the time of peace and the rise of Talibans, where the social status of women were deemed of very little importance compared to men - denying the right for women to pursue education or work, even hospitals turning down female patients in labor because men and women are supposed to be seen at different hospitals, as well as the Titanic fever following the movie that was played in cinemas and in videotapes back then. It is in the perspective of Mariam that these stories were told, and what made this novel a stirring read, almost impossible to resist (Entertainment Weekly).

I've been stalking bookstores and stocking up on my reading list - so I thought to myself why not make a review of the books I've already read? And why not make it a periodical thing? Well I can't promise that I'd be able to finish a book every week - which would translate to about 52 books a year! That's an astounding feat! Hahaha! Well I'll make it a Sunday thing, ok? So every few Sundays, do expect a new book review from me! 

The latest book I've read was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. A little bit about the author - He is one of the most read and beloved novelist in the world, with more than ten million copies of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (the next novel I'm gonna read) sold in the US, and more than thirty-eight million copies sold worldwide in more than seventy countries! (WOW!!) He is also a Goodwill Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Refugee Agency and the founter of Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. 

The Kite Runner is indeed a powerful novel - Khaled Hosseini's first - telling the story bond and friendship between Amir and Hassan, the former a Sunni Muslim and the later a Shi'a Muslim. Amir and Hassan grew up together, feeding from the same breast which makes them breastfeeding brothers, but Amir was born a Pashtun while Hassan a Hazara. The social caste in Afghanistan scorned such friendship, Hassan and Amir being constantly bullied by their Pashtun peers, with Hassan always stepping up to defend Amir in every single conflict. 

Some of the important events in the beginning of the novel was that they young friends would always find themselves climbing to the top of the hill and sat under a pomegranate tree where Amir would read to Hassan. Sometimes Amir would tease Hassan of his illiteracy and began making up the stories and pretending to still read from the book. It was then that Hassan commented that that was the best story he had ever heard. Amir also composed himself a short story, to which Hassan was very delighted to hear but to Amir's dismay, his father or Baba would not have an ear for. It was also on the bark of that pomegranate tree that Amir carved the words "Amir and Hassan, Sultans of Kabul" signifying the strong kinship between the two. 

The next chapters revealed how Amir craved for his Baba's affection, blaming himself for not being able to live up to his Baba's expectation. He was not the soccer player his Baba expected him to be. Everytime they went for a road trip, his Baba would be ashamed of him because he gets car sick and would throw up. It was in Rahim Khan, his Baba's best friend that he found a father figure, but underneath that he was always craving for his father's affection. 

That moment came at last at the Kite Flying tournament held annually in Kabul, where hundreds of kite flyers fight to cut each other's strings and become the last kite still in the sky. Amir, along with Hassan holding the spool, came out victorious, and it was the first time Amir felt like his Baba's son. In the kite flying competition, when a kite's string was cut, the kite runners would seek to capture the kite to claim for his own - and the most prized kite was the last kite that was cut  last. After Amir successfully cut the last kite, Hassan dutifully cried "for you, a thousand times over" as he raced along the streets to collect that last fallen kite. 

After the kite flying tournament ended, however, Hassan did not come home. Amir went out looking, and found Hassan being cornered by Assef and another two of their peers, and that was when Amir witnessed the most cruel deed Assef did to Hassan. Instead of standing up to Assef the was Hassan would, Amir hid himself in a aleey like a coward. It was then that their kinship took a different turn. 

The novel went on about the time when Afghanistan was in turmoil, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet military intervention, the exodus of refugee to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime. Amir and his Baba was not spared, enduring the journey and migration and finally ending up in San Francisco, where they made a living - his Baba working at the local gas station and amir himself went to school and studied to become a writer. 

Like a bad penny, the past always has it's ways of coming back to haunt us. Amir found himself, over two decades later, caught between living the life of hidden lies and dishonor swept quietly under the rug, or putting his current, happy life into jeopardy in trying to make things right again between him and Hassan. Had the beginning be captivating, the middle and towards the end will grip you like a vice and tear your heart apart word after word, sentence after sentence. The journey that Amir endeavored to atone for his past sin to Hassan was told straigh-forward and in absolute details. 

The Washington Post Book World reviewed the book as 

"powerful.. no frills, no nonsense, just hard, spare prose.. an intimate account of family and friendship, betrayal and salvation that requires no atlas or translation to engage and enlighten us. Parts of The Kite Runner are raw and excruciating to read, yet the book in its entirety is lovingly written."

I couldn't agree more. 

Though I'm proud to say that I like to read, that given the choice to be paid to read I would probably become a millionaire very very quickly, I'd like to clarify that I don't remember too much of what I read. More than "not being able to remember", I'd say I "don't want to remember because I tend to live inside the novel and get caught in my vivid imagination". Sounds crazy, I know, but trust me, I have been know to drive myself crazy. 

The Yellow Birds is such a book that would drive me insane. Written by Kevin Powers, a veteran of war himself who enlisted with the army and joined the Iraq war serving as a machine gunner, The Yellow Birds was something like a memorabilia of his experience of war. Set in the northern city of Al Tafar in the eyes of Private John Bartle, the book tells a story of a brotherhood of men in the army, of a broken promise and of betrayal. 

21-years-old Private Bartle together with 18-years-old Private Daniel Murphy enlisted into the army and was placed under the command of Sergeant Sterling - a decorated war veteran. The sergeant, worn and battle-scarred, would punch them in the face one moment and clap them in the back the next, as they together with the rest of their platoon endured basic training. 

Before their deployment, Private Bartle made a promise to the mother of Private Murphy that he would take care of his son. It was revealed that the promise would be broken in the early chapters of the book, and it was Sergeant Sterling who stressed that such promises should never have been made in the first place. 

The book was non-lineally structured - jumping between the years of which Private Bartle and Private Murphy fought in the war to when Private Bartle returned home, without private Murphy with him thus breaking the promise he made, to the brief time they had spent in Germany for their post-battle health evaluation, and finally when Private Bartle was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Division for the crime he and Sergeant Sterling committed regarding the death of Private Murphy. 

The climax of the book, in my opinion is when Private Bartle returned home to his mother. and began reflecting on the things he did back in Iraq. He felt like he did not fit into the society - whom was very grateful for his service but to him he was wrong for returning home unharmed while some of his army-men never had the chance to return at all. As he drank and slept his days away, counting the second when the CID would finally catch him, he reflected on the promise that he made to Private Murphy's mother, how he should've seen how Privatee Murphy began to lose himself to the war, and how he felt responsible for not setting Private Murphy straight. 

This is my first book with army and war theme in background, but more than that the inner-thoughts that made up for chase scene made up of words and phrases, like music that crescendos into fast paced allegro vivace to a melancholy adagio, it carries me to a different world - an slight and if only made-up understanding of the state of a soldier returning from war. I find myself worrying about our own men coming back home from war, and I hope they don't go through what Kevin Powers describe it to be in this book. 

I've always been quite an open minded person. I may not be able to understand or comprehend a lot of stuffs, but I am able to bring myself to respect them. As for others, being naturally empathic I can easily place myself in the shoes of another and try to walk his life even for a few steps. This novel, allows me to explore the coming of age of a boy as he discovers himself through the eyes of another.

No other word I could think of that can truly express my feeling after reading it : just beautiful. Written in a self-reflection mood, where Elio, the main character, goes to question himself and his actions over and over and over again because of his insecurity. It explores the passion of living life and taking in the small things that makes life worth living. What I loved most was how Elio coped with the feeling of abandonment from whom he felt for, his narration of his feelings and hope and desire, his actions and the consequences.

The story tells of a friendship between two young men; Elio, 17 year old, smart, naive, nervous and Oliver, a laid-back and easy-going American. Oliver came to Elio's home as a summer guest as he writes his manuscript. His way of saying Later! in place of goodbye annoys Elio very much as he sees it being void or emotion and left things hanging without closure. As the story progressed however, Elio finds himself remembering Later! more than anything else. 

I won't lie, this book is not for everybody. One would have to keep an open mind, and mine isn't as open. What Elio and Oliver did to a peach, for instant, I almost closed the book and shelf it for good. *nope, I'm not gonna tell you what they did to the poor peach. You'll have to read it yourself to find out* But then again, I thought to myself, why waste a book? In any case, I'm lending this to a friend when he finishes with his current one. 

The best (and worse) part of a book (like a good movie) was the ending. I find myself reading faster and faster and had to stop and reread a few paragraphs so as to not miss the story. Then I find myself filled with sorrow as the ending comes and the author incorporated an open question that is the title : call me by your name. And to think I almost put this book on the shelf halfway through!!