The Kite Runner had been a raging success in India and it was translated into more than 35 languages and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. The Kite Runner may be a good story, but it is important to be aware of the biases that the American native informer Khaled Hosseni brought to his portrayal of Afghanistan in the midst of an ongoing invasion of that region by the Americans. The characters were onedimensional and the country was portrayed as a war-torn, backwards place full of rapists. While I enjoyed the story, I was also uncomfortable with the way Hosseni portrayed Afghanistan and its people. It gave me a glimpse into the lives of people from Afghanistan. Like this The Kite Runner became one of the books that I had no business reading as a 13 year old but which I nevertheless did. One day I picked a book from it, tucked it into my bicycle carrier and brought it home for a week at Rs. In the early 2000’s next to the IGNOU center in Lucknow’s Aliganj there used to be a book rental store. We must be mindful of the power of literature and its ability to shape public gaze and power oriental discourses that also tag Indians as slum dogs. While this book is marked on a million millennial hearts across India and world and while it may be a popular book, it is important to be aware of its potential to perpetuate stereotypesand hatred of Asian cultures.
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