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Must read - A book of laughter and forgetting

Tamina in "A book of Laughter .." is so loney in life. She does not have anyone and she is a foreign country working as as a waitress. Her husband's memory is her only link to her past or even to her life. To rejuvenate that memory she wants her note books from Czechoslovokia. When she is finally convinced that she will not get it, she is dead and a zombie.
    But her stay in Children's island and the events there I did not understand. It must be symbolic. But what is the symbol I do not know. Nor did I like the story of Jan.
   But on the whole it is a very good book

We have a word in kannada and hindi also -  paradesi (para - other des - country) . A person from another country. In kannada, it almost means an orphan. When we leave our country, we lose our identity. We become orphans. Why? We are surrounded by strange people, talking strange language. They do not recognize us. They are hostile to us. And we are so far away from our safe nests. Life is difficult in a foreign place.

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