After realizing I was going to be stuck in Charolette Douglas Airport for eons, I decided to spend a chunk of money on an airport book store. I dont regret any penny spent on Say You're one of the them by Uwem Akpen. The cover of the book reminded me of "Nowhere in Africa", a German movie that I loved and that was one of the reasons for picking it. The book is a collection of short stories written by a Nigerian author and every story was worth at least 5 minutes of after thought.
All of us were victims of parents' poverty or wealth, experienced riots or war, made and broke friends along the way. All along, as kids, we thought we were responsible for everything that happened. Guilt always stayed. As adults we are able to shake off bigger sins than the small ones we could not as kids. In this tone, street life and human trade is captured well in this book with a hidden positive streak. It made the "shallow me" think a lot about how certain childhood incidents took different turns in my life, and how those turns dont not matter at all.
It was a wonderful read after a long time; and self picked too. I did not feel the 8 and a half hour flight delay!
