I picked this book though reluctantly initially thinking it would preach aggressive and much hyped about fundamentalism, but my opinions changed after reading the first few pages itself.
Quite autobiographical as the story line goes to describe Changez, a Princeton grad who gets a coveted job as an Analyst in a Coveted Company Underwood Samson which deals in Valuations of other companies and is the best in its field. A great job, fat pays package and a great career to follow in the U.S.A. He has all the requisites to lead a dream life in America. He falls in love with an American woman, Erica who wanted to be a writer and is much smitten by her.
Changez is praised at his workplace by the firm’s director Jim and becomes his ‘fair haired boy’ soon after joining due to his hard work, talent and intelligence.
One thing which makes him achieve all this at work was the Underwood Samson’s mantra – “Focus on the Fundamentals”, which he surely does all the time.
His love affaire with Erica grows deeper every day and one day Erica tells him of her past relationship with her childhood friend Chris, who lost his life to lung cancer(without having smoked a cigarette in his life except for his last day), she also tells him how she went into acute depression after his death and how she resumed her supposedly normal life as well. This upsets Changez but her love or lust or maybe bonding for Erica was too strong to be swayed away by such revelations. Also perhaps the thought that Chris was dead was a relief to him. He still went ahead with Erica but it was she who always used to find Chris in almost anything and everything that was too much to handle.
Moreover Chagez coped up with all this along with his work assignments, worked brilliantly hard and smart enough to hold a number one position in his batch of Analysts, but all this was short lived.
It all started when Changez was in Manila, The Philippines on a project to value a music records company when the World Trade Center was bombed, he looked at the pictures on TV and initially thought he was watching a movie. He admits to feeling a sense of pleasure in it for the first time, the pleasure derived from the pain of Americans, the fellows, the colleagues, the friends in this foreign land. But still he tells himself that all is well and it is of no effect to him, he is as much an American as the rest are. But his belief is further shaken when the US began bombing Afghanistan, with the aide of his motherland, Pakistan. His Muslim brotherhood in Afghanistan being brutally killed by the hypocrite US is no longer bearable to him and his mind is on constant thoughts of the world politics revolving around USA, Pakistan, Afghanistan and also India when he learns of an attack on Indian parliament and subsequent Indian suspicion of Pakistani hand in it. The matters in his heart and mind now grew worse as he was on a crucial almost independent project to Chile to value a dying book company, along with his VP, just a two member team. The trust of Jim and Underwood Samson was lying heavily upon him at that time. He could not concentrate on his work and finally after a long escape when things got pretty evident, told Jim of his inability to work. He decided to leave USA.
For any sane person, this act would’ve been stupid and suicidal both, when he is leaving a great future in America, for something he isn’t even sure of. But he had decided to leave the U.S.A, where he came at the age of 18, out of the thousands in his homeland, to pursue his dreams. He was now 22, quite a young age but America’s imperialism and terrorism in the guise of self defense was no more tolerable to him.
Erica’s presence was almost non existent in his life as she avoided him and was taking refuge in an asylum in the country side somewhere. Last when he went to see her, was informed that she was missing and there is a possibility that she has committed suicide. Without believing in it, he came back and left his jacket somewhere on his way back as a token to Erica and his life in America.
Changez comes back to Pakistan is in a constant hangover of his life in USA, at least for few months. Also refuses to get married or listen to marriage proposals brought forward by his mother, who even once suspected whether her son is gay!
He takes up a job of a lecturer in a University in Lahore and starts preaching what he was best at, Fundamentalism. So much so that there were protests, arrests and demonstrations at his behest. Quite known and famous he became in Lahore for his criticism of America’s underlying motives of establishing its supremacy by killing the innocents.
This was his story which he was narrating to an American stranger in the Mall road, Anarkali Bazaar of Lahore, perhaps the Americans, ironically were friends once.