I have started reading 'The Beekeeper of Aleppo' yesterday. I took a day off from work. I was excited to have a day for reading. I wanted to read a book on Kindle although I have loads of paperbacks there unread. I don't know what made me download 'The Beekeeper of Aleppo! It was somewhere back of my mind to lay my hands on this book. And yesterday was the day.
Believe me I traveled with Nuri Ibrahim and Afra from the town of Aleppo in Syria to England. Nuri Ibrahim is a beekeeper in Aleppo who has chosen his profession of beekeeping over his father's business of textile and fabrics. He feels he understands the bees and so do the bees. He is practicing beekeeping with his cousin Mustafa. They are living a normal life with their families and families of bees.
And then the Syrian war happened! The town of Aleppo is demolished in the bombing. Nuri and his wife Afra lose their only son Sami in the bombing, and Afra loses her sight. What Nuri Ibrahim is left with is, a dead son, blind wife and burnt bees. When Nuri and Afra realise there is nothing left for them in Aleppo, they decide to travel to England through Turkey and Greece with the help of smugglers. Ofcourse would these immigrants make it through the legal way?
In the meantime, Mustafa's family is already in England and Mustafa follows them. Now the journey starts for Nuri and Afra. It is their journey of hope and doubt. Some days its bright and the refugee center has a place for them on the path. Some days are as gloomy as they could be. In some refugee centers they are unwelcome. Nuri and Mustafa are in touch with each other through mails. Mustafa is hopeful of Nuri and Afra making it to England. Nuri too. But some days the obstacles give the feeling of being stuck in the refugee centre forever.
It appears that Nuri is too strong to endure this hard journey along with his blind wife Afra. But one who appear to be too strong, are the weakest within. They just presume to be fine and blindfold themselves about the stress disorders. It is found that Nuri's physiological condition of the brain is fine but he is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Poor Afra feels helpless. But some acquaintances on the way support the immigrant couple.
Finally after an arduous journey hope wins over the doubt. Mustafa is more elated than anyone to see his cousin finally making it. Nuri is as equally elated to see Mustafa. Afra finally starts seeing blur images and colors. Afterall the doctor had also diagnosed that her blindness too is a resultant of severe trauma of her sons death.
Nuri and Afra may be hoped a little more than they doubted it, as the quote in the book says,
:SOMETIMES WE CREATE SUCH POWERFUL ILLUSIONS, SO THAT WE DO NOT GET LOST IN THE DARKNESS".
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