Every Life Is Like a Snowflake...

Verdict of Snow by Orhan Pamuk: slow-paced with an exquisite ending. You need loads of patience to attain the well-crafted conclusion... Below are extracts from the book, enjoy:

Learnt about Snow Formation (Subhan-Allah; God is Great!):
"One of his discoveries was that once a six-pronged snowflake crystallises it takes between eight and ten minutes for it to fall through the sky, lose its original shape and vanish. When, with further enquiry, he discovered that the form of each snowflake is determined also by the temperature, the direction and strength of the wind, the altitude of the cloud, and any number of other mysterious forces..."

Learnt about Human Nature (talk about the use of metaphor - brilliant!):
"... Ka decided that snowflakes have much in common with people... Snowflake mapped out the spiritual course of every person who had ever lived... Ka was convinced that every life is like a snowflake: individual existences might look identical from afar, but to understand one’s own eternally mysterious uniqueness one had to plot the mysteries of one’s own snowflake.”

Learnt about Turkish Letters (any cute Turks out there, hello?):
"Most Turkish letters are pronounced as in English. The exceptions are as follows:
c - sounds like the 'j' in jelly
ς - sounds like the 'ch' in chill
ğ - silent letter that lengthens the preceding vowel
1 - sounds like the 'u' in cranium
ö - sounds like the ‘ew’ in jewel
ş - sounds like the ‘sh’ in sheep
ű - sounds like the first ‘u’ in usual"

"This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labour in which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism." - Gloria Steinem

Afterthought from me: Is there a real need for humanism when in the eyes of God, the creator of mankind, we are all equal? What separates some from the rest is their sincere faith that this short life on earth has a strong purpose - the belief in oneness of God, whom we will all return to in the end...