Guilt

Hello everyone! I am back once again as I have read a good chunk of my book, The Association of Small Bombs, by Karan Mahajan. For this blog post, we have a certain topic. I am supposed to write about the idea of Literary Criticisms. This is the "analysis of a literary text through various lenses that highlight authorial stance, purpose, and perspective". The lens that I will be choosing will be psychological criticism. This would be about the expression of the author's personality and the motives of the characters within the book. I feel like this would be the best lens for this book, as it is filled with lot's of emotions and thoughts for distinct characters. As I was reading, the book started to focus on a character named Mansoor. He was the friend of the Khurana boys who survived the bombing. Moreover, the book basically reveals Mansoor's feelings after a while. What really shows up regarding Mansoor's thoughts is his guilt for surviving. Due to the bomb, his parents are constantly worried about Mansoor, so much that they give him everything he needs. Mansoor stated that the bomb had killed his friends, "but it had improved his life." (Mahajan). I feel that his guilt is an overlying theme throughout the book. For instance, many characters throughout the book have been questioning how they could have let this happen. This gives me a solid reason to say that the author, Karan Mahajan, desperately wanted to reveal the feeling of guilt after a terrible incident happens. The story of the bombing only lasts for about a chapter or two, but the rest of the book has been focused on the emotional and psychological breakdown of the characters who were close to the boys who were killed.

The feeling of guilt is inevitable when a tragedy has occurred, and I think that Karan Mahajan main intention was to bring light into a situation that is sometimes overlooked. When many see a tragedy that has occurred, they are sad for sometime and then move on. However, those affected directly by the tragedy are devastated and have a feeling of guilt that sticks with them. Some people have never had that feeling, so I think Mahajan was trying to convey this topic through his book. Well, that's all I have for today. Thanks for reading! Bye!

Justice

Hello everyone! I am back again for another blog post about the book I am reading, "The Association of Small Bombs", by Karan Mahajan. For today's blog, I wanted to talk about something I was pondering about after I read a couple more chapters in the book. In the book, after the bombing in the New Delhi marketplace, the police were desperate to make arrests of the people who were responsible for the bombing. One of the men they took was named Malik, and he was the friend of Shockie, the man who actually made and set off the bomb. From my perspective, Malik was not a bad man. He happened to be the friend of the man who actually set the bomb off, but he really did not have anything to do with the blast. The police took him without telling him what he had done, but he quickly realized he was being taken to "India as a suspect for the bombing." (Mahajan) As I thought about how poor Malik was going to be punished for something he didn't do, I wondered about how many people had the police done this to prior. The police probably have to hear many cries regarding finding the suspects from victim's families, such as the Khurana's. I feel like that they want to catch the suspects as fast as possible, so they can let the victims families have satisfaction that the killers have been brought to justice. But should the police take people who haven't done anything wrong and punish them for others wrongdoings just to make families happy?

I understand the police are doing this to give satisfaction to the victims families, but I don't think that innocent people should suffer. Sadly, we see many kinds of stories like this around the world, not just in India. Even in America, there have been many cases where the innocent have to spend years in jail. Even though these cases were most likely by accident, it is still such a terrible situation, as people would lose years of their life. Hopefully, as years go by, these cases in India and the rest of the world are going down, and the only people who are jailed are the ones that committed the crime. Well, that's all for today. I will be back soon as I find more stuff to blog about regarding my book. Bye!

Fear and Uncertainty

Hello everybody! I am back again, as I have read a few more chapters of my book, The Association of Small Bombs, by Karan Mahajan. For today's blog, I am supposed to follow a specific prompt. It is basically telling me to relate the fear and uncertainty conveyed in my book to the pandemic in our world right now. It took me a while to think of what I was going to write, but I think it is very fitting of the prompt for today. As you know from the previous blog, the Khurana family lost their two sons in a bomb blast in a New Delhi marketplace. What I didn't tell you yet was that the parents of the two boys were not there when the bomb blast took place. They were actually at their home, and they had sent their boys out alone with their friend. The father of the boys, went to take a walk when a neighbor told him the news about the bomb. Meanwhile, the boys' mother found out from a friend on the phone. As I was reading, I could easily tell the fear that was growing as the boys' father " bolted from the periphery of the park" (Mahajan) The same fear was in the boys' mother as she "strode to the main road and hailed an auto" (Mahajan) I thought this part of the book was very similar to the fear and uncertainty that the world is feeling right now. When both  parents were frantically trying to know the status of their children, there was an uncertainty inside of them mixed with fear, causing an unbearable feeling. The fact that your children were at the scene where a bomb had exploded is heart-wrenching.

When I read this part, I could not help but relate it to the world we are living in right now. This pandemic has literally forced us to not leave our house. In addition, we are in a very uncertain state right now, as we do not know when this will end. It could be from weeks to months. Many are in fear of their loss of education, or their business. Moreover, the people losing their jobs has been increasing everyday as small businesses cannot stay afloat as they are forced to shut down due to this virus. I am also very afraid and uncertain of what the rest of my senior year will entail. If this virus causes us to stay in our houses for months, all of the fun senior activities that we have been waiting for since we started high school could not even occur. Prom, graduation could potentially not happen. Although there are many more serious things to worry about, it is still a little sad that we may not get to experience what everybody older than us has. The fear and uncertainty that the Khurana family had endured could somewhat relate to the fear and uncertainty families across the world are feeling right now. Hopefully this virus diminishes as soon as possible so we can all go back to our regular lives, but I don't know when that will be. However, it is important to always stay positive and be hopeful. Well, that's going to wrap up my blog for today. I will be back in a few days. Bye!

The Beginning

Hello everybody! I have gotten through a few chapters of my book, "The Association of Small Bombs" by Karan Mahajan. Although it was only a few chapters, there was a lot of information that was thrown at me at a rapid pace. I would like to use this blog post to expand on what I had talked about in my discussion post last week. To give some information, the Khurana family had just lost their two sons in a bomb blast in a new Delhi marketplace. As reporters and family members had swarmed the Khurana family to find out why both sons were out alone, Mr Khurana stated that they had gone to pick up his "watch from the watchman" (Mahajan) However, this was a lie. The real reason was that the two sons were going to pick up an old broken down TV. The reason why the Khurana family had lied was because using an old broken TV while living in an upper middle class home was looked down upon. In a time where the family needed to grieve, they were instead forced to come up with an excuse of why their sons had died.

I just found this example to be relatable to much of society, as we always have continuous thoughts  of what others will think. In fact most of the decisions we make are because of other people decisions. Moreover, these decisions could range from small to big. For example, one could buy the new and trendy outfits because others are wearing them. This wouldn't really do much harm. However, when we have big decisions, like which college you could go to, it is viral to stay true to who you are. You shouldn't go to a college because all your friends are going, but instead decide which one is the best fit and has the best opportunities for you. These are just a few examples, but everyday a large part of our world is based upon others. So, I feel like we should sometimes not always follow everybody else because everybody is doing it, but decide for ourselves if it is the right thing to do. Just something to think about. Well that's going to wrap up the blog for today. I'll see you soon as I continue reading my book. Bye!

Introduction!

Hello everybody! My name is Anish. I am a senior in high school, who loves playing basketball and hanging out with friends. I have created this blog, as we have to write about our experiences and reactions to a book we have chosen in our English class. My next few blogs will actually be talking about the content in the book, but this one is just an introduction regarding the novel. It is called The Association of Small Bombs, written by Karan Maharajan. The book is set in New Delhi, and it follows the story of Mansoor Ahmed after a horrible bomb blast in a marketplace. I have not gotten very far, so I can't talk much about the characters and issues in this post. However, from what I have read, I am excited to see where this novel takes me in the next few weeks. That's all for this post. I will be back in a few days. Have a nice day!