What blows up humanity

Kanwalpreet 

The world we live in suffers incessantly from violence. It is the kind of violence that can scar the society forever. A few die while their families struggle to live. Karan Mahajan, the author, tries to draw the readers’ attention to the effect that a bomb blast can have on our life. 

The aim of the anti-social elements is to send a strong message to the government. To make their voice heard, they target the crowded areas, thus killing and maiming as many possible. Unfortunately, the medium they choose to reach out to the ‘authority’ only affects the common man, who is innocent and cannot do anything to appease the terrorists. He and his family become the victims. It is this bitter fact and sufferers’ plight that the author underlines in the book.

The story revolves around two families, one Hindu and the other Muslim. They live in harmony, their children play together till a bomb wrecks their lives. It takes Herculean efforts from the characters to bring some normalcy into their lives. As they try to pick up shreds of their tattered lives, consoling each other, they wonder why life dealt them such a severe blow. There is no Hindu-Muslim enmity between the families involved. In fact, they help each other in the hour of crisis. What pulls at the heartstrings is how the young, fragile minds are flung into a quagmire of distrust and doubts. 

Leading normal lives, Mansoor and Ayub get involved in activities that do no good to their families. The result is, Mansoor invites doom for his family and Ayub pays with his life. Two well-meaning lives come to naught. At the end, one is only left with a feeling of helplessness and despair at the unfortunate turn of events. 

Based in Delhi, the novel reflects the attitude and the lifestyle of the rich who live in their small islands of prosperity, immune to the poverty and deprivation around. The author also focuses on some sane elements in the society who want to make the world a better place, irrespective of who follows which religion or who is of which caste, etc. However, their voices are drowned by the media, which plays a negative role here, in greed of a greater audience and surging TRPs. 

A bomb blast in the crowded Sarojini market, destruction and the resilient spirit of people to move on in life makes this a must read. The story is interesting, especially the way it gradually builds up. The novel tries to answer the often-repeated questions, ‘Why terror?’, and ‘What does it lead to?’ leaving the reader introspecting.