A Burning by Megha Majumdar

A burning begin with an incident where more than a hundred people are killed in a fire bombing on a train as part of a terrorist attack by unknown assailants near the slum of Kolkata. There is public outrage and a need for someone to blame. Jivan being naive about the real world repercussions of engaging in virtual chat posts on Facebook that the government is just as culpable as the terrorists. This turns her into a convenient scapegoat as she is imprisoned and faces the serious charge of orchestrating the bombing. .....and then so many painful scenes, but can relate to so many incidents of the present that it cuts to the truth of things with devastating effectiveness. Megha Majumdar's 'A Burning was my 25th of 2021.

Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely--an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor--has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear. 3 lives intersecting around a single, harrowing lie. Jivan’s trial is a catalyst, the thread that runs through their lives, marrying one to the next, and as the connections between their stories pile up and tighten, evasions and lies come tumbling out of the closet and unexcepted links between them are revealed.

This is a cautionary tale for those who claim politics has no place in their lives, and that includes a great many people. Majumdar ties the private terrors of supposedly inconsequential people to the larger forces pulsing through India—and the world.

Few thought provoking dialogues and quotes:

“Mother, do you grieve?

When you walk to the market, I will return to you as footprint on the soil. At night, when you close your eyes, I will appear as impress on the bed.”

Know that I will return to you. I will be a flutter in the leaves above where you sit, cooking roti on the stove. I will be the stray cloud which shields you from the days of sun. I will be the thunder that wakes you before rain

floods the room.

“If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean, I wrote on Facebook, that the government is also a terrorist?”

“Many years ago I would have been asking why is this happening? But now I am knowing that there is no use asking these questions. In life, many things are happening for no reason at all.”