Media



Citations

Sujyothi (2008) Golden Age, A - Tahmima Anam Review. Retreived from  http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Golden-Age-A-Tahmima-Anam-osusnlnqpm

National Flower of Bangladesh. Retrieved from http://www.samahmud.co.cc/national_flower.html

Wiki: Floral Emblem. http://wapedia.mobi/en/Floral_emblem



News Report : Act 5, Scene 3

   
Act 5 scene 3

   On Friday in the churchyard in Verona a very tragic event occurs. In the churchyard with the dead bodies of the Capulet household arrives Paris and later on, Romeo. Paris was said to be worried about why Romeo was there and decided to take revenge by killing Romeo. 

   Paris was the witness of them fighting and was the one that called for the watch. While they continued fighting Balthasar had witnessed Paris die by the hands of Romeo. But he also saw Romeo drink a poison.

   Later on Friar Lawrence, a friend to both Romeo and Juliet, had arrived and heard the news from Balthasar. He went to the tomb to find them dead but suddenly, Juliet rises to find a dead Romeo, so she eventually ended up killing herself.

   The Watch then enters along with the Page, and later on Balthasar, the Prince, Capulets, and Montagues.

   They hear the explanation from Friar Laurence and the Capulet and Montague eventually make up. Montague had even said, “For I will raise Juliet statue in pure gold.” With this they learned to stop fighting and forgive each other.

  The Prince finally decides for everyone to leave and discuss the matter later on.

Contemporary Relevance

  My teen issue for my novel is war. War is when two or more government groups that are states or soon to be states fight each other with weapons. This does not include fights between single people, or gangs. It leads to the death of many people of all ages, and even destroys home to many living things. One of the only ways for it to stop is for the governments to negotiate to come up with deal that the governments would be happy with. But more war will continue coming and it wont stop easily.

Brian Orend. "War." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005
Donal Wittman. "How a War Ends." SAGE Publications, 2011

  Three ways it relates to the book is that the main problem is about war between Pakistan and Bangladesh, and how Bangladesh is being overpowered since Pakistan has more armies and stronger weapons. There are also people dying and suffering since they aren’t able to be free from the soldiers and have to listen to them no matter what. The book also focuses on how a family would act when they’re at war and how they decide to help their country.

A website for young people is http://www.warchild.org/. This website helps young people from all around the world.
www.takementalhealthtoheart.com is a website that can help children and teens on how to act when it comes to war and gives a lot of useful advices.

Directions

Go to homepage then go to Mental Wellness Info & Tips section. After that go to Children, Families, & Friends section and press Helping Children & Teens Cope with War.

Question and Critical Thinking

1. If you were born in West Pakistan and moved to East Pakistan, and then suddenly they were having a war, who would you help out and why?

2. How would you act if your children were being taken away from you and had no choice but to allow it?

3. Why might a mother allow her son to join a resistance group, people that go against a country that is taking over their country?

4. What would you do if your country lost in a war and you were being controlled by another country?

5. Why would there be a war between two countries that are related or almost the same? For example, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

6. Why do some countries side with other countries that are in war when they can help stop it in another way?

7. Why might countries want to take over other countries when they can improve on their own country?

8. How would you explain why someone would try to steal a married women/man?

9. If you had fallen in love with someone younger and had an adult-teenager that was supposed to be arrested, but the one you love pretended to be your child so that your child wouldn’t get arrested, would you allow your loved one to pretend being your child?

Character Analysis and Writing in role

                                                        Rehana Haque 

 I lived with my family in Calcutta when I was younger, and enjoyed watching movies. Then when I was older I married to Iqbal and now live in Dhaka with my husband, my son, Sohail, and my daughter, Maya. One day, I experienced one of the most horrible things in my life, I lost my husband. He suddenly had a heart attack and died, but I visit his grave almost everyday. After that I continued going through a lot of sadness. Iqbals brother, Faiz, decided to take our children since he knew that I wouldn’t be able to take care of them. And during the day in the court, the judge asked me if I was able to take care of them, and I said nothing, I hesitated to answer because I knew that I probably couldn’t take care of them. But I valued my children a lot and I knew that I still wanted my children.

  Finally, after a year, I got my children back. But the reason I was able to was horrible, I stole from a blind man. This showed how much I want my children to be with me all the time.

   “And I told him everything, about the day I became a thief…”

  

Then, suddenly things just went by, my children became older, but then, West Pakistan decided to take over East Pakistan, Bangladesh. Instantly, I knew that our lives were going to be different and horrible again. But what surprised me more was when Sohail, my son told me that he wanted to join the resistance, a group of people that decided to go against W. Pakistan, along with his friends and be a guerilla, what they call the people in the resistance. I refused to let him go, but I allowed him anyways.

    

    “I cannot stop him. Perhaps if you were here, you would have done it. But I cannot.”

 This lead to many more events, such as allowing Sohails group to stay for hide out, helping the leader of the resistance, the Major, when he was badly hurt, and ending up falling in love with him.  Maya also decided to help by writing the events on the newspaper in Calcutta which also helped me because I had to hide from the W. Pakistan soldiers since I helped the resistance group. I mostly allowed them to do what they wanted because I wanted them to be happy even though I also want them to be safe.

  After the war was almost over, I returned with Maya and Sohail to our home, Shona in Dhaka. One day I heard a thunder like noise outside and knew that Sohail, and his group did it, they bombed an area successfully. Even though I was so happy and even met up with the Major after such a long time, the soldiers came to our home, wanting to arrest Sohail, but in the end the Major suddenly out of nowhere sacrificed himself, pretending to be Sohail, just for me.

  Now, after such a long time, this war will end, and I will continue protecting my children.

  

  “God bless you.”

                                                         Sohail Haque

  I grew up happily in East Pakistan with my family. But suddenly my father had a heart attack and me and my younger sister, Maya, had to move with our uncle and aunt to West Pakistan in Lahore. As I grew up I got interested in politics and talking about what I thought.

  “Sohail was insisting it didn’t matter whether they were a part of Pakistan or not; injustice towards the poor would continue unless they changed the way the economy was organized.”

 Eventually, after a year, we got back with our mom and things were normal again. Then again, a horrible thing happened, during a baseball game outside everyone started running out and finally we heard that the elections were cancelled and so was our independence. My friend said something about how a Bengali can’t run Pakistan. That’s basically how this war started, so my friends and I decided to help with the resistance and be Guerillas. I wanted to protect our freedom no matter what, even if it meant risking my own life. I even saw many others that also wanted to help and be Guerillas.

   “Our mission is to disrupt the normal functioning of the city.”  

After a while I decided to ask my mom to let us use Shona, the other house in the garden, for hide out. We hid weapons there and started planning what to do. Unfortunately during an operation where I had to start the bomb, I just froze. I made the Major, the leader, start it and he ended up getting badly injured. I regretted that day but I just couldn’t move. Me and my friends even threatened a student-doctor to help the Major. But my mom also ended up taking care of him.      

  Other members of the resistance group died but we had to continue fighting for our independence. I wasn’t just trying to protect my country but the one I loved, Silvi, my childhood friend. I asked my mom to ask my uncle to get Silvis husband out of Pakistan’s jail so that she’d start loving me. But I was stupid because she wasn’t the Silvi I knew anymore.

 “Ammi, I’m sorry I had to see her.”

 But at least now the war is almost over, and India is even thinking of helping us.

Most Memorable Moment Journey

  The most memorable moment from my novel was when the West Pakistan soldiers asked for Sohail, Rehanas son, because he was getting arrested for interferring with W. Pakistans duty. They didnt asked politely after a while. Then Major, the one in charge of helping defeat the Pakistan army, suddenly came out of no where pretending to be Sohail. At first Rehana told the soldiers that he was lying but eventually she agreed that he was her son. He did that so that Rehanas son wouldn’t get arrested and so that she would be happy.
 I felt that the Major was really kind, thoughtful, and really did love Rehana. I think that the fact that he would even give up his life for the happiness of Rehana was really loving and really made me sad, angry, and happy at the same time. The reason for these emotions of mine is because I couldn’t believe that Rehana allowed the major to do something really huge, even though I understand why. It’s because he was taken care of by Rehana when he almost dead, with no one to take care of him, and he also learned to love her.
 But I got very frustrated with Rehana because I knew that she also loved him back but I guess she loves her children more. And I was also happy because of the type of person the Major is. If I had a person in my life that would basically risk their life for me, I would be one of the happiest person ever, and I would never risk that person for anything, but I would treasure that person. Lastly, I also felt sad for both Rehana and the Major.
 At first I was only thinking about how the Major felt and how sad I was for him. But then I realized that Rehana was also a character that you should feel really sad for. She lost her husband, and now she has to lose the person that she finally found to love and be loved by. Not only did she lose her romantic loved ones but she also once lost her children that she loved so much. But luckily she was able to get them back and be happy with them. This helped me learn to love others more and never judge or mistreat a friend or family because you don’t know if that person might one day disappear from you.

 Now even though such a horrible event happened, I think that it gave the novel a very touching moment that you’ll never forget and look back to because it helps you realize that you should never sacrifice the people you love so much.

Anthology

                    Poems
1. There once was a girl named Sunny
Who was very smart and funny
She had lots of friends
And many great trends
but sadly her nose was runny!
2. There once was a man from Islam
who went to a store named Ban
His underwear fell
Then he fell on a bell
So he went back home to Islam
3.Denny was very friendly
And he loved to eat jelly
His footwork was awful
Which gave him some trouble
so he earned the name troublesome Denny
4. A hideous thing
Starts its way to lurk around
Finding its own prey
5. Flowers start blooming
Needing some nice warm water
Growing beautiful
6. I was out in space
And had some craves
But luckily im with you
I worked all day
And wasted away
But luckily im with you
7. Outside gives coldness
But as I enter to bathe
It gives me some warmth.
Sound devices and comparison/reference
Alliteration - flamed flower flopped
Euphony - The floer went blooming on the field
Onomatopoeia - The quiet room was disturbed when someones phone went "beep beep"
Personifictation - The tree branch was stayed still
Mood - The air was filled with lonelyness and sadness.
Pathetic Fallacy - When the man is filled with rage and the sky turned grey with flashing lightning.