Deepon Sarkar

   
Dear Marina Budhos,

I am a child who is Bengali, but I was born in the U.S. My parents were born in Bangladesh and came to this country twenty years ago. They told me what lots of Bengali people had to do to adapt to the consequences of the bombings of 9-11. They had to suffer for their survival in the U.S. My parents had to go through the same thing as the characters in Ask Me No Questions, but they went through this struggle in Bangladesh, not in the United States.

The problem for lots of immigrants coming to the U.S. is that they believe when they come here, life will be much easier. They think there are many opportunities here, which is true, but you may not get them so easily. That was a problem for the family in the story. The parents thought they could get good jobs and that their child could get a good education. The hard thing for families is being able to get in the country. You have to be granted a visa.  That was one of the reasons the family had unfortunate luck. But they also had miserable lives because of their religion.

As you have mentioned about the false beliefs that a person who is of a certain religion would be involved in 9-11, is true. Many innocent people have been accused of being part of 9-11. Why do the innocent people have to suffer to live a normal life? We didn't have to go through this struggle because we were from a different religion than the people who were involved with the bombings. But in Bangladesh, my parents had to suffer. During the Civil War in Bangladesh, my parents went through the same struggle as the family in the story. Over there, my parents were a minority by religion. So if anything went wrong in the country, the minorities were the first to be blamed. During the Civil War period, lots of minorities were arrested, tortured, and killed. Because of that, my parents had to live in hiding for a long period of time. When any minority got a chance, they left the country. That is why my parents came here.

God had wanted every human to be treated equal, no matter what. God wanted every person to be treated with respect, even if a person had a different culture or religion than you. But we humans didn't obey these things. That is why things like these are happening not to just the Bengali culture, but many other cultures. This is not everyone's fault, but it is a few people's fault.

All this leads up to being judged from a different way. This all happened because of something that may have only occurred only once in the whole world. Even after all this, I love my Bengali culture. I will always enjoy having this part of my life, although I will always remember lots of bad things have happened to my culture. I am glad this book was written. It will show a perspective to many people how lots of people have to live in the same country as they live in as well. The family was able to live happily, but for some families, that didn't happen.
 
Sincerely,
Deepon Sarkar