Quotes from Vikram Chandra

Men, Shalini said sometimes, there is madness in men. He always kept quiet, but he always wanted to say, the madness is in their bones, not in their hearts, not in their heads.

Maybe this was why people had kids, so that when you could no longer travel with your parents, your children made all train trips new again.

The incredible length of Bombay sped by, those endless sprawls of buildings, huts and shacks, children squatting and shitting by the tracks, refuse, the crowded grey roads twisting and winding between, all of it blurred but fearsome in its strength, in its very life that grew it unstoppably.

Don't worry. I won't forgive you –' Bashir Ali blanched '– because there's nothing to forgive. We are both trapped, you on that side of the door and me on this. Do what they tell you to do, get it over with and go home to your children. Nothing will happen to you. Not now and not later. I give you my word.' There was a pause. 'The word of Ganesh Gaitonde.' By

the sodden, sweaty weariness of his own body, the whisky misery of it.

I want a certain density that encourages savoring. I want to slide warp over woof, I want to make knots. I want entanglement, unexpected connections, reverberations, the weight of pouring rain on red earth. Mud is where life begins.

There was the same roughened sweetness about the voice, that old-world heartbreak that floated off worn vinyl albums, full of pain but strong as the edge of a curving Avadhi dagger.

From the first moment; she said; From the first moment, you forgave everything I was and did. And this, this is nothing, because you will be here always... Remember. Death us nothing.

I'll give you nothing," Sanjay said, "Because you give us nothing, you cannot save us you cannot protect us." We ask nothing from you," Kala said, "But remember the stories you have been told, see that we are also your fathers, participants in your birth, and so we love you.

Disappointment is stronger than a thousand of you.

The truth is that human beings like to be ruled. They will talk and talk about freedom, but they are afraid of it. Overpowered by me, they were safe, and happy.

At last I know you: You are Dharma, who is a friend of men and women. You are forever with us, even when we do not know you, you walk with us in our streets and finally we return to you. You are Yammam-Dharmam and you are our father.

Do not be afraid, there is nothing to fear. Do not grieve, because tragedy is an illusion. We are free, and we are happy, and together we are complete.

Accept Christianity? Go to eternal rest and life? No. I die. But my life lives on.