Something of that magnitude, bears as close an examination as one is capable of, to truly impact said life. I embark on this project with a healthy dose of trepidation, and with a silent prayer that "Shantaram" comes out of this examination retaining that lofty position it holds in my head.
You break down a Chemistry text book because on first reading, it appears to be magic. On continual re-reading, the words take on an almost pedestrian attitude. Why someone would want to do that to literature, i never understood; Until Now.
I am hoping to document every interesting (at-second-look) sentence/para/quote from the book, and hopefully whittle it down to a choice few that have a special relevance to me.
Fate needs accomplices, and the stones in destiny's walls are mortared with small and heedless complicities such as these
- On being christened "Lin" by Prabhaker
The past reflects eternally between two mirrors - the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of things we didn't do or say.
- On NOT telling Karla something
And beyond these reflections as always, in fixed orbits around the sphere of my solitude, were thoughts of my family and my friends. Endless, unreachable. Every night was twisted around the unquenchable longing of what my freedom had cost me, and all that was lost
- His first (sleepless) night in Mumbai (34)
The world and I are not on speaking terms. The world keeps trying to win me back, but it doesn't work. I guess i'm just not the forgiving type
- Something Karla once said (37)
My heart moved through deep and silent waters.. . . . I was tough, which is probably the saddest thing you can say about a man
- Looking for something he shared with Karla (37)
Love is the opposite of power. Thats why fear it so much
- Karla on why love isn't the "best thing in the world"(39)
And writing was one of the things that saved me, the discipline of putting my life into words, every day, helped me to cope with shame, and its first cousin, despair
"Its my favourite place in the world", Karla once said, "to be treated like dirt"
- Something Karla once said about Leo's - MY favourite place in the world (40)
And writing was one of the things that saved me, the discipline of putting my life into words, every day, helped me to cope with shame, and its first cousin, despair
- On surviving (43)
"There is a difference between the dishonest bride and the honest bribe", Didier Levy once said to me, " The dishonest bribe is the same in every country. The honest bribe is India's alone"
- On India's ethics (47)
Kai Garam mad'chud
We have a saying in Marseilles; A man in no hurry gets nowhere fast
- Didier imparting wisdom (50)
Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, not by what we permit
- more pearls from Didier (52)
The truth is a bully we all pretend to like
The truth is a bully we all pretend to like
- Karla once said (60)
The story of the scorpion and the frog. It is, after all, the nature of the scorpion to sting.
The story of the scorpion and the frog. It is, after all, the nature of the scorpion to sting.
- Karla (62 - not a quote)
Your heart starts to feel like an overcrowded lifeboat. You throw out your pride to keep it afloat and your self-respect and independence. After a while you start throwing people out. Your friends, everyone you know. The lifeboat is still sinking, and its going to take you down with it.- Karla's take on Love (63)
Kai Garam mad'chud
- Comment inspired by Lin's Marathi
This is not like any other place. This is India. Everyone who comes here falls in love - most of us fall in love many times over. And the Indians, they love most of all. Your little friend may be beginning to love you......
- Didier clarifying Prabhaker's feelings for Lin (85)
Optimism is the first cousin of love, and its exactly like love in three ways; its pushy, it has no real sense of humor and it turns up where you least expect it.
- On Ulla's inexplicable lack of cynicism (90)
The real trick in life is to want nothing, and succeed in getting it
- Karla's friend on not "wanting everything" (96)
I think wisdom is overrated. Wisdom is just cleverness with all the guts kicked out of it
- Karla would rather be clever than wise (99)
Some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths about yourself are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. And some things are just so sad that only your sould can do the crying for you
- On finally realizing the magnitude of his loss (124)
When the wish and the fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare
- The situation that brings Lin to the slum reminds him of one of Didier's ramblings (150)
The baba's were also comprehensively, celestially and magnificently stoned
- On the standing baba's (152)
I'd only give you advice if i didnt care about what happens to you- Karla's parting words before Lin moved into the slum (157)
If fate doesn't make you laugh, you just don't get the jokeWaiting for nothing, that is what kills the heart of a man, isn't it
- Prabhakar explaining the patience of Lin's newly acquired patients(166)- Karla once said (167)
. . . . . .somewhere in the landscape of the slum dwellers reassurances, somehow through the fact of our survival, their world enfolded my life within its dreams, as gently and completely as a swollen tide closes over a stone that stands upon its shores
- The eventful beginning to his life in the zhopadpatti (168)
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