Yatrik: The Traveller

by Arnab Ray

‘So many of the things that change our lives happen when we are physically not there.

We live with the consequence but we do not see, because we cannot see, the action that caused it.’

‘Life, some say, is a dream. But death, definitely is not.’

The way we react to truth. If it is too painful, too sad, too pathetic, it must be fake.

I was seventeen, the age at which you believe that problems…have solutions.’

The interesting people are those that that do things just like that.

The most terrible thing to lose in this life is faith.

missing the right note at the right time.’

In a world of cookie-cutter lives, he lived his life the way he wanted

There is nothing, Deepa, nothing as tragic as a life that is wasted.

Humanity lies not in being perfect, but in recognizing that we are not.’

‘Forgiving others is hard. Trust me, I know it. But forgiving yourself, that’s the toughest of them all.’

‘There is no time here. No before and after. Only action and consequence. Remember?’

Life is like that, it brings you good and it brings you bad, and sometimes the good happens only because of the bad that came before it.

it does seem sometimes that the world is against us and us alone, and we get really hot and bothered. But we forget, and I do it all the time, that life also gives us nice things, great things, like love and time and children and music and ilish cooked in thick mustard. Why do we get such joy, my son? Just the way it was meant to be.’

‘They say that those that are alive grieve for the dead. They do not know how much those that are dead grieve for those that are alive. Not just because we too can’t see them anymore but because we know that they too shall repeat the mistake of the dead, to not say what is in their heart, to wait for the moment that will never come, to let the small things in life, the pettiness, the misunderstandings, the loose change in the wallet, push to the back that which is important. You know, in all this, what my biggest regret is? When Shyamoli said “I love you Baba” with turmeric on her hands, standing at the top of the stairs, I was so busy thinking about the ATM and the bank, so busy thinking about that which would cause my death, that I forgot about life.’

‘But that’s what life is. Hope. We don’t know where we will land up or who we will meet. But we walk nonetheless, we touch people’s lives and they touch ours, we stop, we fall, we get up and we keep walking.