The Architect's Apprentice

by Elif Shafak

water-carriers with dainty china cups

much of

that.’ Mihrimah gestured to her nursemaid, who produced a dozen circlets from the inside of her long, loose jacket. ‘Here, start with these. Dada and I will come and check how you are getting along.’ That week Jahan spent every afternoon tossing circlets to Chota, all of which the elephant ignored. Circlets would be replaced by hoops, hoops by balls, and, eventually, balls by apples. Only the latter worked:

me. I was different. Because I was different, I was lonely. Can you understand that, Jahan?’

Death had to stop harassing the living for the dead to be properly mourned.

If you think you are better than the others, you’ll be poisoned by hubris.

If you think another’s better, poisoned by envy.

‘Greed puts gratitude to sleep.’

‘Does what we do in life matter so much? Or is it what we don’t do that carries weight?’

where forgetting was easier than remembering, never learned its lesson.

lofty,

the worth of one’s faith depended not on how solid and strong it was, but on how many times one would lose it and still be able to get it back.

the wise and the learned would never step on a dry leaf, lest it bore the soul of someone somewhere.

‘Wisdom does not rain from the sky, it springs from the earth, from hard work,’

In that moment Jahan understood that life was the sum of the choices one did not make; the paths yearned for but not taken.

everything was part of him. So this was it, he

Centre of the universe was neither in the East nor in the West.

It was where one surrender...