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#1

“My father looked on in disbelief, overwhelmed that his son had been taught to eat glass and relish it.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: humor, illusion, illusionists

2 likes

#2

“The mere mention of the Farakka Express, which jerks its way eastward each day from Delhi to Calcutta, is enough to throw even a seasoned traveller into fits of apoplexy. At a desert encampment on Namibia's Skeleton Coast, a hard-bitten adventurer had downed a peg of local fire-water then told me the tale. Farakka was a ghost train, he said, haunted by ghouls, Thuggees, and thieves. Only a passenger with a death wish would go anywhere near it.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: calcutta, delhi, farakka-express, ghosts, india, travel

3 likes

#3

“Enlightenment, and the death which comes before it, is the primary business of Varanasi.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: death, enlightenment, india, travel, varanasi

6 likes

#4

“Calcutta's the only city I know where you are actively encouraged to stop strangers at random for a quick chat.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: calcutta, india, travel

9 likes

#5

“There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: calcutta, endurance, india, pain

4 likes

#6

“A cross between a foreign legion boot-camp and a secret-society initiation ritual, the ordeals were grounded in pain. One thing was obvious: the agenda, which was dedicated to grave discomfort, had been drawn up by a passionate sadist.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: endurance, pain, sadism, secret-society

2 likes

#7

“Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: priorities, respect, survival

20 likes

#8

“Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: calcutta, india, travel

6 likes

#9

“A journey of observation must leave as much as possible to chance. Random movement is the best plan for maximum observation”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: chance, journey, observation, travel

10 likes

#10

“The pursuit of illusion is not about studying for prizes, or for study's sake. There's no right or wrong, no pass or fail.”
― Tahir Shah, Sorcerer's Apprentice

tags: illusion, study-abroad

3 likes

#11

“Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: book, reading

6 likes

#12

“Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.

With such a book the impact isn't necessarily obvious at first...but the more you read it and re-read it, and live with it, and travel with it, the more it speaks to you, and the more you realize that you cannot live without that book. It's then that the wisdom hidden inside, the seed, is passed on.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: book, reading, travel, wisdom

2 likes

#13

“The idea of my heart dancing with delight was far too good to pass up.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: travel

8 likes

#14

“For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: damascus, history, journey, travel

4 likes

#15

“A little imagination goes a long way in Fes.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: fes, morocco, travel

6 likes

#16

“Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: moving, tourist, travel

30 likes

#17

“The Occident has never found it easy to grasp the strange netherworld of spirits that followers of Islam universally believe exist in a realm overlaid our own.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: islam, spirits

2 likes

#18

“Everyone knows that even the best exorcism has to be renewed once in a while.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: exorcism

3 likes

#19

“One senses that, in these conditions, no amount of wet-wiping could bring true hygiene.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: hygiene, travel

2 likes

#20

“During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: escape, jail, prison

12 likes

#21

“In Morocco, before you even get to the matter of the sale, you have to coax the owner to sell.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: morocco

3 likes

#22

“Buy a house in a foreign country and, it seems, that anything which can go wrong usually does.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: foreign-countries, moving

7 likes

#23

“Visit Cape Town and history is never far from your grasp. It lingers in the air, a scent on the breezy, an explanation of circumstance that shaped the Rainbow People. Stroll around the old downtown and it's impossible not to be affected by the trials and tribulations of the struggle. But, in many ways, it is the sense of triumph in the face of such adversity that makes the experience all the more poignant.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: cape-town, endurance, south-africa, struggle, triumph

9 likes

#24

“Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: endurance, explorers, hardship

3 likes

#25

“Lured by the wilderness, and by the chance of spotting rare desert elephants, a few intrepid tourists make their way to the Skeleton Coast each year. It's just about as remote as any tourist destination on earth, but one that pays fabulous dividends.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: desert, travel, wilderness

6 likes

#26

“For me, nature is something you watch on the Discovery Channel, or on the evening news -- as you learn how much more of it's been savaged to make way for the Blackberry realm that is my home”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: conservation, nature

3 likes

#27

“It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: africa, ancestry, middle-east

7 likes

#28

“At the last moment, the fish and I exchange a troubled glance. The murrel seems to be demanding an explanation. Alas, I am in no position to start justifying the unusual treatment. What comes next is a new experience for both the fish and me.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: fish, india

6 likes

#29

“As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end.”
― Tahir Shah, Travels With Myself

tags: fear, travel, writing

4 likes

#30

“Real terror is a crippling experience. You sweat so much that your skin goes all wrinkly like when you've been in the bath all afternoon. And then the scent of your sweat changes. It smells like cat pee, no doubt from the adrenalin. However hard you wash, it won't come off. It smothers you, as your muscles become frozen with acid and your mind paralysed by despair.”
― Tahir Shah, In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams

tags: adrenalin, despair, fear, sweat, terror

4 likes

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