Gaurav Sagar’s Reviews > Moo Pak > Status Update

A quality of vulnerability, of wonder, which is as precious as it is rare. But that's how human beings are, he said, they will do everything to avoid pain, even the bravest of them. Yet we probably only find ourselves when we accept pain and doubt and uncertainity.

One can only do what one is driven to do, he said, the great betrayal is to try and do what you think you should do or what you think people expect of you or what you think will bring success.

We read over what we have written. We tear it up. We start again. We read that over. We tear it up. We start again. And slowly it begins to find its rightful form. Slowly it starts to grow. When we die it is there, unfinished but nevertheless substantial, a substantial work. Everybody marvels. The patience, they say. The commitment. The dedication. And nobody knew. All done quietly, in the dark.

To be frank, he said, I am sometimes greatly relieved by the thought that soon I will be dead and no longer have to go on with this psychological juggling act, day after day, registering, taking in and not taking in, knowing and not knowing.

Writers are helpless before the human figure, he said, but they come into their own in response to cities. They are helpless before the human face.