Tajrish Quotes

“A beautiful woman is a jewel, a good woman, a treasure. You were my greatest treasure, my beautiful daughter.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“You always find time for things that feed your soul.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“I neglected you because I was mad at myself. I was mad that I couldn’t build the life I envisioned for you when you were born. And I took out that anger on you.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Letting you go was easy. The memory. Not so much.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Her father. The man who is supposed to be her North Star.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“The greatest gift I ever received. And the greatest gift I ever gave to this world was you. I love you my daughter.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“But what good is a crown when your head can't hold it? What good is a throne when it is a wheelchair? And what good is a king with no kingdom?”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Her glowing skin, now sallow. Her fiery soul, now parched. Everything around her seemed to fade into black. Sounds, textures, all of her five senses now numb. She could not sleep.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“She closed her eyes and prayed, prayed that he may still run after her and tell her to come back. He didn't and she kept walking. She began to cry. She felt lost. She felt confused. How could a love so pure be so corrupt? How could heaven turn into hell in a blink of an eye. Never one to pray, she couldn't help but look up at the night sky and ask God, is this it for me? Is it my curse to always have this emptiness in my soul?”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“As for being a Sufi, I think every Iranian by birth is born one. It is in our blood.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Her smile and laugh light up the entire room. There's a gloss, a shine every time her lips curve to the sides.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Only powerful currencies earn the right to have a symbol. Just imagine, one US dollar was worth 64 rials in 1939, right after World War II. And what is it worth today? Around 150,000 rials.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“The sun loses more than a million tons of material from its surface every second. She felt like the sun. Radiating with rage, despair, regret and a million other tons of mixed feelings. Each shedding only for other feelings to reappear.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“She had an internal battle between letting go and holding on to tradition.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Could you imagine what a salmon would say if you asked it about its life? We think our lives are miserable? If only a salmon could speak. This fish spends half of its life swimming upstream, only to reach a body of water where either a bear catches it or it lays eggs only to die right afterward. What are we complaining about then? A salmon does what a salmon does. It doesn’t complain.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“The verve of the youth, their simplicity, their use of short sentences. Straight to the point and free of the Gordian nature that comes with age.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“When a man loves a woman, the child in him comes out. And when a woman loves a man, her maternal instinct comes out.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Heartbreak is a familiar place. Heartbreak is a comfortable place. Heartbreak is where I’m at my best.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Hate is love in hiding. Hate is love disguised. Hate is love pretending like it doesn’t give a shit.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Humor hides pain. The only thing both of them could do was laugh.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“My beautiful daughter, you did what the mystics have been preaching for thousands of years. You dived head-first into love. It doesn’t matter what his intentions were. Yours were pure because you are the embodiment of love.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“A man can have many wives. But he can have only one mother.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Santiago de Chile sit on the ring of fire. Tehran, far away from the ring still suffers the same fate. Earthquake-prone, the city has learned to adapt. The city, stacked with apartments on top of one another, looks like a box of Lego. Tight alleyways, covered with buildings, stretch all the way to the foot of the mountains. The folks in Tehran don’t want to even imagine what chaos will ensue if a major earthquake strikes. The most frightening phenomenon though isn’t the rubble and building blocks crumbling down. None of that scares the people. What concerns them is if the mother of all earthquakes pays a visit, the biggest threat will be rats. Tehran’s underground has a burgeoning “ratopolis.” To every living human being in the city, there are three rats to match every living soul. And if the city collapses, three rats are enough to ravage through human flesh in a matter of days. So the urban myth goes. Even if bodies can be rescued from the rubble there’ll likely be carcasses left behind.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“The only way he could put out his burning eyes was to cry.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“The soil, where family seeds are laid in this city, is rotten. Boys and men still believe in the illusion that their crowning achievements are sleeping with as many women as they can. The more women, the more they are revered as a man. They are left in the dark, completely oblivious to the truth that a part of them is given away or dies with every meaningless sexual exploit. The ignorant remain content until one day, and that day may come when they are on their deathbed, where the veil is removed and the harsh reality slaps them with a sobering truth. And that truth, wrapped with regret, sucks the nectar out of all the names, the faces, the bodies, the women who they thought they conquered. They are left free-falling in a never-ending pit. It could be in a flash, and time and space no longer hold ground. That split second will feel like their entire lifetime. That never-ending pit is their hell.

As for the girls and women, they too are lost souls. They dive into a virtual world of selfies, likes, hearts and fire emojis. They get chased by men, their sense of self-worth builds to a crescendo, filling them with a sense of desire. A sense of being wanted. The dopamine, the deceitful dopamine, gives them a false sense of value. They lose sight of the difficult “real world” questions: What am I worth? What is my purpose? What are my principles? They lose themselves in pixels and scrolls. It starts with a selfie and pouchy lips. Then a collarbone. Then the breasts. Then the ass. This never-ending loop of reward tricks them into baring themselves naked, physically and emotionally, for men behind a screen to admire. They buy into the idea that every man desires them. They entertain them. And they do. Only for a brief period of time. Then time starts plotting. They get old. The same breasts that got likes and drooling emoji faces from men start to sag. Her ass no longer the peach standard emoji. Her womb, no longer able to bear children. She is left empty. Hollow. All of those likes, comments and meaningless nights with men who do not even remember her name leave her shattered. They gave in their youth for cheap thrills unaware that Father Time comes after every living soul. They then too plunge into that never-ending pit with the men they lived a lie in. That also becomes their hell.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Neglect and a man’s empowering presence were muddy waters for her.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“She was beginning to think that perhaps he isn’t the strong man she thought he was. He was just a boy. His father had placed the whole world at his feet and he had daddy issues? If only she would start telling him about her own father. The beatings, the neglect, the lack of support, the lack of love. What is his excuse? Daddy didn’t hug you enough? She was growing impatient and just wanted to get out and cry on her own.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“I don’t get how an angel like you is friends with a demon like her.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“When I was a kid, I had a passion too. It was poetry but I knew becoming a poet wouldn’t put food on the table. The fact that I couldn’t do anything about it made me miserable. It made me despise the world. It made me despise life.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Piercing green eyes, luscious lips, a soothing voice and a mind more infinite than the universe.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish