Red Earth and Pouring Rain Quotes

“Ask him why there are hypocrites in the world.'
'Because it is hard to bear the happiness of others.'
'When are we happy?'
'When we desire nothing and realize that possession is only momentary, and so are forever playing.'
'What is regret?'
'To realize that one has spent one's life worrying about the future.'
'What is sorrow?'
'To long for the past.'
'What is the highest pleasure?'
'To hear a good story.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“And so I began to read,' Sorkar said. 'And at first the complete works were like a jungle, the language was quicksand. Metaphors turned beneath my feet and became biting snakes, similes fled from my grasp like frightened deer, taking all meaning with them. All was alien, and amidst the hanging, entangling creepers of this foreign grammar, all sound became a cacophany. I feared for myself, for my health and sanity, but then I thought of my purpose, of where I was and who I was, of pain and I pressed on.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“What could my mother be
to yours? What kin is my father
to yours anyway? And how
did you and I meet ever?

But in love

our hearts have mingled
like red earth and pouring rain.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“Then what in your opinion is a good story?'

'What it's always been, monkey,' Ganesha said. 'One dhansu conflict. Some chaka-chak song and dance. Grief. Love. Love for the lover, love for the mother. Love for the land. Comedy. Terror. One tremendous villain whom we must love also. All the elements properly balanced and mixed together, item after item, like a perfect meal with a dance of tastes. There you have it.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“The future is simple. The future is simple, I can hold it i the palm of my hand; and the present is just a matter of endurance, detachment, and a sense of humor.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“--'There is no completeness; nothing endures, nothing lives; there is only change, unreasoning unreasonable; only birth and death repeating the same story each time, yet different; why?' The voice laughed--'Why you know already; look in your hands.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“The anger on his face slowly vanished... Don't do this. (Listen you miserable bag of wind, you creature who call yourself a god. You have betrayed us. We lose because they are better. We lose because we live in a world of dreams. We lose because we are as children.) My son; says Yama.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“The world is the world... It is you that makes the horror.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“The fire had burnt so low that it was only a vague red glow in the night...out of the dark his voice came...”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“I am already and always beaten, my love.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“The world's only all comprehensive theory of imperial conquest: the constipation hypothesis, or the shit-glory affinity.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“Words are no match for love.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“How can hope live in the same words as the most crushing despair?”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“The mark of man is tragedy and the world must know this.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“Accept Christianity? Go to eternal rest and life? No. I die. But my life lives on.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“Do not be afraid, there is nothing to fear. Do not grieve, because tragedy is an illusion. We are free, and we are happy, and together we are complete.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“At last I know you: You are Dharma, who is a friend of men and women. You are forever with us, even when we do not know you, you walk with us in our streets and finally we return to you. You are Yammam-Dharmam and you are our father.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“Disappointment is stronger than a thousand of you.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“I'll give you nothing," Sanjay said, "Because you give us nothing, you cannot save us you cannot protect us." We ask nothing from you," Kala said, "But remember the stories you have been told, see that we are also your fathers, participants in your birth, and so we love you.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain

“From the first moment; she said; From the first moment, you forgave everything I was and did. And this, this is nothing, because you will be here always... Remember. Death us nothing.”
― Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain