If Today Be Sweet Quotes

“Children and flowers," she said. "How can anyone doubt God exists as long as there's children and flowers?”
― Thrity Umrigar, If Today Be Sweet

“And in all the political debates about immigration that have been raging across this country, amid all the easy, glib rhetoric about America being a nation of immigrants, this loss, this toll, this terrible giving up, often goes unmentioned. The popular media focuses on what is gained: freedom, liberty, material wealth, opportunity, independence, the ability to recreate yourself. But here's what is lost: identity, language, family, lovers, friends, pets, routines, hobbies, the names of streets you grew up on, the rhythms of your old neighborhood, your favorite family foods, the color of the sky at dusk. Sometimes, even your name.”
― Thrity Umrigar, If Today Be Sweet

“She would wait until she wandered around this room filled with people she knew and loved, until she had wished every last one of them a new year filled with hope and dreams and yearning. She would not wish any of them success or prosperity or wealth because the magic was in the dreaming. She knew that now. America had taught her that. How wise, to talk about the pursuit of happiness and not of happiness itself.”
― Thrity Umrigar, If Today Be Sweet

“And yet, despite the daily violence, Tehmina had marveled at the intimate way in which this tiny family huddled together around a small stove for their evening meals, had witnessed Parvati laughing as she lovingly combed her daughter's long hair, had registered the panicked look in Krishna's eyes when Parvati had taken ill with typhoid fever. Reality was complicated; Themina knew that. India had taught her that lesson, over and over again.”
― Thrity Umrigar, If Today Be Sweet

“But listen, actually I love what I'm doing. And making parts for doors - I think it's the most important job a man can have."
She started to laugh but he raised a hand to stop her. "I'm not joking. Think about it. What would civilization be without a door? Think of what a closed door can hide - tears, intimate relations, scandals, murders, mysteries, family secrets, national secrets. Countries spend millions trying to get behind each other's closed doors, no? So do lovers, Conversely, think of what an open door symbolizes - an invitation into someone's home, someone's heart, an entry into a kitchen, a dining room, a bank vault, even" - here his voice dripped a notch - "a bedroom. And what is it that makes it possible to have all those doors opening and shutting?" He paused, looking at her expectantly.
Tehmina felt dizzy under the spell of Ruston's words. "What?" she said stupidly.
"Hinges," he yelled triumphantly. "It's the humble hinge that lets one decide whether to lock the world out or to let it in. See why what I do is so important?”
― Thrity Umrigar, If Today Be Sweet

“The crowd was made up of people of every race and color, every class background, so that men in fine wool coats were exchanging pleasantries with the homeless men who spent their days hanging out at the Public Square, men whose shoes had holes in them. There were ten thousand of them there for the tree-lighting ceremony, but to Tehmina it had seemed as if they were one. One mass, one organism, moving together in time to the music, inhaling the frigid air together, exhaling clouds of frozen breath together. It was wonderful. It was exhilarating. And it made Tehmina feel totally different from what she felt like in Rosemont Heights. In this crowd, it was easy to disappear, to leave behind her own body and become as vacant, as limitless, as expansive as the sky. A part of the whole.”
― Thrity Umrigar, If Today Be Sweet

“You think you know me me, my daughter-in-law, but you don't. For instance, I bet you don't know I'm a space traveler. But I am. And I do. In my mind, I travel through time and space in ways you cannot even dream of - from Ohio to Bombay to Ohio again; from the land of the living to the land of the dead, where my Rustom resides; from my wallpapered bedroom in this house, to my painted bedroom in Bombay, of which I know every inch - where the embroidered handkerchiefs are kept in the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers, what books are on the bedside table; the color of the frame that holds the painted picture of Lord Zoroaster that Rustom got me for my fiftieth birthday.
Yes, I may be older than you, Susan, and my knees my creak when I got up in the morning, but I can run faster and fly higher than you will ever know.”
― Thrity Umrigar, If Today Be Sweet

“Everything was cutting edge. Everyone needed an extreme makeover. Everything was now available 24/7; everybody was wired and Blue-toothed; everyone was an American Idol. It was no longer enough to live your life; now you had to be a Survivor.”
― Thrity Umrigar, If Today Be Sweet