Ammi Quotes

“…in the twentieth century
grief lasts at most a year.’

I have used this quote from the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet as a prelude to a small tale before I go on to the War in iraq. The reason I chose to use this quote is because I wonder how long grief lasts in the twenty-first century. Is it now a month? Two weeks? Or just enough time for the television cameras to record it and then it’s over? I don’t know.”
― Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother

“NUSRAT: I don’t know . . . sometimes I feel ashamed . . . RASHEED: Of being a Muslim? Nusrat nods. RASHEED: Well son, let me tell you something that will cheer you up. We didn’t invent apartheid. We didn’t invent germ warfare. We didn’t start the world wars or the holocaust. We didn’t have gulags. We were not in Vietnam. Nor did we bomb Hiroshima. Does that make you feel better? Nusrat”
― Saeed Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother

“But millions of people across countries dared to ask instead: what if the reality we are shown is not reality? What if our lives are bound with the well-being of millions of others, however different our cultures and histories? This was the slight idea, like the teaspoonful of yogurt in the lake that took and shook his grand theory. a”
― Saeed Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother

“This brings me back to Kemal Mustapha or Atatürk. I have a question to ask him: Did he try too hard to erase history and memory? There is another question too that needs to be asked: What is modernity and which countries or people define it? The reason I have posed this question is because the future of so many countries depends on the answers.”
― Saeed Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother

“Turgay makes another face and shakes his head. ‘You see my antenna?’ He points to a little growth of skin next to his right ear. ‘This my antenna to God. No pray, no Allah. Allah. Just this. God understands. He knows that Turgay is good man even if he drink beer. I drink because I sad inside.’ I try to figure out Turgay’s politics. ‘Is there a problem in the east of Turkey?’ I ask. ‘What east?’ ‘With the Kurdish people?’ ‘What Kurdish people? What Jewish people. What Greek, what Turkish people? What Christian, what Muslim? Everyone same. Government in Ankara must understand. Fuck. Only Allah up there for all.’ Fuck, I thought to myself: ‘In a strange way, Turgay is a Sufi.’ the”
― Saeed Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother

“Don’t try your tricks on me Saddu. I know what you’re up to. Russia, Russia, Russia. Now you tell me, why do they have only one political party?’ ‘Ammi, the Party represents the interests of all the workers and peasants.’ ‘What about the others?’ ‘It’s a workers’ state, there are no others.’ ‘Why can’t there be five workers’ parties?’ I got exasperated. ‘Why five?’ ‘Because I believe all workers do not think the same way. Just like all mothers do not think the same way and all fathers do not think the same way.’ Baba had laughed. There was silence for a while. ‘Are you a communist, Saddu?’ Ammi you had posed the question suddenly and I was taken by surprise. ‘I don’t know Ammi, but I’m reading a lot about them.’ ‘Do you believe in God?’ ‘I don’t know.’ I still remember the look on your face when I said that. It seemed you didn’t know what to say. I decided to ask you a question. ‘Ammi, what would you say if I told you I don’t believe in God?’ You thought for a while. ‘I would say nothing, Saddu.’ ‘Would you be worried about me?’ ‘I would, because I’m your mother.’ And then you laughed but I knew you were worried. B”
― Saeed Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother

“It was so apparent that he loved her very much. Was that it? Maybe it was. It took a lot to accept the decision of a daughter and overrule everyone else. Nusrat”
― Saeed Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother

“The world is changing rapidly?’ said Nusrat. ‘And I am on the side of change. There have been revolutions in France and Russia. Mighty storms have swept away old histories and values. Kings and queens do not matter any more because all men are equal. And I believe that from now on, men will be judged not by who they are, what their families own or where they come from, but by what they can do. Look at the decrees of Kemal Atatürk! In one stroke, he has changed the destiny of his people and his country. Look at what electricity, the telephone and the motor car have done to the world! There are even airplanes in the sky! Every day something is being discovered. That is the world I have gambled on. That is the world I believe will shape the future. We have a choice. Do we want to live in a well from which we can see only a patch of sky, or do we want to live outside the well and see much more? I want to live outside the well. That is the way I want to see the world.’ Nusrat”
― Saeed Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother

“Later, as he lay in bed, Nusrat recalled the phrase used by Jamal Khan: ‘a long-distance travelling partner.’ He liked it. It came from a Persian couplet that measured the love between a man and a woman to distances travelled together. Love was not the beginning of a journey but the consequences of one. It grew and flourished along the way. If there was no journey travelled, there was no love.”
― Saeed Mirza, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother