The Trader of War Stories Quotes

“How long can I mold my identity in the changing world around me? Sometimes, I feel that I am a refugee in exile whose life has been smashed into pieces by many ill facets of ghastly wars.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“People still were emotionally connected to the vale by seeing a value in their local cultural life. They were still seriously political and tried to find their identity by inheriting memories from the experiences of each other. For Kashmiris, the struggle to remember never ended.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“For immigrants, nothing was simple, ever.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“Bullet-ridden bodies were not saved easily. For these fallen soldiers, it wasn’t a sort of accident that happened unexpectedly, it was rather an ordeal of fate that had to come one day. Death made them lose in its surety.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“Someone had told me that the Taliban reserve was limitless and there were never huge causalities in their organisation.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“At one point in time, I had thought that my writing was a product of my circumstances and the uncertainty around me. There was a human vulnerability in combat journalism, wherever I was reporting on the continuous war. But it also made me love the poetic beauty in words.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“Memories had etched. Life had progressed, I had aged and had many personal regrets, but the passion of my job remained in me.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“There was always a moral quandary in a conflict, as bad dogmas existed, about not caring about the injustice of people, of other races and nationalities.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“It seemed that the world was in need of erudite journalists, and I was seeking morality in an amoral world.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“Bombers had come, they blew up everything and I wrote these stories out of necessities, as if I was a trader of war stories. That’s how my life story had been for many years.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“The country felt like a cursed miniature. Forlorn to its core.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“I was after truth, no matter how painful it was to swallow.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“America had been a nation of immigrants. Whether their ancestors had immigrated by choice or by force, that was not the problem, the problem now was the cause of identity against many newcomers that included Muslims who were viewed with suspicion, many as enemies of America. But this was only a partial truth, if you believe me. Many shared an American dream and wanted to contribute to the country with their services.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“When there was sunshine followed by calm winds in the summer, the water of these rivers reflected many shiny ripples, and in the sunset, transformed into quiet, silver coloured watercourses.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“In war, there was either surrender or rebellion.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“The truth was simple but politicians made it complicated.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“Wars were full of valour, coming of courage, fomenting of rage and the anticipation of victory. The soldiers were content with what they had spoiled, but it had made my mind run wild in the battles I had escaped.

How could I ever obliterate such memories? Such things were hard to forget.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“There was a bewilderment of emotions looming around me. It had been a mixture of sadness and happiness.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“Politics had often changed world history and the worst collateral damage of wars were the common people.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“There were very few panaceas in a war-torn society.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“The pain did hurt me like a knife and agonised me. A dejected nostalgia inundated my heart but I had to stick with the realities that were sunk in the quagmires of differences.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“Veiled women were often found begging on the streets. Street hustlers made a living by pickpocketing. There was poverty around where some people could kill each other for bread, there were orphanages that were abundant, where young boys and girls were sold off to their novice masters, for imposed drudgery, that would continue for a major part of their lives.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories

“Such was my agony that I had also began to see faces of myself, and my family in others, near the noise and chatter of people waiting for departures and arrivals at railway stations and airports.”
― Naveed Qazi, The Trader of War Stories