The Foe Within Quotes

“… Could I have missed them more? What a fool I had been while they walked and talked and lived …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… I had promised myself to go and ask for his forgiveness one day, but now that he is no more, I have lost that chance of amendment, too.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Most of us cling to our ‘peanuts’ long enough to let the ‘monkey-hunter’ catch us. Consequently, we don’t let our full potential to bloom….”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Why do you think monkeys don’t let the peanuts go off their fists … to freedom? … Monkey’s self-image of perching high in the crown, munching on fisted peanuts, has already enchained him before the hunter does. …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… You must wriggle out from your ‘curse of competence’ the moment you know you can never better the best of your competitors there. …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… You can never kill that ‘Helena’ because ‘she’ is ‘you’. She is as much a part of ‘you’ as your eyes, your ears, your arms, and your legs are. …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… This subliminal ‘Helena’ – an autopilot hidden deep within you – jostles you, despite you, in picturing things you never know why you do. …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… If I were ever to get power to retrieve photographs that I have burnt … I would crave to retrieve that ‘coach Mom’s’ photograph, the most. Feeling of guilty conscience of the nonsensical burning of that photograph, Mom being no more, would die when I die…”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Why didn’t you ever tell me, Dad? I never loved you less than I did when you were so confident about the success of my tennis career; never.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… A jumble of green leaves showed innumerable egg-shaped, and egg-sized, flower buds huddling in their recesses, a few blossomed into flowers large enough to spill out a human palm. …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… I could never get those antique furniture pieces back; ever. The loss was bearable, had Raghu not got an impression that I had lied to him …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… She gritted her teeth, caught hold of woman’s right upper arm and, despite her wriggle, dragged her, nearly lifting her off the ground, out of the gallery; the woman screaming obscenities at her.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… The world notices when the flywheel is turning a thousand rotations a minute. That skews the world’s perception … The world begins looking for the formula for great results. It never finds one, because there is none.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… No single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky breaks, and no wrenching revolution, begets spectacular results. …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… For the calf, no moment was a miracle moment, and the whole bunch consisted of interlocking pieces of drudgery that built one upon another, and another, and yet another.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“Her voice distorted in a low howl. … Naresh pulled her close to his chest. She cried inconsolably on Naresh’s shoulder … her skeletal structure rattling with boisterous hiccups which seemed to rush on her with no end in sight.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… The ferocious feeling of guilt within me, possesses me, time and again, shoving me to let them know. Nevertheless, how can I? Facts so explosive … every time I decide to tell, my courage fails me.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Guddi and I would have been floating down the river dead by now hadn’t I come across the sketches on that platform … Oh God, how I miss not being aboard AI 666 on that day!”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Pinky’s head would move, to and fro, with the wrist of Tingy without slackening the grip. A bulldog clip couldn’t have been fiercer…”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… If I had the power to raise at least one from the dead, I would raise Iqbal; he was so indispensable to me …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Oh God, but what do I do about Dad’s ‘Helena ever, never’ … I feel like it’s eating me alive …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… As they trod on the golden carpet of petals, the walk reminded Sona of Raghu’s gush. She wondered what other magnificent boulevards of Indian laburnum Raghu would have described had his spurt continued.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Sprawls overhead would shower golden ‘snowflakes’ on vehicles parked below, on people waiting for buses, on gangs of laborers hurrying to their day’s toil, and on bike riders rushing underneath them …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Poor little darling … Only if I had known some way to tell you Abdul’s opinion of you, without hurting you, I would have told you. It may break your heart but stop you from breaking up, that is.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Isn’t my literary career like that bird mingling in the nothingness, braying its heartfelt rhythm all along, all alone?”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… I loved you, didn’t I, Dad? I could’ve come on one of these days to apologize to you for all my acts that had hurt you, only if you were there.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Did you, too … think me a dog turd as Dad did? If not, why didn’t you fight, gouge his eyes out when he regretted you conceiving me? You know Mom; I felt like I was an illegitimate child dumped in a waste bin by her incestuous mother.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Ganesh thought of Raman’s fragile frame and didn’t do what he could have done to him, and Dad … well … had I been Ganesh and he Raman, he would have shredded and thrown me to street dogs … I was his daughter and Raman, Ganesh’s none.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Had Mom not given in to Dad’s tantrum … just to keep peace in home, I wouldn’t have come to the pass I am in. Even then, Mom couldn’t keep peace, and the brute threw me out!”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… When I needed their support the most, one first threw me out … and, then, they all ditched me and departed as if in vengeance, yoking me up to nursing a child …”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within