Rooh Quotes

“Some, who have closed their eyes, are wide awake. Some, who look out at the world, are fast asleep. Some who bathe in sacred pools remain dirty. Some are at home in the world but keep their hands clean.”
― Manav Kaul, Rooh । रूह

“Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was. -Jodi Picoult”
― Manav Kaul, Rooh । रूह

“I feel it is important to write personal narratives about Kashmir. There should be plenty of stories of Kashmir from all points of view. Our enemies are often those whom we don't know. It has been thirty years; it is only through these stories that we can embrace each other. It is in the stories that the skill of forgiving and being forgiven is hidden.”
― Manav Kaul, Rooh, A Novel

“I took out my laptop, and my fingers began to dance on the keyboard. I wish I knew how to write! I wish I knew how to live! The gap between the movement of my fingers and what I was feeling so intensely in that moment was so huge that I could see the knots in the formation of each sentence being written. Then, in the process of untying the knots, I would get so entangled that I would lose my grip on what exactly I was feeling. There was a tiff going on between my living and my being. I would write and delete, again write and again delete. Each time I felt I was being untruthful. Every time the word 'Kashmir' would appear in front of my eyes, I wondered why this word seemed to be so distant. I left my Kashmir. I tried to write Shabeer's Kashmir or tried to narrate from Mushtaq's point of view. Why had my Kashmir faded so much?”
― Manav Kaul, Rooh, A Novel

“Arré, let's go further, janaab. There is much to be seen in Pahalgam."
Mushtaq took a long time to understand that I hadn't actually wanted to come to Pahalgam. When we moved forward after having girda and kahwa, I saw a dense deodar forest beside the road. I asked him to park on the side, and we entered the forest.
"There are many such places in Kashmir,' Mushtaq said as he sat on the grassy ground.
"These places are so special.' I could lay bare my Kashmir in front of Mushtaq. There was something about him that put one at ease. I kept touching and looking at the deodar trees. How nice it was to roam with this form of life, hundreds of years old; what all they might have witnessed, and, in spite all that, they stood quietly, emanating so much peace and calm. I lay down under a tree. Mushtaq walked down to the river, washed his hands and sat down at a distance to perform the namaz. There could not be a more pious place than this to pray.”
― Manav Kaul, Rooh, A Novel