Saumya Dave > Quotes

“For years, we assumed ambition was a curse for us. Men could always wear it like a cape, while women were forced to tuck and hold it inside themselves.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“friendship has little to do with how long you’ve known someone and everything to do with faith. The faith that you can expose your rawest thoughts and still be accepted.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“There’s a photo of the goddess Durga at the entrance. She’s sitting on a lion. Despite the weapons in her hands, her expression is serene. Maybe that’s true strength: maintaining a sense of peace but having all the tools to fight whatever might be hurled at you. The rest of the house is still the same: no decorations and walls that are cracked and”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“There's a unique type of rift that forms between you and everyone else when they can't figure you out or put you in a safe box.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“It was the culture's fault. Women were supposed to be accustomed to nursing guilt and blame. They had to keep their husbands sane. Teach children manners. Make the perfect daal.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“She realized then that that was how people deceived themselves, by telling themselves something again and again, until the line between truth and lie eroded.”
― Saumya Dave, What a Happy Family

“Are they content with where their lives went? Or did they just do what was expected of them-or worse, what was safe?”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“By visiting their pasts, they were able to pave different futures together. She used to fantasize about what it would be like to have simple ties to her family tree instead of the twisted branches that are in theirs. But she knows now tat she wouldn't want to be any other way. They still aren't always in perfect harmony with one another, but maybe that isn't the point. Maybe being whole and authentic with the people you love is the real victory.”
― Saumya Dave, What a Happy Family

“Lastly, thank you to every person who took the time to read this story. To anyone who has ever felt different, struggled to find a story that represents them, or been told to put their book down already, I hope this book can provide some solace.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“She pictures taking her past, putting it into a box, and shoving it under the bed. Just like that, and it would be out of sight. Gone.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“She now sees that over time, this is what a marriage becomes: a mixture of pride and gnawing resentment and comfort.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“for granted because they tend to be effortless. But in the end, they require work and forgiveness, a place to move forward from. Sheila has seen Simran through more than any man ever will. They both owed each other more freedom: the freedom to differ in their opinions, the freedom to carry out their own decisions and accept each other’s.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“With you and Ronak getting married, it hit me. I’d just be in the house with Dad. Or with Dad and some combination of his family. And that would be that. The idea of it made me feel trapped. Maybe I’d take the occasional break with some of the other aunties, but even they’ve become busy with grandchildren or traveling or whatever.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“Simran has noticed the different ways her friends and family have tried to mention her lack of a real job or plan. There’s a unique type of rift that forms between you and everyone else when they can’t figure you out, put you in a safe box.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“All of it. Your sister and brothers watching and judging every single thing I do. You refusing to see any fault with them. Because it’s just expected for me put up with all of that with a smile on my face. Even if that means working at a job that drains me. I’ve revolved my entire life around our family, and I will not listen to you say otherwise.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“Ranjit wants Nandini to have set hours, confined ambition, while Simran still has to be as professionally accomplished as possible.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“The minute a girl bleeds, she no longer belongs to herself.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“GOD, IT’S SANTA!” She would later find out that he was an Orthodox Jew.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“Good for you, beta. Do you know how much all of us had to suffer with these men who had no idea what they were doing? It’s always better to test a man out before sealing the deal.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“They both owed each other more freedom: the freedom to differ in their opinions, the freedom to carry out their own decisions and accept each other’s.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“It always had to be handled with caution. A stubborn Indian boy was a leader. A stubborn Indian girl was a nuisance.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“Simran, I don’t understand what’s gotten into you. One second, everything is fine. Normal. And the next, your engagement party is a mess, you’ve dropped out of school, you don’t have a job, you can’t give me a straight answer about Neil, and you just run away?”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“She absorbs a truth that she usually pushes to the far corners of her mind: her parents shifted their entire lives and never looked back, all so that she and her siblings could do things they never had the chance to.”
― Saumya Dave, What a Happy Family

“If he made it to Ronak's baseball game, people lauded his devotion to his children. If she did the same, they accused her of not being focused enough on her career.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“Because when it was happening with the right person, it was surprising and thrilling but also peaceful and stabilizing. It gave her a sense of freedom and belonging. It was all of the right contradictions at once.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“Everything was fine, more than fine, before he stepped into the picture,” Kunal says. “We were on our way to planning our wedding, our lives, and then he comes and shits all over it.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“She wonders how much money and time Indian women have spent in times of pursuit of fairness.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“Everyone in this part of India heard about what Nandini did. There were people who made sure of it. Shame coats her in waves, a shame she’d tried hiding from but couldn’t. It lodged itself into her organs and never went away. It became part of her DNA.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“Indian weddings pretty much guarantee that a stampede of overbearing, opinionated aunties will be poised and ready to trample everyone with their unsolicited advice on everything.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women

“But maybe it’s okay. There is no way to have everything, despite those irritating articles about women “having it all.” There would always be conflicting desires, certain parts of herself that had to be dormant so the others could emerge.”
― Saumya Dave, Well-Behaved Indian Women