Mahasweta Devi > Quotes

“সময় শোকের চেয়ে বলশালী। শোক তীরভূমি, সময় জাহ্নবী। সময় শোকের ওপর পলি ফেলে আর পলি ফেলে। তারপর একদিন প্রকৃতির অমোঘনিয়ম অনুযায়ী, সময়ের পলিতে চাপা পড়া শোকের ওপর ছোট ছোট অঙ্কুরের আঙুল বেরোয়।
অঙ্কুর। আশার-দুঃখের-চিন্তার-বিদ্বেষের।
আঙুলগুলো ওপরে ওঠে, আকাশ খামচায়।
সময় সব পারে।”
― Mahasweta Devi, Mother of 1084

“Time was the arch fugitive, always on the run.”
― Mahasweta Devi, Mother of 1084

“Life is not mathematics and the
human being is not made for the sake of politics. I want a change in the
present social system and do not believe in mere party politics.”
― Mahasweta Devi, Draupadi

“সময় ফিরে পাওয়া যায় না। সময় চলে যায় নির্মম, ঘাতক, নিয়তিসমান সময়। সময় জাহ্নবী, শোক বেলাভূমি। সময়ের স্রোতে শোকের ওপর পলিমাটি চাপা পড়ে। তারপর একদিন সেই পলিমাটি ফুঁড়ে নতুন নতুন অঙ্কুরের আঙুল বেরোয়। আঙুলগুলো আকাশপানে আবার উঠতে চায়। আশার, বেদনার, সুখের, আনন্দের অঙ্কুরের আঙুল।”
― Mahasweta Devi, Mother of 1084

“आप लोग, आप लोगों की पीढ़ी ही ऐसी है। आप लोग सबकुछ चाहते हैं—प्यार, विश्वास, आज्ञा-पालन। क्यों चाहते हैं, कैसे चाहते हैं?’ ‘नहीं चाहना चाहिए?’ ‘नहीं, चाहने का अधिकार आपकी पीढ़ी ने गँवा दिया है।”
― Mahasweta Devi, 1084ven Ki Maan

“These people are fully in exile. They have not received anything from modern India. This metal road has come to them to serve the interests of those very moneylenders from Bhalpura and Rajaura who will snatch their harvests to recover their loans, those patient customers who wait like vultures for the moment when starving parents will sell their children in the extremity of despair, and fall to feeding on carrion, the advance men of those labor contractors who will make the aboriginals their bond slaves with the seduction of 'ten rupees a day and a full stomach.'

Modern India only gives them posters for family planning. The birth of children increases rather than decreases as a result of starvation, until the bodies of the man and the woman go on strike permanently.”
― Mahasweta Devi, Imaginary Maps

“अनिंद्य ने दगा दिया—यही है असल बात। हम लोग किसी और दल को छोड़कर नहीं आए थे। हमारे मन पहले ही परिवर्तित हो चुके थे, अनिंद्य दूसरा दल छोड़कर आया था। कह-सुनकर किसी की सलाह-मशविरे से आया था।”
― Mahasweta Devi, 1084ven Ki Maan

“कुछ भी शांत नहीं हुआ?’ ‘नहीं, नहीं हुआ। व्हाई डिड दे डाई?4 क्या खत्म हो गया है? लोग सुखी हैं? राजनीति का खेल खत्म हो गया है? इज़ इट ए बेटर वर्ल्ड?’5”
― Mahasweta Devi, 1084ven Ki Maan

“Once there was forest, hill, river, and us. We had villages, homes, land, ourselves. In our fields we grew rice, kodo, kutki, soma, we lived. Then there was game to hunt. It rained, peacocks danced, we lived. People grew, community grew, some of us moved to a distance. We asked the earth’s permission, we are setting down stakes to build a roof, settling land to grow crops… We worshipped the tree that was the spirit of our village. The we lived, only us.

… Why did the foreigners come? We were kings. Became subjects. Were subjects, became slaves. Owned nothing, they made us debtors. Alas, they enslaved and bound us. They named us, as bond slaves… Our land vanished like dust before a storm, our fields, our homes, all disappeared.”
― Mahasweta Devi, Imaginary Maps

“Clasping Kuntis hands in her thin, old, ivory-hued fingers, Gandhari whispered, Calm down, calm down, O Mother of the Pandavas! Calm down. Time moves in cycles, circling like the wheels of the chariot. Our life cycle is shrinking. Soon it will be just a dot. And finally even that dot will merge into the void.

Yes, O Elder One,
Don't blame yourself too harshly. No matter how hard you try, you can never bring back the past, never turn yesterday into tomorrow. See, today's sunrise was real, so was the sunset. We will fall asleep but time will keep moving. And tomorrow, it will give us yet another sunrise.”
― Mahasweta Devi, After Kurukshetra : Three Stories

“जो अच्छा नहीं लगता, वही करते चलने का नाम है कर्तव्य। कर्तव्य करती रही हमेशा, क्या”
― Mahasweta Devi, 1084ven Ki Maan

“कालकोठरी में रहने से आदमी की अनुभूतियाँ छुरी की नोक की तरह पैनी हो जाती हैं।”
― Mahasweta Devi, 1084ven Ki Maan