Sonali Dev > Quotes

“Courage wasn't only fighting your circumstances; sometimes making peace with your circumstances required more courage.”
― Sonali Dev, A Distant Heart

“Ma’s pet peeve was how the Western world misunderstood the theory of karma. “I mean it’s the Bhagavad Gita they’re bastardizing. What is all this ‘karma’s a bitch’ nonsense!” Ma loved to say. The entire “what goes around comes around” thing was a backward view of karma. Karma was simply Sanskrit for action, and the theory was that your actions are the only thing under your control, as opposed to the fruits of your actions, which are not. And since actions always bear fruit, you were better off focusing your energy on your own actions, rather than worrying about the results you wanted them to produce.”
― Sonali Dev, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

“The fact that you have the things you have isn’t wrong. Not understanding what you have is.”
― Sonali Dev, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

“Deserve was such a strange word, throwing out both blame and accolades with equal mercilessness. Society’s skewed scale for assigning a value to human beings. How many times had he been judged and found lacking? Was there ever a way to measure what anyone deserved? Or was it just another way to pretend that the randomness of the universe made sense?”
― Sonali Dev, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

“It doesn't matter what my life has been like, Samir. What matters is hope. If you don't believe in a happy ending, what are you living for?”
― Sonali Dev, A Bollywood Affair

“The syntax of prejudice—threaded into conversation with the perfect pauses and facial expressions—was like ciphers and spy codes. The meaning clear to those it was meant for. To everyone else, it was harmless scribbles. Easy enough to deny.”
― Sonali Dev, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

“Happiness seeps into me when you're around, Rico. Without invitation, without notice, joy finds me. Being around you is being alive, it's breathing, it's home.”
― Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion

“War is a violent thing but its purpose is often to protect your own, and to ultimately bring peace. Sometimes you have to go to war to move forward and past suffering, to get closer to our natural state as humans. That of equilibrium and well-being."
Trisha simply nodded. The only time Esha ever lectured was when she'd seen something and she was trying to tell you what she'd seen.
"When it's time to fight, it's okay to fight," Esha said. "Even if sometimes your biggest enemies may be hiding inside you. Not everyone who fights you is your enemy.”
― Sonali Dev, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

“It wasn't like he wasn't capable of happiness. It was almost as if he held himself away from it just the slightest bit. He felt undeserving of it, mistrustful of it, and the unfairness of that made her want to shake some sense into his stubborn head.”
― Sonali Dev, A Bollywood Affair

“One thing he'd say about her- she blushed like no one else he'd ever met. Her gorgeous skin went from warm brown to an almost fiery pink. It didn't help that Rico knew she was blushing with her entire body right now. He had loved to chase that blush across her skin.”
― Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion

“She could hardly tell him it was because the child had been born a girl, destined from birth to be bound and gagged, to never be free. And she seemed to have sensed it far sooner than most. Sadly, the poor fool seemed to believe that she could actually do something about it.”
― Sonali Dev, A Bollywood Affair

“Listen very carefully. Because I'm only going to lay this out for you once. I'm no longer the easy prey I once was and if you go up against me I will make sure you end up behind bars. You've fraudulently pocketed the money from the video. Our lawyers already have a criminal suit against you ready to go. Unless you're particularly keen on jail, you will leave my family alone, and you will withdraw the video and return all that money to the people you stole it from."
Julia opened her mouth, but Trisha held up her hand and she closed it. "And if you do one thing to harm DJ"- because suddenly Trisha was sure Julia had something on DJ; her nineties-Bollywood-plot theory didn't seem so farfetched- "I will make sure that every one of the families you've preyed on to make money off their tragedies gets together and sues your ass until every penny you've ever leeched is gone. Now get out of my office. Get out of my building- which by the way is private property. Soliciting business here is illegal. So the next time you think of setting foot here, know that I will have security throw you out on your cowardly, pathetic ass.”
― Sonali Dev, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

“You're already breaking your promise. A promise isn't what you say. It's what you do.”
― Sonali Dev, Incense and Sensibility

“I want you, exactly the way you are today, the way you'll be tomorrow, and fifty years from now. And I want you to want me enough to deal with whatever happens. I can't promise you'll be okay. But without you I will never be okay. And I know that without me you will never be okay either.”
― Sonali Dev, The Bollywood Bride

“She felt a little bit worse - and a little bit better - than she had when she got here. Maybe that was the true meaning of going home.”
― Sonali Dev, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

“There's a difference between benevolence and stupidity and even God knows it.”
― Sonali Dev, A Bollywood Affair

“the child had been born a girl, destined from birth to be bound and gagged, to never be free. And she seemed to have sensed it far sooner than most. Sadly, the poor fool seemed to believe that she could actually do something about it.”
― Sonali Dev, A Bollywood Affair

“You know how we men are. If we imprint on you young, you've got us forever. To do with us as you please."
She smiled at Zee so sweetly that Rico braced himself for what was coming. "Or you men want us to believe that, so we can never let you go and you can use our dependence to do as you please."
Zee looked delighted. "Are you saying men are more manipulative in relationships than women? That would go against the popular opinion, now wouldn't it?"
Ashna mirrored his delight. "The popular opinion that men have floated through the years?"
"I know a lot of women who agree that women are more manipulative than men."
"Just like you've heard women say women gossip more, or pull each other down, or only feel loved when men shower them with material gifts. Patriarchal opinions that centuries of being called 'the weaker sex' and being given only the domestic space and our own bodies to claim our power with have had us internalize?”
― Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion

“Growing up, we were surrounded by stories of women being married off without their consent, and it was always about how they compromised, reconciled, and found love in the end. It was romanticized so much. What an abhorrent thing to tell someone — that your love isn’t where your interest lie, or that your parents know what’s best for you better than you do.”
― Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion

“Oh, to have the confidence of a mediocre man.”
― Sonali Dev, The Vibrant Years

“Ah, fresh young love! It was like the smell of cumin roasting in butter: you couldn't hide it for anything.”
― Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion

“He tried to catch her eye, but all he got was the slightest nod before she looked away. He had no idea how he knew there was gratitude in that nod, but he did. The loose lock of hair that always seemed to escape the confines of her bun fell across her cheek.
I want to be your hair.
How many times had he said that to her? Not once had she needed to ask him what he meant. Her hair- midnight spun into strands- was always kissing her cheeks, playing with her collarbones, caressing her skin.”
― Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion

“You just have to trust yourself, beta. Focus on what matters to you and don’t let it get all mixed up with what others want.”
― Sonali Dev, Incense and Sensibility

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
― Sonali Dev, The Emma Project

“Dancing is the real plastic surgery," Uma loved to say. "It's what keeps you young.”
― Sonali Dev, The Bollywood Bride

“Why did human beings need love from where they wanted it rather than from where they were getting it?”
― Sonali Dev, The Vibrant Years

“If you don’t know whether you have feelings for someone or not, that means you don’t have feelings for them.”
― Sonali Dev, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

“How were you naive enough to think you and Yash had a chance?" Naina said.
"Because truth has to..."
"... count for something," Yash and India said together.
India spun toward him. And there it was, the endless peace of her gaze. Breath whooshed out of him, weight lifted off his shoulders.
"Because love has to count for something." He took a step closer, and her body sagged, mirroring all the relief he was feeling. "I breathe differently when she's around. I feel... I feel alive in ways I never have.”
― Sonali Dev, Incense and Sensibility

“What do you remember most about what your pai put in his lamb chops?"
"I think it was basically salt, pepper, and garlic." He squeezed his eyes shut and focused so hard that not dropping a kiss on his earnestly pursed mouth was the hardest thing. His eyes opened, bright with memory. "Of course. Mint."
"That's perfect. Since we're only allowed only five tools, simple is good."
"My mãe always made rice and potatoes with it. How about we make lamb chops and a biryani-style pilaf?"
Ashna blinked. Since when was Rico such a foodie?
He shrugged but his lips tugged to one side in his crooked smile. "What? I live in London. Of course Indian is my favorite cuisine."
Tossing an onion at him, she asked him to start chopping, and put the rice to boil.
Then she turned to the lamb chops. The automatic reflex to follow Baba's recipe to within an inch of its life rolled through her. But when she ignored it, the need to hyperventilate didn't follow. Next to her Rico was fully tuned in to her body language, dividing his focus between following the instructions she threw out and the job at hand.
As he'd talked about his father's chops, she'd imagined exactly how she wanted them to taste. An overtone of garlic and lemon and an undertone of mint. The rice would be simple, in keeping with the Brazilian tradition, but she'd liven it up with fried onions, cashew nuts, whole black cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick. All she wanted was to create something that tasted like Rico's childhood, combined with their future together, and it felt like she was flying.
Just like with her teas, she knew exactly what she wanted to taste and she knew exactly how to layer ingredients to coax out those flavors, those feelings. It was her and that alchemy and Rico's hands flying to follow instructions and help her make it happen.
"There's another thing we have to make," she said. Rico raised a brow as he stirred rice into the spice-infused butter. "I want to make tea. A festive chai."
He smiled at her, heat intensifying his eyes.
Really? Talking about tea turned him on? Wasn't the universe just full of good news today.”
― Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion

“You deserve to do what’s best for you.”
― Sonali Dev, Recipe for Persuasion