Padma Venkatraman > Quotes

“Because friendship is about laughing when the other person is joking to make you feel better. Even if you don’t find her joke all that funny.”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“My skin tingles as I step into the music,
give in to the icy thrill of pleasure
that spreads through me whenever I dance,
the pleasure of leaping into a cool lake on a
sweltering day.”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“I want to tell the nurses no scale can measure
the pain of my dreams
dancing
beyond reach.”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“But love doesn't stop him from living and moving forward, because that's how life moves" -Arul”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“And I guess how you live matters more than how long you live. Every happy moment we had, every bit of love we shared, still glows. We’re together in my heart and always will be.”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“You don't have to climb ladders to reach God. He dances within all He creates.”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“I don't know how you live without dreams" -Viji”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“I can dance beauty into my body”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“Like magic, you could stretch time out when we needed it, so that a moment felt endless. So the taste of half an orange could last and last.”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“The library was my only blessing. Every time I climbed the stairs, my heart lifted. All day, I looked forward to the happy hours I spent in that beautiful room. My guilt over appa's fate was too heavy to carry up there, and I learned to leave it below, somewhere on the ground floor. I left the house far behind as I walked on the path paved by the books, and every evening, baby Mangalam slept soundly on the bed I made for her on the window seat.”
― Padma Venkatraman, Climbing the Stairs

“When, at last, I placed a section in my mouth, I could hear it burst as my teeth met the flesh, squeezing the juice out onto my tongue, tart at first and then sweet. Everything else melted away except for the taste, the smell, the feel of the fruit on my tongue.
I ate the fruit slowly. The way you liked to do things.
Until then, I'd thought it was a sad thing that you were sometimes slower than the rest of us. But that day, I realized that slow can be better than fast. Like magic, you could stretch time out when we needed it, so that a moment felt endless. So the taste of half an orange could last and last" -Viji”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“If I wanted a better future, I needed to change the life we had .Now.”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“It amazes me that there are so many different words to pray with, and so many people praying, but there is still so much misery and cruelty in the world" -Viji”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“How does the new leg feel?' I don't point out their question misses a point: even this new leg doesn't feel.”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“Dance isn’t about winning or losing,” he says, “it’s about enjoying how your body moves.” I”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“It amazes me that there are so many different words to pray with, and so many people praying, but there is still so much misery and cruelty in the world.”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“I don't mind if you have no faith in religion, Viji. Just as long as you have faith in the goodness within yourself" -Celina Aunty”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“Nothing else fills me with as much elation as chasing down soaring music, catching and pinning rhythms to the ground with my feet, proud as a hunter rejoicing in his skill. The”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“Everytime I climbed the stairs, my heart lifted.”
― Padma Venkatraman, Climbing the Stairs

“I'm not sure I can empty myself of wishing for those able bodies I don't own.”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“You handed over the money. I’d never seen you stand so tall before. That was something. No. That was everything.”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“She is a pebble skipping
over the surface of a lake.
As I once was.
Not a deep sinking stone that leaves widening ripples behind
after it's disappeared.
As I hope to be.”
― Padma Venkatraman

“I paused, thinking of all the wonderful things she'd said - about my imagination and how smart I was - and how she'd encouraged us both. I realized the biggest gift she'd given me wasn't the book - it was something else.

She believed in me and Rukku" -Viji”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“Chandra told me once about absolute zero, a temperature cold enough to bring the universe to a standstill. My heart feels like it's at absolute zero.”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“I saw more people that one day than I’d seen our whole lives. But nobody noticed us. We were in plain sight. But we were invisible.”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“Just once,” Arul said. “Long enough to show me two things, Viji. That he still loves us. But love doesn’t stop him from living and moving forward, because that’s how life moves.” • • •”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“Boss is better,” Muthu said. “My stepbrother’s the one who sold me.”
― Padma Venkatraman, The Bridge Home

“The joyous clamor in my mind drowned out the strange sound outside the car: a humming noise that was gathering speed and growing louder, a roar that was not the waves curling up the beach.”
― Padma Venkatraman, Climbing the Stairs

“I lean into his touch. He looks shy and almost as scared as I was just feeling. I burst out laughing. Never imagined we'd share being scared the first time we went out together. "What's so funny now?" "You. You look so frightened." "I am frightened." He exhales. Then smiles and slides closer to me.”
― Padma Venkatraman, A Time to Dance

“Never blame yourself for someone else’s cruelty. My mother always said there’s enough people waiting to accuse us falsely without us doing it to ourselves.”
― Padma Venkatraman, Born Behind Bars