Mariam Karim

“.... I have come to Paris to solve the enigma of my mother’s life ... For my own sake. I want to breathe the air she breathed, see the places she saw, live perhaps as she lived, so perhaps her death might begin to make sense to me….and I may become closer to her. Her death ,an unnecessary sacrifice. I understand now that it was my father’s fear that led to everything...my dear, lovely Daddy! He lived, grew up in a town that trembled, day after day, with the fear of “the other”. A town politically alive with fear—the fear of those who wish to annihilate you. The Hindus feared the Muslims and the Muslims feared the Hindus. My father is fighting a difficult battle, although he wants to deny the existence of a battle, on the face of it. My mother found it easier, to dismiss it all as absurd, which it is, actually. Fear is the real enemy, it makes Reality Absurd, it can kill you, as it did Rahul. . Murdered by the Absurd”
― Mariam Karim, The Street of Mists

“And then, Paris is such a beautiful city, like a jewel, set so carefully. I felt like a ship that wants to cast anchor. To drift for a while, as the past, the present, the future all mingle, and I could just be. And say je suis. I am.”
― Mariam Karim, The Street of Mists