Thurma > Thurma's Quotes

“Rape and colonialism are not commensurate, but they are kin. When we talk about sexual violence as feminists, we are–we have to be–talking about its use to subjugate entire peoples and cultures, the annihilation that is its empty heart. Rape is that bad because it is an ideological weapon. Rape is that bad because it is a structure: not an excess, not monstrous, but the logical conclusion of hetero-patriarchal capitalism. It is what that ugly polysyllabic euphemism for state power does.”
― So Mayer, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture

“11
Good woman with striped bangles!
This makes me laugh: Mother who hasn’t heard
The village gossip thinks I am possessed by Katampan.
She has called the shaman to perform the dance
To rid me of this illness caused by the man
From the cool mountain on which peppercorns grow.

12
Good woman with the fair bangles!
This make me laugh: if the lord who brought down
The Kuruku mountain comes here, he is a bigger fool
Than the shaman who comes to rid me of the illness
Caused by the man from the high mountain.

13
Good woman with arms ringed with bangles!
This make me laugh: if the son of our lord
Who drank poison and sat under the banyan tree
Comes here, he is a bigger fool than the shaman
Who comes to rid me of the illness caused
By the man from the mountain of strong fragrance.

14
Good woman with the fine ornaments!
This make me laugh: if our lord with a wreath
Of cadamba flowers that blossom in the rains
Comes here, he is a bigger fool than the shaman
Who comes to rid me of the illness
Caused by the chest of the man from the mountain.”
― இளங்கோ அடிகள், Shilappadikaram

“The police force is gradually being turned into an army. (In Kashmir it's the other way around. The army is being turned into a corrupt, administrative police force.) Upside down. Inside out. Either way, the Enemy is the People.”
― Arundhati Roy, Broken Republic: Three Essays

“The Maoists are not the only ones who seek to depose the Indian State. It's already been deposed, several times, by Hindu fundamentalism and economic totalitarianism.”
― Arundhati Roy, Broken Republic: Three Essays

“Sometimes it seems very much as though those who have a radical vision for a newer, better world do not have the steel it takes to resist the military onslaught, and those who have the steel do not have the vision.”
― Arundhati Roy, Broken Republic: Three Essays

“Our fatalism goes beyond, even if it springs from, the Hindu acceptance of the world as it is ordained to be. I must tell you a little story – a marvellous fable from our Puranas that illustrates both our resilience and our self-absorption in the face of circumstance.’ I sat up against my bolsters and assumed the knowingly expectant attitude of those who are about to tell stories or perform card tricks. ‘A man, someone very like you, Arjun – a symbol, shall we say, of the people of India - is pursued by a tiger. He runs fast, but his panting heart tells him he cannot run much longer. He sees a tree. Relief! He accelerates and gets to it in one last despairing stride. He climbs the tree. The tiger snarls below him, but he feels that he has at last escaped its snapping jaws. But no – what’s this? The branch on which he is sitting is weak, and bends dangerously. That is not all: wood-mice are gnawing away at it; before long they will eat through it and it will snap and fall. The branch sags down over a well. Aha! Escape? Perhaps our hero can swim? But the well is dry, and there are snakes writhing and hissing on its bed. What is our hero to do? As the branch bends lower, he perceives a solitary blade of grass growing on the wall of the well. On the top of the blade of grass gleams a drop of honey. What action does our Puranic man, our quintessential Indian, take in this situation? He bends with the branch, and licks up the honey.’
I laughed at the strain, and the anxiety, on Arjun’s face. ‘What did you expect? Some neat solution to his problem? The tiger changes its mind and goes away? Amitabh Bachhan leaps to the rescue? Don’t be silly, Arjun. One strength of the Indian mind is that it knows some problems cannot be resolved, and it learns to make the best of them. That is the Indian answer to the insuperable difficulty. One does not fight against that by which one is certain to be overwhelmed; but one finds the best way, for oneself, to live with it. This is our national aesthetic. Without it, Arjun, India as we know it could not survive.”
― Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Novel

“Interestingly, the drunkard-genius is a valorised trope when the imbiber of spirits is from among the upper castes. T.R. Mahalingam, the flautist, is a classic example of someone who was an alcoholic but whose drunkenness is spoken of with much affection. His genius eclipsed everything else, they would say. But Somu, the undisputed champion among woodcrafters, would never be given that leeway—his drunkenness is a defect born of his caste. This hypocrisy of the upper castes, and those aspiring to be like them, is insufferable.

Arulraj from the Thanjavur family had a different interpretation. ‘If they (his father and uncles) had extra money, they would head straight to the liquor store. Immediately, their mood would change.’ He was speaking in the context of how the older generation unquestioningly accepted their social status and the way they were treated. Alcoholism could also have been an escape from reality.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers

“Social inequality gets embedded more deeply in the minds of the receiver, only to grant the giver even more power.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers

“Mani Iyer had said, ‘My heaven is a place where Somu Asari has worked on good sandalwood and made the kattai, Parlandu constructs the muttu and I get to use that mrdangam to play a concert for Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar.’ I hope this happened in a heaven where all of them had shed their respective castes and were basking in each other’s magnificence.”
― T.M. Krishna, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers

“... Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They would blow themselves up to take others with them, targeting symbols and representatives of the state; they would attack civilians and eat cyanide to avoid imprisonment. They would kill other Tamils who did not agree with them—other rebels, politicians, and even civilians. They would fight against a government that shelled, starved, and tortured its own citizens. They would renounce their families and bring children and women into their ranks.

They would be called terrorists. They would enter into a world in which no one was right.”
― V.V. Ganeshananthan, Love Marriage

“But it’s easy for someone to look at what is happening and say that in the same situation, they wouldn’t do the same thing. Who knows what they would do in such a situation?”
― V.V. Ganeshananthan, Love Marriage

“I learned to believe that a government could kill its own and drive them to commit unspeakable crimes. That no one would be right, but that some would be more wrong.”
― V.V. Ganeshananthan, Love Marriage

“... governments call men terrorists to erase their reason, to make them crazy. Some of them are, and some of them are not.”
― V.V. Ganeshananthan, Love Marriage

“All those Dutch people who still look down on the British, scoff at England and its government of aging lords, call the English cowards, yet hate the Germans, should be given a good shaking, the way you'd plump up a pillow. Maybe that would straighten out their jumbled brains!”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

“Many people think nature is beautiful, many people sleep from time to time under starry sky, and many people in hospitals and prisons long for the day when they'll be free to enjoy what nature has to offer. But few are as isolated and cut off as we are from the joys of nature, which can be shared by rich and poor alike.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“The illuminations of research would remain disjointed, and even fail to reckon the simple fact that life as it persisted in the seven continents of this planet has been a continuum. –P.J. Cherian”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“The Sangam Corpus is one body of literature that could possibly represent the ethos of the IVC [Indus Valley Civilization] such as maritime trade, eminence of crafts and skills, technology and knowledge, spread of literacy, Mother Goddess worship, participatory festivals and pass-time activities, secular orientation, enjoyment associated with group-bathing, place of flora and fauna in narratives, writing and graffiti skills.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“BRW [Black & Red Ware] is the Pan-Indian Pot and Sangam literature is the Pan-Indian Literature. The Pot Route that links Indus and Vaigai was made of clay, overlaid with burnt bricks and embellished with copper. It is the red-topped road to Tamil antiquity, and the colour was a deep Dravidian Red.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“The manner of employing the leisure time is always an index of a people’s culture. The Tamils of old had their own pastimes which reveal at once their rustic simplicity and their notable refinement (Pillay 1969: 326-327)”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“... the Sangam Tamil corpus is essentially a literature of diverse landscapes and a plural demography. Sangam texts stand witness to the plural social systems, polity, cultural ethos and ideology of the early Tamils. At the same time, they also represent some of the ‘carried forward’ memories that probably emulate the ideologies of the IVC [Indus Valley Civilization], including its inherent pluralism.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“... neither the metaphor of ‘melting pot’ nor of ‘salad bowl’ can accurately explain Indian culture. My preferred metaphor is that of the Rain Forest. The ‘tropical rain forest’ characteristically has a number of layers, each with a variety of flora and fauna adapted for life in that particular layer. The layers include the uppermost ‘emergent’ layer that rises above to form the canopy of the forest, the ‘under-story’ and finally the ‘forest floor’, the foundational core. This emergent layer has its roots in the forest floor that is full of shrubs, vines and fungi... A ‘bird’s-eye view’ cannot reveal this rootedness, the underlying substratum, the under-stories and the forest floor.
If the metaphor of ‘tropical rain forest’ is applied to the Indus Valley Civilization, the citadels, the rulers, and the rich merchants with their maritime wealth, the urban structure and its finesse are comparable with the ‘emergent canopy’. Yet the bulk of the demography was at the root – the substratum, from which the mature urban cities emerged... The nature of its religion, the cultural practices, cockfights and bull-vaulting visually represent the ‘under-story’ of the IVC.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“The fact that the pluralism of India is not an ornamental frill but a foundational core needs to be duly recognized.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“Above all, the very world view, “Every town our home town, every[one our kin - யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்]” can only emanate from a civilizational wisdom which has seen places, found merit in give and take and is enriched by travels, journeys and migrations.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“Starting the history from the South does not mean tampering with the chronology of events or the locus of geography in which the events ought to have taken place. It is about understanding the Rain Forest metaphor of Indian pluralism from another end. The pluralism of the Indus Valley civilization, the pluralism espoused in Sangam texts and the plural realities of contemporary India have a connecting thread of continuity. The Idea of India cannot be appreciated without understanding these connections.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“There was a story before and beyond Harappa. There is a story before and beyond Keeladi. This journey of a civilization is not a point to point journey. It is an unending expedition of human spirit.
yātum ūrē yāvarum kēḷīr Every town our home town, every man a kinsman - Kaṇiyaṉ Pūṅkuṉṟaṉār”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“Therefore, one can observe true chastity, natural chastity, and independent chastity among the people only when these cruelties are removed and never through compulsions, a different canon for the two sexes, and commandments written by the mighty for the weak that produce only slavish chastity and enforced chastity.”
― Periyār, பெண் ஏன் அடிமையானாள்?

“Saying that strength, anger and leadership are men's inherent qualities and calmness, silence and caring are women's qualities is nothing else but saying that bravery, force, anger and leadership belong to the tiger and calmness, silence and caring belong to the goat. The women's right we demand is that men should accept that women also possess bravery, strength, anger and leadership quality like men. Further, in our opinion both the sexes should have all the qualities mentioned … only that would lead to the development of human society.”
― Periyār, பெண் ஏன் அடிமையானாள்?

“எங்காவது பூனைகளால் எலிகளுக்கு விடுதலை உண்டாகுமா? எங்காவது நரிகளால் ஆடு, கோழிகளுக்கு விடுதலை உண்டாகுமா? எங்காவது வெள்ளைக்காரர்களால் இந்தியர்களுக்குச் செல்வம் பெருகுமா? எங்காவது பார்ப்பனர்களால் பார்ப்பனரல்லாதவர்களுக்கும் சமத்துவம் கிடைக்குமா என்பதை யோசித்தால் இதன் உண்மை விளங்கும். அப்படி ஒருக்கால் ஏதாவது ஒரு சமயம் மேற்படி விஷயங்களில் விடுதலை உண்டாகி விட்டாலும்கூட ஆண்களால் பெண்களுக்கு விடுதலை கிடைக்கவே கிடைக்காது என்பதை மாத்திரம் உறுதியாய் நம்பலாம்.”
― Periyār, பெண் ஏன் அடிமையானாள்?

“பெண்கள் பிள்ளை பெறும் தொல்லையில் இருந்து விடுதலையாக வேண்டும் என்கின்ற மார்க்கத்தைத் தவிர - வேறு எந்த வகையிலும் ஆண்மை அழியாது என்பதோடு, பெண்களுக்கு விடுதலையும் இல்லை என்கின்ற முடிவு நமக்கு, கல்லுப்போன்ற உறுதியுடையதாய் இருக்கின்றது. சிலர் இதை இயற்கைக்கு விரோதமென்று சொல்ல வரலாம். உலகத்தில் மற்றெல்லாத் தாவரங்கள், ஜீவப் பிராணிகள் முதலியவைகள் இயற்கை வாழ்வு நடத்தும் போது மனிதர்கள் மாத்திரம் இயற்கைக்கு விரோதமாகவே அதாவது பெரும்பாலும் செயற்கைத் தன்மையாகவே வாழ்வு நடத்தி வருகின்றார்கள். அப்படியிருக்க இந்த விஷயத்திலும் நன்மையை உத்தேசித்து இயற்கைக்கு விரோதமாய் நடந்து கொள்வதால் ஒன்றும் முழுகிப் போய்விடாது.

தவிர, பெண்கள் பிள்ளை பெறுவதை நிறுத்திவிட்டால், ‘உலகம் விருத்தியாகாது, மானிட வர்க்கம் விருத்தியாகாது’ என்று கர்ம நியாயம் பேசச் சிலர் வருவார்கள். உலகம் விருத்தியாகாவிட்டால் பெண்களுக்கு என்ன கஷ்டம் வரும்? மானிட வர்க்கம் பெருகாவிட்டால் பெண்களுக்கு என்ன ஆபத்து ஏற்பட்டுவிடக் கூடும்? அல்லது இந்தத் ‘தர்ம நியாயம்’ (அதாவது மக்கள் பெருக்கமடையாவிட்டால்) பேசுபவர்களுக்குத்தான் என்ன கஷ்டம் உண்டாகிவிடும் என்பது நமக்குப் புரியவில்லை. இதுவரையில் பெருகிக் கொண்டு வந்த மானிட வர்க்கத்தால் ஏற்பட்ட நன்மைதான் என்ன என்பதும் நமக்குப் புரியவில்லை.”
― Periyār, பெண் ஏன் அடிமையானாள்?

“To sow knowing that you will not reap is an old kind of love, and love has always been the best key for unlocking the future.”
― Mark Lawrence, Holy Sister