Priya

“India is constipated with a lot of humbug. Take religion. For the Hindu, it means little besides caste and cow-protection. For the Muslim, circumcision and kosher meat. For the Sikh, long hair and hatred of the Muslim. For the Christian, Hinduism with a sola topee. For the Parsi, fire-worship and feeding vultures. Ethics, which should be the kernel of a religious code, has been carefully removed.”
― Khushwant Singh, Train to Pakistan

“Reading brings us unknown friends”
― Honore de Balzac

“If this turns to friendship, it only means
That one of us will suffer.

That when we meet after the worst of endings,
There will only be this skein of words between us—

Most of them for boredom, fewer for loneliness—
Rising out of our mutual space of breath, leaving

Behind a bluer sky each moment of departure.
And one of us will cling on to its blue,

Hung on partings like a muted cloud, while
The other rides on a wing of word away from here.”
― Cyril Wong, Below: Absence: Poems

“When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.”
― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story