Vipra

“The Tilism-e-Azam will never end. It will remain and you and I, with our captive souls will live on. There is happiness in living inside an illusion, who needs a soul? Rooh ki parwaaz ho gayi, yeh jism hai jo jeeye jaa raha hai, the soul has flown away and this stubborn body lives on. Mirza Kallan sighs, takes his bowl and lota, collects the coins from his host, touches his forehead in salam and leaves, ignoring the murmuring and protesting audience.”
― Tarana Husain Khan, The Begum and the Dastan

“Fiction is that strange, smoky thing that writers don't entirely own, even if they think they do. Where does it come from? Our past, our present, our reading, our imagination — yes. But perhaps from premonitions of our future, too?”
― Arundhati Roy, Mother Mary Comes to Me

“By the time the trading nations of the Indian Ocean began to realize that their old understandings had been rendered defunct by the Europeans, it was already too late. In 1509 AD the fate of that ancient trading culture was sealed in a naval engagement that was sadly, perhaps pathetically, evocative of its ethos: a transcontinental fleet, hastily put together by the Muslim potentate of Gujarat, the Hindu ruler of Calicut, and the Sultan of Egypt was attacked and defeated by a Portuguese force off the shores of Diu, in Gujarat. As always, the determination of a small, united band of soldiers triumphed easily over the rich confusions that accompany a culture of accommodation and compromise.”
― Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land

“Ah, Gulistan Jadu, what can I say of her, friends. Ten times more beautiful than her aunt Bahar; she had learnt sorcery from Bahar who had laid down her life in the great fight against Afrasiyab. Gulistan Jadu has created an ever-blossoming garden with flowers from all over the universe -gul daudi, gul andaleeb, gul-e-rana, babuk, benafsha, gulab, gul-e-nargis, gul-e-niloufar, gul-e-sumbul; but this was no ordinary garden for the flowers had deadly powers to kill, maim, stun or hypnotise. Like her aunt Bahar, her sorcery lay in the blooming, innocent flowers.”
― Tarana Husain Khan, The Begum and the Dastan