Sonia Ramchandani

“It is difficult to bear with women who talk like me, Sita. It becomes easier if I accept that I have made a mistake. Then there is atonement for every sin. If I argue that I have not made any mistake, they will take pity on me. They will take my side, seeing me as the victim of an unjust allegation. But if I say, “Right or wrong, it’s my business, what has it to do with you? Who gave you the right or authority to judge”, then nobody will be able to tolerate it.’
‘Are you saying that even Maharshi Gautama does not have that authority?’ Sita was unable to understand Ahalya.
‘Society gave him that authority. I didn’t. Till I give it, no one can have that authority over me.’
‘But he has disowned you.’
‘Pity, that’s his loss.’
‘And you … they say you lived like a lifeless stone for years.’
‘That’s what you think. I have spent all these years thinking about my identity in this universe. I have learned how the world runs—on what morals and laws, and what their roots are. I have gained a lot of wisdom.”
― Volga, The Liberation of Sita

“It’s true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, - astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc... It is very important to note that some 2,500 years ago at the least Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganges to learn geometry...But he would certainly not have undertaken such a strange journey had the reputation of the Brahmins' science not been long established in Europe”
― Voltaire

“Your truth and mine are not the same.’
‘Perhaps not. As you see more of the world, you may understand the truth of my words, too.”
― Volga, The Liberation of Sita