Kapil

“Rama realizes at the very outset that it is attachment itself that he has to transcend. He renounces his conventional ties – to the kingdom and to his family – as he leaves for the forest, understanding, perhaps, that it is attachment which clouds judgement when hard choices have to be made and unpleasant decisions taken.”
― Arshia Sattar, Lost Loves: Exploring Rama's Anguish

“Mes Aynak is a remote site, even by Afghan standards. Bin Laden used the caves at the bottom of the valley to train the men who carried out the 9/11 attacks, and by the time the excavations were in full swing the shadowy Taliban had returned and had begun leaving deadly IEDs along the road, demanding protection money. But the archaeologists carried on regardless because of the importance of the site and the imminent threat to its existence. This was due not to the Taliban themselves but to the Chinese state mining company which had bought the valley from the Afghan government and planned to turn it into the world’s second-largest open-cast copper mine.”
― William Dalrymple, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World

“The 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017), which is a slightly older document, puts the mean number of years of schooling in India at 5.12 years, which is not very far off from the Human Development Report figure. This is well below other emerging-market countries, like China, at 8.17 years, and Brazil, at 7.54 years. In fact, it is also well below the average of all developing countries, which is at 7.09 years.”
― Vivek Kaul, India’s Big Government: The Intrusive State & How It's Hurting Us

“हे चंडमुंडभंडासुरखंडिनी, जगदंबे, उद्दंडदंडमहिषासुरमर्दिनी दुर्गे, शुंभनिशुंभनिर्दालिनी कालिके, महाराष्ट्रधर्मरक्षिके-तुळजाभवानी एकवीरे ये! सुदिन सुवेळ मी शिवराजाच्या जन्माचं आख्यान मांडलय, आई, तू ऐकायला ये!”
― Babasaheb Purandare, Raja Shivchattrapati Purvarde