Kamala Suraiyya Das Quotes & Sayings

It is I who drink lonely
Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns,
It is I who laugh, it is I who make love
And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying
With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner,
I am saint. I am the beloved and the
Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no
Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I. — Kamala Suraiyya Das

A book is a good substitute for a man. Fiction, preferably — Kamala Suraiyya Das

Today at Nariman Point the tall buildings crowd one another. But when I was young and in love with a grey-eyed man it was a marshy waste. We used to walk aimlessly along the quiet Panday Road or cross the Cuffe Parade to walk towards the sun. We did not have a place to rest. But in the glow of those evening suns, we felt that we were Gods who had lost their way and had strayed into an unkind planet.. — Kamala Suraiyya Das

If wrappings of cloth can impart respectability, the most respectable persons are the Egyptian mummies, all wrapped in layers and layers of gauze — Kamala Suraiyya Das

You didn't ever love him, but you were sentimental about him — Kamala Suraiyya Das

At sunset, on the river ban, Krishna
Loved her for the last time and left ...
That night in her husband's arms, Radha felt
So dead that he asked, What is wrong,
Do you mind my kisses, love? And she said,
Not not at all, but thought, What is
It to the corpse if the maggots nip? — Kamala Suraiyya Das

Like other women writers of my class, I am expected to tame my talent to suit the comfort of my family. — Kamala Suraiyya Das