Indian Authors Quotes & Sayings

In the business world, there is no gray. Either you are black, or you are white-washed. — Sameer Kamat

When you have power and use it for destructive purpose: you don't deserve it. — Udai Yadla

everything that is scattered
comes together in words

everything that is lost
comes back in poetry. — Sanober Khan

Every time you think of your dad, you're
resurrecting him. Why shouldn't he continue to live
in this world while resting in the other? — Clyde DeSouza

Farsi Couplet:
Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast,
Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast.


English Translation:
If there is a paradise on earth,
It is this, it is this, it is this — Amir Khusrau

fierce lovers.
and battle warriors

both come
from the same place.

there is bound
to be,
some bloodshed. — Sanober Khan

Farsi Couplet:
Naala-e zanjeer-e Majnun arghanoon-e aashiqanast
Zauq-e aan andaza-e gosh-e ulul-albaab neest


English Translation:
The creaking of the chain of Majnun is the orchestra of the lovers,
To appreciate its music is quite beyond the ears of the wise. — Amir Khusrau

i am permanently
tanned
in the summer of poetry. — Sanober Khan

Yesterday, I was collecting words.
One was up there, sitting in the bo tree,
Another was in the banyan.
One was wandering in my street,
Another was lying in the earthen jar.
A green word lay in the fields,
A black one was eating flesh.
A blue word was flying
With a grain of the sun in its beak.
Every single thing in this world looks like a word to me.
The words of eyes,
The words of hands.
But I do not understand words I hear from a mouth.
I can only read words.
I can only read words. — Shiv Kumar Batalvi

Bombay, you will be told, is the only city India has, in the sense that the word city is understood in the West. Other Indian metropolises like Calcutta, Madras and Delhi are like oversized villages. It is true that Bombay has many more high-rise buildings than any other Indian city: when you approach it by the sea it looks like a miniature New York. It has other things to justify its city status: it is congested, it has traffic jams at all hours of the day, it is highly polluted and many parts of it stink. — Khushwant Singh

you were
and always will be

that first ever touch
to have fertilized
the ground
beneath my life's trees

that first ever rose
to have fragranced
the rest of my memories. — Sanober Khan

You are the ocean to my eyes. — Sanober Khan

I want to have a romance so grand,
it would have made Shakespeare fumble for words. — Sanober Khan

for those memories are now
just like these little kittens
I hold in my hands

those can be kissed
and treasured
but not held too tightly. — Sanober Khan

Once in a while i am struck
all over again... by just how blue
the sky appears .. on wind-played
autumn mornings, blue enough

to bruise a heart. — Sanober Khan

In the garden of life,
Grows a sapling of pain,
The deer of songs nibbles at it.
The winds of seperation
Blow through the night,
A few leaves drop.
A few leaves drop,
Mother, they drop,
And sounds stir in the garden.
If a few birds of breath
Should fly away,
The deer of songs is afraid.
But the birds of breath
Will surely fly,
Nothing can hold them back.
Through the night
In every direction
They fly away. — Shiv Kumar Batalvi

I believe I did succeed in making Indian uslims look upon me as a friend: when I was nominated to be a member of the Rajya Sabha many said, "We have another Muslim in Parliament." Others who disliked my views called me an unpaid agent of Pakistan. I treated both views as compliments. — Khushwant Singh

love can
embellish its beginning
sing its blossoming
and engrave its eternities

but can never
explain its loss. — Sanober Khan

This winter, there will be no voices, no glimpses, no arms.
only the fabric of poetry, to keep me warm. — Sanober Khan

Poems are invisible flowers on my skin. — Sanober Khan

you are
so delicious
to my poetic side. — Sanober Khan

i would rather have
feelings without words
than words without feelings. — Sanober Khan

I breathe in...the silence
of my own heart
aching with tenderness
with memories..
Of home. — Sanober Khan

There is no man who is enterprising and keeps well up with the times but confesses that the women of to-day are in every respect, except political liberty, equal to the men. — S. Alice Callahan

Love me...with all the abandon
of a sudden wild rain. — Sanober Khan

Going by Dr. Marriott's description, Zoe imagined it to be small and elegant as she peered into dozens of shelves, rummaging through the contents. There were globes and charts and atlases, pocket watches and hand-painted Indian silk, gold-plated cutlery, litter coffers of spice, inlaid combs, silver fasteners, trinket boxes, blown-glass figurines, turn-of-the-century postcards with foreign stamps, and portraits of Victorian authors in elaborate frames. But nowhere did she discover a stone of any kind, with or without runes. — Christine Brodien-Jones

Watch, how the sun
slowly rises
from behind my ear

new lines, new countries
spring up in my palms

my rough hair
become swaying silk

and all the leaves
in my body
become lusher than fruits. — Sanober Khan

all my life
i have looked for poems

to elope with. — Sanober Khan

A community that engages readers and culturally enabled people to connect, support and harness intellectual and cultural capabilities. — Ashwin Sanghi

If I began to draw
myself away from you

we'd still be like
two mixed colors of paint
impossible to separate. — Sanober Khan

I uttered the wisest thing that you must say to an angry woman - "I'm sorry. — Mita Jain

Humans by nature are promiscuous.
Loyalty is an aberration! — Sanjai Velayudhan

Live as many lives as you can. — Sanober Khan

the sapphire depth
of my own love...startles
and warms
and wounds my soul. — Sanober Khan

If I could create something that is even minutely close to a small percentile of a genius as Cloud Atlas, I shall deem my life worthy! — K. Hari Kumar

Where perfumed rivers flow,
Is the home of my beloved.
Where passing breezes halt,
Is the home of my beloved.

Where dawn arrives on bare toes,
Where night paints henna-beams on feet,
Where fragrance bathes in moonlight,
Is the home of my beloved.

Where rays of light roam nakedly,
In green forests of sandalwood.
Where the flame seeks the lamp,
Is the home of my beloved.

Where sunsets sleep on wide waters,
And the deer leap.
Where tears fall for no reason,
Is the home of my beloved.

Where the farmer sleeps hungry,
Even though the wheat is the color of my beloved,
Where the wealthy ones lie in hiding,
Is the home of my beloved.

Where perfumed rivers flow,
Is the home of my beloved.
Where passing breezes halt,
Is the home of my beloved. — Shiv Kumar Batalvi

Sometimes the rain
falls
just for you and me

to be the violin
playing
in the background
of our loneliness's song. — Sanober Khan

We have flattered ourselves by inventing proverbs of comparison in matter of blindness,
"blind as a bat," for instance. It would be safe to say that there cannot be found in the animal kingdom a bat, or any other creature, so blind in its own range of circumstance and connection, as the greater majority of human beings are in the bosoms of their families. Tempers strain and recover, hearts break and heal, strength falters, fails, and comes near to giving way altogether, every day, without being noted by the closest lookers-on. — Helen Hunt Jackson

i want to
stay curled and cosied
and chocolated....forever
in my mother's arms. — Sanober Khan

words
like mysterious mermaids
come and live permanently
in the soft sweeps
and scars of my skin. — Sanober Khan

Ebb and flow, ebb and flow, our lives. Is that why we're fascinated by the steadfastness of stars? The water reaches my calves. I begin the story of the Pleiades, women transformed into birds so Swift and bright that no man could snare them. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Sometimes it's the end that matters and the means are only an add on — Kudrat Dutta Chaudhary

You touched my heart...ever so softly
and I realized
tears had never been...merely salt

and the rain
Oh the Rain!
had never been merely water. — Sanober Khan

But, my dear friend Wildfire," said Carl Peterson laying his hand on the Indian's shoulder, "this is not a policy to live by."

"Then let it be a policy to die by," defiantly spoke the Indian. "If we cannot be free, let us die. What is life to a caged bird, threatened with death on all sides? — S. Alice Callahan

Push away the past, that vessel in which all emotions curdle to regret. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

i can't always tell
what's better

long drives
in the star-spangled deserts

or long walks
along winding tea gardens. — Sanober Khan

a silent night. - the most eloquent poem i have ever read. — Sanober Khan

I breathe in...
the fragrance
of love, and moist sand
the one
his roses left
on both my hands

I just keep on breathing
every moment
as much as I can
preserving it, in my body
for the day
it can't. — Sanober Khan

A girl whose name is Love
Is lost.
Simple, beautiful,
She is lost. — Shiv Kumar Batalvi

i write
because

it is
the only way

i can
reach you. — Sanober Khan

The monsoons were the real thing; they dissolved things to the bone. — Anjum Hasan

a single poem
the thing that can keep me
light on my feet,
when my soul is
heavy with sorrow. — Sanober Khan

May you
always have
open
breezy spaces
in your mind. — Sanober Khan

some words
bring warmth
just by
being
next to each other. — Sanober Khan

Maybe life is all about twirling under one of those midnight skies,
cutting a swathe through the breeze
and gently closing your eyes. — Sanober Khan

when i speak to you
i speak as though
i am offering a rose
in your hand. — Sanober Khan

You put cow dung on my face?' 'Every day religiously until you were three. Why else do you think your skin is so clear? — Renita D'Silva

Change the world, I know I won't,
Enthralling as always I hope it remains,
A kaleidoscope of joy, sorrow and pain.
But my only wish as I take this jaunt,
Is for my words on you to impress upon,
A smile, a tear or even an angry frown. — Anurag Anand

how these words, wait to die
in the arms of all the poetry..
yet to be written. — Sanober Khan

I live there...
Far above the song-filled clouds,
where the dewdrops touch my skin so bare
I live there. — Sanober Khan

I prefer people to consider me by who I am and what I do and not by how I look! — Gayathri Jayakumar

leave me some music
that's chocolate
for the heart. — Sanober Khan

You ask
if I will write a poem
I could,
I suppose
write the most
splendiferous
one of all

but not
right
now
not when

your hands
are brewing
warm
cinnamon tea
across my skin

not when I'm
trying to imagine
what might happen
if you began
flowering
kisses
upon
me

My dear,
how can
I write
a poem
when I'm already
inside one? — Sanober Khan

Khusrau darya prem ka, ulti wa ki dhaar,
Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar.

English Translation.

Oh Khusrau, the river of love
Runs in strange directions.
One who jumps into it drowns,
And one who drowns, gets across. — Amir Khusrau

Srinagar is a medieval city dying in a modern war. It is empty streets, locked shops, angry soldiers and boys with stones. It is several thousand military bunkers, four golf courses, and three book-shops. It is wily politicians repeating their lies about war and peace to television cameras and small crowds gathered by the promise of an elusive job or a daily fee of a few hundred rupees. It is stopping at sidewalks and traffic lights when the convoys of rulers and their patrons in armored cars, secured by machine guns, rumble on broken roads. It is staring back or looking away, resigned. Srinagar is never winning and never being defeated. — Basharat Peer

i have laughed
more than daffodils
and cried more than June. — Sanober Khan

it was the kind of moon
that I would want to
send back to my ancestors
and gift to my descendants

so they know that I too,
have been bruised...by beauty. — Sanober Khan

I am a tale, I am a book, written in different languages and styles

I can't be read, can't be understood,
neither by me nor the greatest of minds

I am too big, I am too small, to be processed or seen by the naked eye

I am too dim, I am too bright, to appear in the shadows or the sunshine. — Sanober Khan

Poems can get
sleepless too

and become

the loneliest thing
in the universe. — Sanober Khan

When it's possible for you to dream, it's not impossible to achieve. — Udai Yadla

Breezy days
deserve the union
of two old friends. — Sanober Khan

My life had indeed become meaningless to me. Even lack of sleep was not a concern for me; only hunger remained a sensation worthy of articulation. Once that hunger was assuaged, I would return to my inert state. — Ashokamitran

Farsi Couplet:
Mun tu shudam tu mun shudi,mun tun shudam tu jaan shudi
Taakas na guyad baad azeen, mun deegaram tu deegari


English Translation:
I have become you, and you me,
I am the body, you soul;
So that no one can say hereafter,
That you are someone, and me someone else. — Amir Khusrau

all the words
all the poems
know
my warm, soft spots. — Sanober Khan

savor
with me
the lushness
of a lingering sleep...
and last night's
dream. — Sanober Khan

Would you like to come in?" I said. My hands were sweaty. Inside my chest an ocean heaved and crashed and heaved again.
"I would," he said. I saw his Adam's apple jerk as he swallowed. "Thank you."
I was distracted by that thank you. We had moved past the language of formality long ago. It was strange to relearn it with each other. — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

i am infinitely yearning
brimming
and overflowing
in words

i discover
it's another way
for me
to be in tears. — Sanober Khan

there are some poems
that we leave behind
some that leave us behind

while some just live
silently
in the heart

crumble, sometimes
dwindle
disappear
die

and are reborn
when you smile again. — Sanober Khan

No, no, my friend. You are kind, and you mean well, but you can never understand these things as I do. You've never been oppressed. — S. Alice Callahan

this heart yearns...
for the salt of unsmelt air
unswept thunderstorms...
unknown adventures. — Sanober Khan

I'm sorry that I hurt you."
"You didn't hurt me." There was a long pause on the phone. Then she said,"You are going to hurt from this longer than I ever will. It's true that I didn't know what kind of Indian you were. But what hurts me most is to know what kind of man. — Tony D'Souza

kisses explode
when...
someone
believes in me

when my heart cries out
a song of thanks
to yours. — Sanober Khan

and the afterglow...
of your gaze...is the only
sweater that I need. — Sanober Khan

Scatter as a prayer
escaping my lips...

as orchids
blooming in clouds. — Sanober Khan

So every dollar spent on finding some gene or hormone to explain why becoming fat is not because of sugary drinks, fried foods or unchecked gluttony is a dollar not spent on getting food for the hungry, vaccines for babies, shelter for the homeless. But the rules are made by the ones in power, these neo-Brahmins, and we must follow them if we want to survive in this global village. — Anirban Bose

The time is ripe for young Indian authors writing in the English language. — Anurag Shourie

love
wounds me
with soft pillows
with tender lips
and fingers — Sanober Khan

I live there...

where the birds are infinite
everywhere

where they flee
it's a place your eyes can wander
but never see

Where everyone accepts me,
Without any pretense

It's a place your mind can picture
but never really comprehend. — Sanober Khan

I am a baby, I am a child, I am the innocent wonder in my eyes

I am a glimpse, I am a sign, of someone I can be, someone I might

I am not one, I am not two, but I am a million things entwined

I am a piece, I am a slice, strung together by the yarns of time. — Sanober Khan

Poetry keeps me
in a highly drunken state
of divinity. — Sanober Khan

Tell me..how do you stand there?
filling the doorway....of my life. — Sanober Khan

I wish to stay drenched
forever
in those rain-blue eyes
in those...soul-reaching crystals

not moving a muscle
nor breathing
just
savoring
this turquoise ache
against my heart. — Sanober Khan

most of the times
it's the hardest
to say
what I love more

you

or

your memory. — Sanober Khan

What you are trying to let go of
...is already gone. — Sanober Khan

I Missed His Book, But I Read His Name"

Though authors are a dreadful clan
To be avoided if you can,
I'd like to meet the Indian,
M. Anantanarayanan.

I picture him as short and tan.
We'd meet, perhaps, in Hindustan.
I'd say, with admirable elan ,
"Ah, Anantanarayanan --

I've heard of you. The Times once ran
A notice on your novel, an
Unusual tale of God and Man."
And Anantanarayanan

Would seat me on a lush divan
And read his name -- that sumptuous span
Of 'a's and 'n's more lovely than
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan" --

Aloud to me all day. I plan
Henceforth to be an ardent fan
of Anantanarayanan --
M. Anantanarayanan. — John Updike

A poem in the heart is worth
more than a million dollars
in the bank account. — Sanober Khan

One clear moment, one of trance
One missed step, one perfect dance
One missed shot, one and only chance
Life is all...but one fleeting glance. — Sanober Khan

They think the recipe for a 'home-maker' is- a woman who isn't smart enough, lacks skills and above all isn't ambitious enough! Well she is every bit as smart as the woman who puts on a suit to go to work in a man's world to prove- times have changed! She is every bit as intelligent! — Mrinalini Mitra

give me
a pillow of strong
ever-dependable shoulders
that i can bury my head in. — Sanober Khan

A bestseller is a book written by a rich person of Indian roots staying in Europe for more than a decade.. — Himmilicious