The collection / 46 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01c. 1956 AD

My mother clutches at the collar of my shirt. I rub her back and feel her tears on my neck. It's been decades since our bodies have been this close. It's an odd sensation, like a torn ligament knitting itself back, lumpy and imperfect, usable as long as we know not to push it too hard.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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02c. 1956 AD

Bela had thought she knew what love felt like, but when she saw Sanjay at the airport after six long months, her heart gave a great, hurtful lurch, as though it were trying to leap out of her body to meet him. This, she thought. This is it. But it was only part of the truth. She would learn over the next years that love can feel a lot of different ways, and sometimes it can hurt a lot more.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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03c. 1956 AD

The story hangs in the night air between them. It is very latem, and if father or daugther stepped to the window, tehyw ould see the Suktara, star of the impending dawn, hanging low in the sky. But they keep sitting at the table, each thinking of the story differently, as teller and listener always must. In the mind of each, different images swirl up and fall away, and each holds on to a different part of the story, thinking it the most important. And if each were to speak what it meant, they would say things so different you would not know it wa sthe same story they were speaking of.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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04c. 1956 AD

Danger will come upon us when it will. We can't stop it. We can only try to be prepared. There's no point in looking ahead to that danger and suffering its effects even before it comes to us.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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05c. 1956 AD

It feels as though it were just yesterday Grandfather exited my life like a bullet, leaving a bleeding hole behind.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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06c. 1956 AD

Asif Ali maneuvers the gleaming Mercedes down the labyrinthine lanes of Old Kolkata with consummate skill, but his passengers do not notice how smoothly he avoids potholes, cows and beggars, how skilfully he sails through aging yellow lights to get the Bose family to their destination on time. This disappoints Asif only a little. In his six years of chauffeuring the rich and callous, he has realized that, to them, servants are invisible.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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07c. 1956 AD

Monday is the day of silence, day of the whole white mung bean, which is sacred to the moon.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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08c. 1956 AD

Fenugreek, Tuesday's spice, when the air is green like mosses after rain.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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09c. 1956 AD

Each spice has a special day to it. For turmeric it is Sunday, when light drips fat and butter-colored into the bins to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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10c. 1956 AD

Truth, like diamond, has many facets.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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11c. 1956 AD

Each day has a color, a smell.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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12c. 1956 AD

I've been interested in dreams myself for a long time, and it's a big part of the Indian tradition, especially where I was brought up in Calcutta in my family, which is quite traditional.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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13c. 1956 AD

My favorite part was when my grandfather and I would make a special trip to Firpo's Bakery for red and green Christmas cookies and fruitcake studded with the sweetest cherries I've ever tasted. Usually Firpo's was too expensive for our slim budget, but Christmas mornings they gave a discount to any children who came in.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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14c. 1956 AD

As I remember my grandfather and those Christmas mornings he gave for a little girl's pleasure, I know that often a big life starts with doing small things.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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15c. 1956 AD

We even had a different word for Christmas in my language, Bengali: Baradin, which literally meant 'big day.'

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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16c. 1956 AD

I came from a traditional family, and it was an exciting but challenging transition to move to America and live on my own. The world around me was suddenly so different.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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17c. 1956 AD

Strong women, when respected, make the whole society stronger. One must be careful with such rapid changes, though, and make an effort to preserve, at the same time, the positive traditions of Indian culture.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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18c. 1956 AD

It's different for different people, and for a woman it's important to look as good she wants to look. But you don't need to do it for someone else or to impress some male out there. You do it for your own sake. You wear what makes you feel good, you put make-up and jewellery - whatever gives you self-confidence.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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19c. 1956 AD

Perhaps what distinguishes my characters is their courage and spirit and a certain stubbornness which enables them to keep going even when facing a setback. I think this developed organically as I wrote, but also it came out of a desire to portray women as powerful and intelligent forces in the world.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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20c. 1956 AD

I realise that a novel and a film are different mediums. As artistes, we need to respect other artistes. It also needs a lot of courage to take risks to experiment and interpret known literary works.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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21c. 1956 AD

I came to the plain fields of Ohio with pictures painted by Hollywood movies and the works of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. None of them had much to say, if at all, about Dayton, Ohio.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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22c. 1956 AD

India lends itself well to fictionalization, but ultimately, it all depends on the writer's imagination.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni / quote

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