harshini mohan

“The centripetal force on our planet is still fearfully strong, Alyosha. I have a longing for life, and I go on living in spite of logic. Though I may not believe in the order of the universe, yet I love the sticky little leaves as they open in spring. I love the blue sky, I love some people, whom one loves you know sometimes without knowing why. I love some great deeds done by men, though I’ve long ceased perhaps to have faith in them, yet from old habit one’s heart prizes them. Here they have brought the soup for you, eat it, it will do you good. It’s first-rate soup, they know how to make it here. I want to travel in Europe, Alyosha, I shall set off from here. And yet I know that I am only going to a graveyard, but it’s a most precious graveyard, that’s what it is! Precious are the dead that lie there, every stone over them speaks of such burning life in the past, of such passionate faith in their work, their truth, their struggle and their science, that I know I shall fall on the ground and kiss those stones and weep over them; though I’m convinced in my heart that it’s long been nothing but a graveyard. And I shall not weep from despair, but simply because I shall be happy in my tears, I shall steep my soul in emotion. I love the sticky leaves in spring, the blue sky — that’s all it is. It’s not a matter of intellect or logic, it’s loving with one’s inside, with one’s stomach.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“If you're happy in a dream, does that count?”
― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

“kaatruveliyidai kannamma
nindran kaadhalai yenni kalikkindren
amudhootrinai otha idhazhgalum
nilavoori thadhumbum vizhigalum

pathu maatru ponnotha nin meniyum indha vaiyathil yaanula mattilum yenai
vetru ninaivindri thetriye ingor
vinnavanaaga puriyume..
indha kaatru veliyidai kannamma nindran kaadhalai yenni kalikkindren

nee yenathinnuyir kannamma
yendha neramum nindranai potruven
thuyar poyina poyina thunbangal
ninai ponnena konda pozhuthile
yendran vaayinile amudhoorudhe
kannamma yendra per sollum pothile
uyir theeyinile valar jothiye nidran
sindhanaiye yendhan sithame indha kaatru veliyidai kannamma nindran
kaadhalai yenni kalikkindren”
― Subramaniya Bharathiyar

“There is a war that makes us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves.”
― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things