Of then & now

If an ancient Indian of the time of the Upanishads, of the Buddha, or the later classical age were to be set down in modern India, he would see his race clinging to forms and shells and rags of the past and missing nine-tenths of its nobler meaning. He would be amazed by the extent of the mental poverty, the immobility, the static repetition, the cessation of science, the long sterility of art, the comparative feebleness of the creative intuition. 

- Aurobindo Ghose

Zindagi Kis Talaash Mein Hai

Kuch saate, kuch parchhaiyyan, kuch chahat ke sajde,

Kuch behtey baadlo pe rakhi ummeedein, barasti rahi, tarasti rahi,

Chaand aasman pe jade suraakh ki tarah jhaankta raha,

Aur raat kisi andhe kuen ki tarah mooh khole haanfti rahi;

Raaste paaon tale nikalte rahe, na ruke, na thame,

Na Roka, na poocha, Zindagi kis talaash mein hai.

Zindagi thakne lagi hai, 

Aur ye, zindagi ka judwa,

Uski unglee pakde, sheher ki nangi sadko par,

Abhi tak kuch been raha hai, kuch dhoond raha hai

- Gulzar

Death

Said Vilas, the man who wrote letters for three rupees per page - "Nothing is more cruel than a letter cut short for money. It is like death - one moment the words flowing, next moment silence, the thought unfinished, the love unconveyed, the anguish unexpressed."

- From Family Matters, a fiction novel by Rohinton Mistry

Learning to Fly

A soul in tension that is learning to fly,

Condition grounded, but determined to try.

- From "Learning to Fly" by Pink Floyd

Smile of Enlightenment

He made up for the imperfections of his hands with the perfection of his smile. A Smile of Enlightenment. 

And how did one acquire such enlightenment, he wondered, here in a grim ward, collecting faeces and urine from the beds of the lame and the halt and the diseased? Or were these necessary conditions? For learning that young or old, rich or old, we all stank at the other end.

- From Family Matters, a fiction novel by Rohinton Mistry