A Fine Balance Quotes

“But it was an unrefrigerated world. And everything ended badly.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“The carnage upon the chessboard of life, left wounded humans in its wake”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“A lifetime had to be crafted, just like anything else, she thought, it had to be moulded and beaten and burnished in order to get the most out of it.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Time had changed the magical to mundane”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Make up your mind, yaar, choose one thing.'
'How can I? I'm just a human being,' he replied”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“independence came at a high price: a debt with a payment schedule of hurt and regret.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Please always remember, the secret of survival is to embrace change, and to adapt. To quote, "All things fall and are built again, and those that build them are gay.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“There must be a lot of duplication in our country’s laws," said Dukhi. "Every time there are elections, they talk of passing the same ones passed twenty years ago. Someone should remind them they need to apply the laws."

"For politicians, passing laws is like passing water," said Narayan. "It all ends down the drain.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“...there was another, gorier parturition, when two nations incarnated out of one. A foreigner drew a magic line on a map and called it the new border; it became a river of blood upon the earth. And the orchards, fields, factories, businesses, all on the wrong side of that line, vanished with a wave of the pale conjuror's wand.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Hahnji, mister, you must be patient. Before you can name that corner, our future must become past.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“The lives of the poor are rich in symbols.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“But so far, the invisible line was holding, separating the potential from its realization. Strange, that invisible lines could be so powerful, thought Maneck--strong as brick walls.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“At the best of times, democracy is a seesaw between complete chaos and tolerable confusion. You see, to make a democratic omelette you have to break a few democratic eggs. To fight fascism and other evil forces threatening our country, there is nothing wrong in taking strong measures.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Now he felt the despair his father had felt as the familiar world slipped from around him, the valleys gashed and ugly, the woods disappearing. Daddy was right, he thought, the hills were dying, and I was so stupid to believe the hills were eternal, that a father could stay forever young. If only I had talked to him. If only he had let me get close to him.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“The photograph dragged Maneck's eyes back to it, to the event that was once unsettling, pitiful, and maddening in its crystalline stillness. The three sisters looked disappointed, he thought, as though they had expected something more than death, and discovered that was all there was. He found himself admiring their courage. What strength it must have taken, he thought , to unwind those sarees from their bodies, to tie the knots around their necks. Or perhaps it had been easy, once the act acquired the beauty of logic and the weight of sensibleness.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“God is dead," said Maneck. "That's what a German philosopher wrote."

She was shocked. "Trust the Germans to say such things," she frowned. "And do you believe it?"

"I used to. But now I prefer to think that God is a giant quiltmaker. With an infinite variety of designs. And the quilt is grown so big and confusing, the pattern is impossible to see, the squares and diamonds and triangles don't fit well together anymore, it’s all become meaningless. So He has abandoned it.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Who would want to enter the soiled Temple of Justice, wherein lies the corpse of justice, slain by her very guardians? And now her killers make mock of the sacred process, selling replicas of her blind virtue to the highest bidder.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“After all, our lives are but a sequence of accidents--a clanking chain of chance events. A string of choices, casual or deliberate, which add up to that one big calamity we call LIFE.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“You cannot draw lines and compartments and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“He who spits paan at the ceiling only blinds himself.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“That's the secret - to distract the senses. Have I told you my theory about them? I think that our sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing are all calibrated for the enjoyment of a perfect world. But since the world is imperfect, we must put blinders on the senses.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity, accusing him of wild exaggeration and flights of fancy. But rest assured: this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“...I always took the rearmost seat in the classroom - it gave me a good view of things. And I must confess, the location taught me more about human nature and justice than could be learned from the professors' lectures.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Oh, Anyone can make a quilt,' she said modestly. 'It's just scraps, from the clothes you've sewn.'
'Yes, but the talent is in joining the pieces, the way you have.'
'Look,' Om pointed, 'look at that - the poplin from our very first job.'
'You remember,' said Dina, pleased. 'And how fast you finished those first dresses. I thought I had two geniuses.'
'Hungry stomachs were driving our fingers,' chuckled Ishvar.
'Then came that yellow calico with orange strips. And what a hard time this young fellow gave me. Fighting and arguing about everything.'
'Me?Argue?Never.'
.........
He steeped back, pleased with himself, as though he had elucidated an intricate theorem. 'So that's the rule to remember, the whole quilt is much more important than the square'.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“In those days," continued Ishvar, "it seemed to me that that was all one could expect in life. A harsh road strewn with sharp stones and, if you were lucky, a little grain."

"And later?"

"Later I discovered there were different types of roads. And a different way of walking on each.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“He had learned that dignity could not be acquired from accoutrements and accessories; it cam unasked, it grew from one's ability to endure.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“In twenty-four years of proofreading, flocks of words flew into my head through the windows of my soul. Some of them stayed on and built nests in there. Why should I not speak like a poet, with a commonwealth of language at my disposal, constantly invigorated by new arrivals?”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Where was the line between compassion and foolishness, kindness and weakness? And that was from her position. From theirs, it might be a line between mercy and cruelty, consideration and callousness.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“He pivoted on one buttock and broke wind. Dukhi leaned back to allow it free passage, wondering what penalty might adhere to the offence of interfering with the waft of brahminical flatus.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

“Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl’s hair. Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful colour and your hair.’ He sighed and smiled sadly. ‘But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly.”
― Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance