Suketu Mehta QUOTES

1 " Before you ask other people to respect the borders of the West, ask yourself if the West has ever respected anybody else's border. "

― Suketu Mehta , This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto

2 " I asked Raghav, as we were looking over the wasteland, if the Muslims they burnt would beg for their lives. "Yes they would say, Have mercy on us. But we were filled with such hate; we had Radhabi Chawl on our minds. And even if there was one who said, Let him go, there would be ten others saying, No kill him. And so we had to kill him.

"But what if he was innocent?"

Raghav looked at me. "His biggest crime was that he was Muslim. "

― Suketu Mehta

3 " And at the moment of contact, they do not know if the hand that is reaching for theirs belongs to a Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Brahmin or untouchable or whether you were born in this city or arrived only this morning or whether you live in Malabar Hill or New York or Jogeshwari; whether you’re from Bombay or Mumbai or New York. All they know is that you’re trying to get to the city of gold, and that’s enough. Come on board, they say. We’ll adjust. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

4 " The first thing that a new migrant sends to his family back home isn’t money; it’s a story. Of the arduous journey here, the snow on the streets, the rude immigration agent or the kindly social worker; the lights of the Eiffel Tower or the cold reception from the cousins with whom he’s staying. "

― Suketu Mehta , This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto

5 " We lived in Bombay and we lived in Mumbai and sometimes, I lived in both of them at the same time. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

6 " In the looking, I found the cities within me. "

― Suketu Mehta

7 " It was when I realised I had a new nationality: I was in exile. I am an adulterous resident: when I am in one city, I am dreaming of the other. I am an exile; citizen of the country of longing. "

― Suketu Mehta

8 " A city like Bombay, like New York, that is a recent creation on the planet and does not have a substantial indigenous population, is full of restless people. Those who have come here have not been at ease somewhere else. And unlike others who may have been equally uncomfortable wherever they came from, these people got up and moved. As I have discovered, having once moved, it is difficult to stop moving. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

9 " Each person’s life is dominated by a central event, which shapes and distorts everything that comes after it and, in retrospect, everything that came before. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

10 " I am an exile; citizen of the country of longing. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

11 " This is the true meaning of exile : some insurmountable force that keeps you from going back. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

12 " Europeans extracted an estimated 222,505,049 hours of forced labour from African slaves between 1619 and 1865. Valued at the US minimum wage, with a modest rate of interest, that’s worth $97 trillion – more than the entire global GDP. "

― Suketu Mehta , This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto

13 " A hit man's character is defined above all by narcissism, that complex mix of egotism and self-hatred. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

14 " You can go home again, and you can also leave again. Once more, with confidence, into the world. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

15 " Anybody in the world can come to India and find home. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

16 " All told, in the colonial period, Europeans increased their share of global GDP from 20 to 60 per cent, Hickel points out. ‘Europe didn’t develop the colonies. The colonies developed Europe.’ The Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle sums it up: ‘We fear the arrival of immigrants that we have drawn here with the wealth we stole from them. "

― Suketu Mehta , This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto

17 " It is the sexual frenzy of a closed society, and the women of Golpitha are the gutters for these men's emissions. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

18 " The stacks of pav have been sprinkled with chutney—
the top half of the inside of the bun is bathed in green chutney, the bottom with red garlic chutney—
and the assistant reaches out with one hand, in one continuous arc of his arm opening the pav, scooping up two of the vadas, one in each nest of pav, and delivering it to the hungry customer. I walk away from the stall and crush the vada by pressing down on it with the pav; little cracks appear in the crispy surface, and the vada oozes out its potato-and-pea mixture. I eat. The crispy batter, the mouthful of sweet-soft pav tempering the heat of the chutney, the spices of the vada mixture —dark with garam masala and studded with whole cloves of garlic that look like cashews—get masticated into a good mouthful, a good mouth-feel. My stomach is getting filled, and I feel I am eating something nourishing after a long spell of sobbing. Borkar has done his dharma. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

19 " This is the biggest difference between the world’s two largest democracies: In India, the poor vote. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

20 " The different countries of India can be identified by the way each pronounces this word—from the Punjabi “bhaanchod” to the thin Bambaiyya “pinchud” to the Gujarati “bhenchow” to the Bhopali elaboration “bhen-ka-lowda.” Parsis use it all the time, grandmothers, five-year-olds, casually and without any discernible purpose except as filler: “Here, bhenchod, get me a glass of water.” “Arre, bhenchod, I went to the bhenchod bank today.” As a boy, I would try consciously not to swear all day on the day of my birthday. I would take vows with the Jain kids: We will not use the B-word or the M-word. "

― Suketu Mehta , Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

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