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41 " When she woke she thought I know what I would wish but by now she knew that where she wanted to go was not a different place but a different time. "
― Monica Ali , Brick Lane
42 " But if you do not wish to speak, I do not wish to hear. "
43 " If you are strong you withstand the storm. Can you see? The storm comes and everything is blurred. But all that is built on a solid foundation has only to stand fast and wait for the storm to pass. "
44 " If she could leave him so easily, if it was as easy as that, then why did she ever begin it? "
45 " It's a success story," said Chanu, exercising his shoulders. "But behind every story of immigration success there lies a deeper tragedy."Kindly explain this tragedy."I'm talking about the clash between Western values and our own. I'm talking about the struggle to assimilate and the need to preserve one's identity and heritage. I'm talking about children who don't know what their identity is. I'm talking about the feelings of alienation engendered by a society where racism is prevalent. I'm talking about the terrific struggle to preserve one's own sanity while striving to achieve the best for one's family. I'm talking--" p. 88 "
46 " What I did not know—I was a young man—is that there are two kinds of love. The kind that starts off big and slowly wears away, that seems you can never use it up and then one day is finished. And the kind that you don’t notice at first, but which adds a little bit to itself every day, like an oyster makes a pearl, grain by grain, a jewel from the sand. "
47 " He came as a man of science, to observe a rare specimen: unhappiness greater than his own. "
48 " You see, it was largely a matter of tariffs. Export and import duties. Silk and cotton goods had seventy or eighty per cent tax slapped on them, and we were not allowed to retaliate.’ Nazneen had drifted. She straightened the dining chairs and shivered at some remembered pleasure. ‘The Dhaka looms were sacrificed,’ said Chanu, ‘so that the mills of Manchester could be born.’ Nazneen came round to her duties. ‘They were closed down by the British? "
49 " She smiled at her sister-in-law’s small sad face, all her features lined up, as ever, to mourn for everything that had passed and all that would come to pass. "
50 " Fighting against one’s Fate can weaken the blood. Sometimes, or perhaps most times, it can be fatal. "
51 " What could not be changed must be borne. And since nothing could be changed, everything had to be borne. This principle ruled her life. It was mantra, fettle, and challenge. So that, at the age of thirty-four, after she had been given three children and had one taken away, when she had a futile husband and had been fated a young and demanding lover, when for the first time she could not wait for the future to be revealed but had to make it for herself, she was as startled by her own agency as an infant who waves a clenched fist and strikes itself upon the eye. "
52 " But there were no servants here. She would have to manage by herself. "