Quote 12: Muhammad Ali

There was a boy of 19 who fancied a girl in his class. In his eyes there wasn’t another prettier face in the whole college. At least, not the attainable pretty. The beauties were abound, but they lived in a wholly different universe. They spoke only oily English and their Hindi was such that they …

Quote 11: Nelson Mandela

A life well spent. That’s what people call a thriving young man who has a good job (which means he has a car and a house he can call his own (20 years in the making because of paying off the loan)) a beautiful wife (sanctioned by the society which means that she should be …

Quote 10: Pope John XXIII

An age old adage and An older solemn man Gushing proverbs And hackneyed Stories. Bustling fire, Around them folks Of across the Towns sit. Muttering discomfort And lack of downs To comfort the Aching behinds, But they sit. The older man, with A trembling jaw, And an incomprehensible Tongue, had an Audience Of close to …

Quote 9: Paul Valery

I can swing this in my writing direction and make it a metaphor for my failed state as a writer, but I’ve decided that this post won’t be another writing whine. Cooking. It’s the first thing that came in my mind when I read this quote. I don’t cook, but I’ve had enough girls (my …

Quote 8: Alexandra David-Neel

I’ll take this by its horns. I usually don’t. I look for subterfuge to escape things so that I don’t have to make an assessment or a judgement call. At least till it’s not really imperative that I do. My writing life has been the very definition of lackadaisical. These quotes that I work on? …

Quote 7: Edmund Hillary

They called it a feat. I walked the thin line Of emancipation with A tight fist And a fake smile. Peppered a folksy proverb With a folksy wave And a light-hearted Anecdote. That's what some like. Small stories. Small stories With large metaphors And larger heroics. Because who the hell Fights a war that lasts Generations? …

Quote 6: Jonathan Swift

For a long long time, this has been sitting unfinished in my drafts while I kept thinking of a significant anecdote that fit perfectly within the framework of the quote. I tried trimming my real life stories, a little here and a little there so that the edges sit properly within the cleanly chiseled jig-saw …

Quote 5: Lee Iacocca

5 Rupees. That was all that Yusuf had. He wanted to buy those colourful rubber bands that had become a trend in the past few weeks. He knew it'd look really smart on the new girl's short curly hair. The ringlets fell in waves around her and the rubber bands would be like her crowning …

Quote 4: Anatole France

This one stumped me for a long time. I was actually considering skipping it and going on to the next one. But I stopped myself. I confess that I didn’t really understand what Mr. France here was trying to say; at least in essence. This sounded a little different from the advice we usually hear …

Quote 3: Donald J. Trump

Has it ever occurred to anyone about the redundancy of what our schools have taught us? Has it ever occurred to anyone that every lesson that was taught to us in the 3rd and the 5th grade has almost never seen practical application? I hope not. These questions once raised are never answered satisfactorily because …