I have grown up listening to my grandparents’ stories about ‘the other side’ of the border. But, as a child, this other side didn’t quite register as Pakistan, or not- India, but rather as some mythic land devoid of geographic borders, ethnicity and nationality. In fact, through their stories, I imagined it as a land with mango orchards, joint families, village settlements, endless lengths of ancestral fields extending into the horizon, and quaint local bazaars teeming with excitement on festive days. As a result, the history of my grandparents’ early lives in what became Pakistan essentially came across as a very idyllic, somewhat rural, version of happiness. . Aanchal Malhotra
About This Quote

The idea that one can have a life without falling or rising is a very loosely defined concept. No matter how many times you fall, the only way to avoid falling is to stay in the same place. The moment you rise, however, you are no longer in the same place. So, when you are falling, there is no one to catch you. When you rise for the first time, by definition, you are no longer falling.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter. - Markus Zusak
  2. Once upon a time, there was a boy. He lived in a village that no longer exists, in a house that no longer exists, on the edge of a field that no longer exists, where everything was discovered, and everything was possible. A stick could... - Nicole Krauss
  3. But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or... - Carson McCullers
  4. I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway... let them be better... - C. Joybell C.
  5. I don’t want to be little again. But at the same time I do. I want to be me like I was then, and me as I am now, and me like I’ll be in the future. I want to be me and nothing but... - David Almond
More Quotes By Aanchal Malhotra
  1. A transference of memory was occurring as she, the vessel, the source, wrung every small, muffled detail into me, the depository. And once it began, it was difficult to interrupt or stop
  2. I have grown up listening to my grandparents’ stories about ‘the other side’ of the border. But, as a child, this other side didn’t quite register as Pakistan, or not- India, but rather as some mythic land devoid of geographic borders, ethnicity and nationality. In...
  3. Memorialization is not a passive practice but an active conversation.
  4. We should have realized it sooner, at least my father should have, that there was no coming back. Not in September when the riots died down, not in October when the subcontinent still lay in shock, not even in November as he had hoped and...
  5. Partition memory is particularly pliable. Within it, the act of forgetting, either inevitably or purposefully, seems to play as much a part as remembering itself.
Related Topics