The Thugs & a Courtesan Quotes

“Like a thief, the image of her taut, well-formed body crept into his mind next. His hair swept backwards, shot up like long needles in the rush of the air and his thoughts grew bolder. He marveled how beautifully her body arched as she stood and gave commands. Vishwakarma, the god of all craftsmen, in an exalting moment had threaded a wire through it to give it that elegant curve. From that instant, the memories of a wife, of dear daughters waiting back in the village seemed hazy as in a dream. Inhibitions became soft barriers. He remembered the gestures of Chanda Bai’s two hands as she talked; her palms like delicate seashells; her elegant fingers. Flashes of her jewel studded ears, another pair of shells; and her long hair lovingly braided by her servants with thick strands of white and yellow jasmine flowers interlaced in them. He wanted to caress those flowers with his finger.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“I hold loyalty above everything. Anything that causes a man to betray his friends, country and his calling is cheap – low class - in my eyes.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“How often he had felt that living life is nothing more than writing on the surface of the lake! So fleeting! Ephemeral! Although each day when it arrives seems like the day that has just passed, it does hold well the power to bring something new or to take away someone dear.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“He felt no shame in their love. It was great, honest and high. He had never in his life seen a woman like her. He admired her like he had no one before. If she were to go away, he would abandon everyone and everything that he ever cared for and follow her like a dog. He would lose his mind otherwise.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“I cannot explain how it all happened, Father. I know only that now I want to be with her.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“Despair is a bad thing, friend. The world moves on through hope. We will be home soon. You will feel better then.” But the darkness around him embraced him like stormy waves do a drowning man. He felt he was sinking in the sea of hopelessness.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“People like you and I would have long been crushed by this world. We are saved because we believed in something.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“I am not a fool. I have just loved with an honest heart. Ask the moon and the night sky and these jungles, they will bear the testimony. But the world – that is a different matter.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“Before the trip he would be a dispirited person and when after a period of half a year he would return home he returned a completely invigorated man; a pleasing sight, much like the parched earthen pitcher after being dunked into the waters of happiness rising up from the well.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“A life of madness I have been living for fifteen years. I have thrown away everything I had, my devoted wife, two lovely children, my family, my wealth on a hopeless passion. My love that once glowed like a warm flame is gone. A fire burns inside me now. My love, instead of being upheld has been cast aside like dirt. I can weep all I want out of rage and self-loathing but the world will only laugh at the sight of me.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“What is there to tell? She kept rolling out words and I kept listening.”
“What did she say? What did you say?”
“I could hear not a single word that she uttered. What did I say? I could say nothing. Friend! My senses and judgement, self-restraint, peace, my entire strength - all deserted me. I ran to her and stood before her with folded arms like a slave. O Jitaji, like the moth that flutters around the candle I offered my life as a sacrifice to her.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“Do you know I have lost my heart to you?” His voice rustled like starched silk when trampled upon. “I am losing my sleep as well. And when sleep does come, I dream only of you.” He murmured.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“You could not love me for I am a man with a hideous face, but what baffles me is that you cared nought for the fact that my thoughts are not inelegant?”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“One day, when my face and my name are forgotten – for the wheel of life involves everyone thrown into this world in its revolving circle and mixes them finally with the dust – then I would perhaps become transparent as a breeze. And if one looks for the heroes of our times and of the past, all then just heaps of insignificant dust, they would be found blowing by the force of my currents, in my stories.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“Waves after waves broke on the boulder-lined banks, lashing and hollering, making a colossal display of restlessness and rage and resignation. He had dropped on his knees and prayed for a long time.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“The starved beast, sensing the prey, was restless.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“He saw a woman, her face awash with misery, standing in front of him. She was holding a child in her arms and as soon as he looked up at her, she placed the child on his lap. Grief must have withheld her speech. Without saying a word she spread an open palm in front of him.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“Everything in real life leaves room for betrayal. Why shouldn’t love betray too?”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“A bowl of honey traps a fly. That is what this love will do to you – reduce you to a miserable fly.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“What if I don’t give you leave,” Mandhata spoke finally.
“Then I will stay,” he replied sadly. “But with a hollow chest. My heart is gone since a long time. You know that.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“She wraps him with her flirtatious song - full of hints – then follows it with an ode in which with slow posturing she upbraids him, curses him, implores him, then finally adjures him with desperate wringing of her hands.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“I am famous now,’ she brags to me. She storms back into her house when I say nothing in return. I don’t know what to say to her. Only men can be famous. Look at Baba-jan! He is famous and my good mother can only be good, never famous.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“Only now he was on his way to finally meet her and this time to remain with her till death tore them apart. Firangia’s feet were unmoored from the land, he walked in the air and flew towards the moon. A lady roamed there and with open arms waited to welcome him.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“He tried to imagine a face, damned the veils that made it hard to do so. He thought of the enigmatic smile hidden behind them. He smiled and savored for a while the harmonious scene of the palanquin vanishing in the dust. Such visions that do not remain and fly away in a haze were the most delightful, for they were harmless to his married state. He wished to remain faithful to his wife who waited back at home.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“I saw you again on my wedding day, my love, when you performed. They say the floor rocked that night. I don’t believe any of it for it was on the floor that my eyes were focused throughout the evening and I did not see it tremble even once.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“He got up, thinking of all the people he had met in the past who had been eager to vouch for complete strangers.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“He felt a wild hammering in his chest. In just a few instants he would see the woman in the palanquin. What wonderful luck!”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“He followed him like a she-snake follows her mate’s killer, the blanket pulled in a hood over his head and his head filled with a thousand questions.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“He was led by the girl to a courtyard that gave off a lavish look. Such was the grace of the place that it would have been demeaned if a common traveler were to find shelter here.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“The lady laughed a little laugh and said, “A man with a strong body as yours is not capable of doing anything more than showing a few shiny pieces of cloth? Where is the obsession of the moth that hurtles itself into the flame out of devotion?”
“Show me first the wick that burns itself to light the room, Ma’m?”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan