Padma Venkatraman Quotes

Everytime I climbed the stairs, my heart lifted.

The van lurches forward. My thoughts race back.

It amazes me that there are so many different words to pray with, and so many people praying, but there is still so much misery and cruelty in the world" -Viji

Because friendship is about laughing when the other person is joking to make you feel better. Even if you don't find her joke all that funny.

It feels like Shiva destroyed my universes of possibility, like He's dancing on the ashes of my snatched away dreams.

I lean into his touch. He looks shy and almost as scared as I was just feeling. I burst out laughing. Never imagined we'd share being scared the first time we went out together. "What's so funny now?" "You. You look so frightened." "I am frightened." He exhales. Then smiles and slides closer to me.

My skin tingles as I step into the music,
give in to the icy thrill of pleasure
that spreads through me whenever I dance,
the pleasure of leaping into a cool lake on a
sweltering day.

I feel the American's eyes on me, looking as though I'm more than an amputee, a number, a chore. He crosses over to me, his strides large, a broad smile on his lips. "Veda? Did I say your name right?" "Yes, Doctor." "Call me Jim. Please." His left hand in his pocket, he holds his right hand out to me. As though we're equals. "Thank you, Doctor - I mean - just Jim," I say. He chuckles. "Haven't done anything yet." He has. No older man ever invited me to shake hands. No other adult ever asked me to call them by name. He even said "please" although I'm a patient.

If a dog barks at the sun, it does not dim the sun's brightness. (44)

I want to tell the nurses no scale can measure
the pain of my dreams
dancing
beyond reach.

In my mind's eye, my chess pieces had grown into lines of dark-skinned men marching forward, being beaten by a white army and crumpling one by one into my father's waiting arms, bloodstains blossoming across their shoulders. (32)

How does the new leg feel?' I don't point out their question misses a point: even this new leg doesn't feel.

I can dance beauty into my body

The waste man didn't take everything we had" - Arul

He threaded my free hand through one of his and reach out for you with his other hand.

Jim was cricket practice; Govinda's the real match. Match. Get it?

The joyous clamor in my mind drowned out the strange sound outside the car: a humming noise that was gathering speed and growing louder, a roar that was not the waves curling up the beach.

She is a pebble skipping
over the surface of a lake.
As I once was.
Not a deep sinking stone that leaves widening ripples behind
after it's disappeared.
As I hope to be.

You don't have to climb ladders to reach God. He dances within all He creates.

I paused, thinking of all the wonderful things she'd said - about my imagination and how smart I was - and how she'd encouraged us both. I realized the biggest gift she'd given me wasn't the book - it was something else.

She believed in me and Rukku" -Viji

My hand slips into his as though it remembers his touch and we've held hands often in a previous life.

I don't know how you live without dreams" -Viji