Farookh Mistry Quotes

There was no such thing as perfect privacy, life was a perpetual concert-hall recital with a captive audience. ~ Rohinton Mistry

The chalks and slates fascinated them. They yearned to hold the white sticks in their hands, make little white squiggles like the other children, draw pictures of huts, cows, goats, and flowers. It was like magic, to make things appear out of nowhere. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Let me tell you a secret: there is no such thing as an uninteresting life
One day you must tell me your full and complete story, unabridged and unexpurgated.We will set aside some time for it, and meet. It's very important.
Maneck smiled. 'Why is it important?'
It's extremely important because it helps to remind yourself of who you are. Then you can go forward, without fear of losing yourself in this ever-changing world. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Oh, Anyone can make a quilt,' she said modestly. 'It's just scraps, from the clothes you've sewn.'
'Yes, but the talent is in joining the pieces, the way you have.'
'Look,' Om pointed, 'look at that - the poplin from our very first job.'
'You remember,' said Dina, pleased. 'And how fast you finished those first dresses. I thought I had two geniuses.'
'Hungry stomachs were driving our fingers,' chuckled Ishvar.
'Then came that yellow calico with orange strips. And what a hard time this young fellow gave me. Fighting and arguing about everything.'
'Me?Argue?Never.'
...
He steeped back, pleased with himself, as though he had elucidated an intricate theorem. 'So that's the rule to remember, the whole quilt is much more important than the square'. ~ Rohinton Mistry

I've done lots of jobs. Right now, I'm a hair collector."

"That's good", said Ishvar tentatively. "What do you have to do as a hair-collector?"

"Collect hair."

"And there is money in that?"

"Oh very big business. There is a great demand for hair in foreign countries."

"What do they do with it? Asked Om skeptical."

"Many different things. Mostly they wear it.Sometimes they paint it in different colors-red, yellow, brown, blue. Foreign women enjoy wearing other people's hair. Men also, especially if they are bald.
In foreign countries they fear baldness. They are so rich in foreign countries, they can afford to fear all kinds of silly things. ~ Rohinton Mistry

The Law is a grim, unsmiling thing. Not Justice, though. Justice is witty and whimsical and kind and caring. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Everyone underestimates their own life. Funny thing is, in the end, all our stories ... they're the same. In fact, no matter where you go in the world, there is only one important story: of youth, loss and yearning for redemption. So we tell the same story, over and over. Only the details are different. ~ Rohinton Mistry

The photographs had made him aware how much the street and the buildings meant to him. Like an extended family that he'd taken for granted and ignored, assuming it would always be there. But buildings and roads and spaces were as fragile as human beings, you had to cherish them while you had them. ~ Rohinton Mistry

It is not a question of crime and punishment
it is problem and solution. ~ Rohinton Mistry

The lives of the poor are rich in symbols. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Depression is a red herring," said Nariman. "I think a lot about the past, it's true. But at my age, the past is more present than the here and now. and there is not much percentage in the future. ~ Rohinton Mistry

The whole quilt is much more important than any single square. ~ Rohinton Mistry

He looked at me with a smile that I still remember and ran a finger along his impeccably trimmed mustache. Cricket is about a lot more than playing by the rules, Mistry. It's a gentleman's game. Don't you ever forget that. ~ Ken Doyle

How starved they seemed for ordinary kindness ~ Rohinton Mistry

Please always remember, the secret of survival is to embrace change, and to adapt. To quote, All things fall and are built again, and those that build them are gay. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Look at that crowd', he said disgustedly. 'They think it's a circus.'
'And not a single coin are they donating', said Dina.
'That's not surprising. Pity can only be shown in small doses. When so many beggars are in one place, the public goes like this' - he put his fists to his eyes, like binoculars. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Where was the line between compassion and foolishness, kindness and weakness? And that was from her position. From theirs, it might be a line between mercy and cruelty, consideration and callousness. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Soon the evening gloom would materialize, infect the fibre-filled air, drape itself over her bed, depress her from now till morning. ~ Rohinton Mistry

When a culture vanishes, humanity is the loser. ~ Rohinton Mistry

The return of solitude was not quite as Dina expected it to be. These many years I made a virtue of inescapable reality, she thought, calling it peace and quiet. ~ Rohinton Mistry

If time were a bolt of cloth," said Om, "I would cut out all the bad parts. Snip out the scary nights and stitch together the good parts, to make time bearable. Then I could wear it like a coat, always live happily. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Hahnji, mister, you must be patient. Before you can name that corner, our future must become past. ~ Rohinton Mistry

He kept looking for new experiences, and though he was very successful at everything he attempted, it did not bring him happiness. Remember this, success alone does not bring happiness. Nor does failure have to bring unhappiness. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Maneck studied beggermaster's excessive chatter, his attempt to hide his heartache. Why did human do that to their feelings? Whether it was anger or love or sadness, they always tried to put something else forward in its place. And then there were those who pretended their emotions were bigger and grander than anyone else's. A little annoyance they acted like gigantic rage; where a smile or chuckle will do, they laughed hysterically. Either way, it was dishonest. ~ Rohinton Mistry

What an unreliable thing is time
when I want it to fly, the hours stick to me like glue. And what a changeable thing, too. Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl's hair. Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful colour and your hair ... But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly. ~ Rohinton Mistry

He had learned that dignity could not be acquired from accoutrements and accessories; it cam unasked, it grew from one's ability to endure. ~ Rohinton Mistry

This was an outstanding family subject in our real life. ~ Rohinton Mistry

World can be a bewildering place,and dreams and ambitions are often paths to the most pernicious of traps ~ Rohinton Mistry

Curious, he thought, how, if you knew a person long enough, he could elicit every kind of emotion from you, every possible reaction, envy, admiration, pity, irritation, fury, fondness, jealousy, love, disgust. But in the end all human beings became candidates for compassion, all of us, without exception ... and if we could recognize this from the beginning, what a saving in pain and grief and misery. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Time, the ultimate grandmaster that could never be checkmated. There was no way out of its distended belly. ~ Rohinton Mistry

There didn't seem to her any harm in it, and the make-believe was so comforting. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Traffic in the streets of Bombay is chaotic at best. Riding a bicycle is a dangerous occupation. However, there are hundreds of them on the streets competing with the cars and buses and lorries because it is the poor man's mode of transport. ~ Rohinton Mistry

...I always took the rearmost seat in the classroom - it gave me a good view of things. And I must confess, the location taught me more about human nature and justice than could be learned from the professors' lectures. ~ Rohinton Mistry

I met my wife when we were both 19 or 20, at a music school where she was taking voice and piano lessons and I was doing classes in music theory and composition. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Turning the improbable into the exceptional ~ Ranjan Mistry

Now he felt the despair his father had felt as the familiar world slipped from around him, the valleys gashed and ugly, the woods disappearing. Daddy was right, he thought, the hills were dying, and I was so stupid to believe the hills were eternal, that a father could stay forever young. If only I had talked to him. If only he had let me get close to him. ~ Rohinton Mistry

life is a mistry. every time you live, you will see your life as like a mirror with out any destination & hopes ~ Divine

There must be a lot of duplication in our country's laws," said Dukhi. "Every time there are elections, they talk of passing the same ones passed twenty years ago. Someone should remind them they need to apply the laws."
"For politicians, passing laws is like passing water," said Narayan. "It all ends down the drain. ~ Rohinton Mistry

Don't you see, said Father, that you are confusing fiction with facts, fiction does not create facts, fiction can come from facts, it can grow out of facts by compounding, transposing, augmenting, diminishing, or altering them in any way; but you must not confuse cause and effect, you must not confuse what really happened with what the story says happened, you must not lose your grasp on reality, that way madness lies. ~ Rohinton Mistry

But it was an unrefrigerated world. And everything ended badly. ~ Rohinton Mistry