“The sky is a blue so clean it verges on joy.”
“The soles of his shoes are worn the way the edges of erasers become rounded with use. As though he walks around correcting his mistakes.”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“But whatever any of them thought one thing was always certain: even though they suffered and had to struggle at times to bring meaning and even the most basic dignity into their existence and even though in their search for justice and truthfulness they were beaten down and met with disappointment again and again—their lives were not available for use as an illustration. Theirs were not stories that could be read as an affirmation of another system.”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“A daughter, a wife, a grandson,' You could say this place took away all I had. I could easily appear to be one of those unfortunate white men you hear about, who thought too lovingly of the other races and civilization of the world, who left his own country in the West to set up a home among them in the East, and was ruined as a result, paying dearly for his foolish mistake. His life smashed to pieces by the barbarians surrounding him.”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“On the journey towards the beloved, you live by dying at every step”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“Afghanistan had collapsed and everyone's life now lies broken at different levels within the rubble.”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“Even the air of this country has a story to tell about warfare. It is possible here to lift a piece of bread from a plate and following it back to its origins, collect a dozen stories concerning war-how it affected the hand that pulled it out of the oven, the hand that kneaded the dough, how war impinged upon the field where wheat was grown.”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“The bullet that has hit us Muslims today left the gun centuries ago when we let the clergy decide that knowledge and education were not important.”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“All those who love know exactly the limit they're prepared to go to. They know exactly what is required.”
Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil“How keen everyone is to make this world their home forgetting its impermanence It's like trying to see and name constellations in a fireworks display.”
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