Pankaj Mishra quote: "As the years passed in my village, I witnessed poorly educated young men leaving to seek the greater comforts and liberations of big cities. I would see them on my visits to Delhi."

Life in a Chinese village is much more organised because the Chinese Communist Party has a presence ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

An enlarged global public society, with its many dissenting and corrective voices, can quickly call ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The idea that modernisation makes for enhanced national power and rapid progress and helps everyone ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

No Muslim country has ever done as much as Turkey to make itself over in the image of a European nat...
PANKAJ MISHRA

In a democratic age, you can't buck demography - except through civil war.
PANKAJ MISHRA

The Indonesian nationalists, mainly Javanese, who threw the Dutch out - in 1949, after a four-year s...
PANKAJ MISHRA

As in the early 20th century, the elemental forces of globalisation have unravelled broad solidariti...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The Turkish, Arab and Chinese nationalists who built new nation-states out of the ruins of old empir...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Since the end of the Cold War, metropolitan elites everywhere have identified progress and modernity...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Countries that managed to rebuild commanding state structures after popular nationalist revolutions ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

I think the presence of caste in India, how the villages are geographically structured on caste line...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Basically, I think of fiction and non-fiction as different ways of engaging with the world. You reac...
PANKAJ MISHRA

After the oil crisis of 1973, many European countries tightened restrictions on immigrants. By then,...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The Korean War, which China entered on the side of North Korea, fixed Mao's image in the United ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Indonesia's diversity is formidable: some thirteen and a half thousand islands, two hundred and ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

In a typically contradictory move, globalisation, while promoting economic integration among elites,...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Enlightenment values of individual freedom are manifested best in individual acts of criticism and d...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Thomas Friedman's 'The World is Flat' sold more copies in India than in the U.K. The mar...
PANKAJ MISHRA

It turns out that globalisation, while promising sameness through brand-name consumption, was foster...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The French Revolution actualised the Enlightenment's greatest intellectual breakthrough: detachi...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Governments everywhere that are unable to guarantee equitable growth and social welfare have suffere...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Though there are laws against blasphemy and insult to religion in many European countries, France ha...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Living in a cultural milieu where the foreign writers most widely available and admired were Russian...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The cultural decoding that many American writers require has become an even harder task in the age o...
PANKAJ MISHRA

As a young man in South Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century, Gandhi developed satyagrah...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The British Empire passed quickly and with less humiliation than its French and Dutch counterparts, ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 briefly disrupted celebrations of a world globalised by capital and co...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Just as China achieved much more than India in the realm of public health and education under an aus...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The onslaught of new and complex information, the academic and thinktank cults of expertise, not to ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The Arab Spring showed that people are not going to wait for an American president to make good on h...
PANKAJ MISHRA

For boys like me, in north Indian railway towns in the '70s and '80s, where nothing much hap...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The Dalai Lama can claim the sanction of the Buddha, who is said to have altered his teachings in or...
PANKAJ MISHRA

As the spiritual leader of six million people, the Dalai Lama can be credited with a significant ren...
PANKAJ MISHRA

To Westerners, the students at Tiananmen may have given an impression of a solid and energetic conse...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Force-backed humanitarianism, which relies on rational influence over events in other countries, may...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Tanpinar presciently feared that to embrace the western conception of progress was to be mentally en...
PANKAJ MISHRA

In 1853, American warships bullied Japan out of centuries of virtual isolation and into the modern w...
PANKAJ MISHRA

German writers in the late 18th century were the first to uphold a prickly, literary nationalism, in...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Obama was expected to restore an ethical sheen to post-9/11 foreign policy, but he has intensified d...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The advocates of retaliatory wars will continue to assume a much simpler reality with their hoary op...
PANKAJ MISHRA

In the 1950s and 60s, geopolitical intrigues did not much engage masses in Asia and Africa; it was s...
PANKAJ MISHRA

A free and rooted society ought to consist of a web of moral obligations. We have the right to ignor...
PANKAJ MISHRA

It's strange to recall that America animated none of my youthful daydreams. I did not see a Holl...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Economic disasters or foolish wars are hardly guaranteed to bring about large-scale individual self-...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Political elites look increasingly interchangeable: Blair, Brown, and Cameron have all tried to prov...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Local markets for literary fiction remain underdeveloped; the metropolis often holds out the only re...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Tiananmen Square in early 1989 attracted many dreamers like Ma Jian, who returned from Hong Kong to ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

It should be no surprise that religion in the non-western world has failed to disappear under the ju...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Britain's unique success as an industrialised nation-state prompted strong imitative endeavours ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

As an Indian, you feel easily connected with certain histories in places like Indonesia, where one s...
PANKAJ MISHRA

As the 19th century progressed, Europe's innovations, norms and categories came to achieve a tru...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Ineptitude and negligence directed British policies in India more than any cynical desire to divide ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

The Sino-Indian War in 1962 has fundamentally shaped and distorted Indian attitudes towards China. I...
PANKAJ MISHRA

In 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, Japan had put forward a proposal to guarantee racial equalit...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Ordinary Muslims in Europe, who suffer from the demoralisation caused by living as perennial objects...
PANKAJ MISHRA

I am often struck by the anxious inferiority many well-educated British people display towards the U...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Policymakers can draw much from 'The Need for Roots': such clear prescriptions as that emplo...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Minorities within nation-states frayed by global capitalism are naturally more resentful of hollowed...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Many ethnic minorities chafed at the postcolonial nationalism of India and Pakistan, and some rebell...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Though blessed with many able administrators, the British found India just too large and diverse to ...
PANKAJ MISHRA

Financial risk is always associated with drug discovery. But the benefit that a blockbuster drug can...
PANKAJ PATEL

Cadila, India's sixth-largest drugmaker by sales, spent $250 million developing Lipaglyn, a new ...
PANKAJ PATEL

During an economic slowdown, one needs to be cautious, but I think it's equally important to not...
PANKAJ PATEL

What we do tomorrow is more important than what we did yesterday.
PANKAJ PATEL

The first award that I recall having received was in the form of a scholarship when I was studying i...
PANKAJ PATEL

It's the sum of the parts that make up the whole, so in my opinion excellence comes from how one...
PANKAJ PATEL

Thinking of possibilities is like driving a car on a freeway. You have an open road that stretches e...
PANKAJ PATEL

One of the big myths about philanthropy is that it's all about donating funds for a cause. I lik...
PANKAJ PATEL

If there would have been subjective meaning of LIFE, it would be Happiness..
PANKAJ MATHUR

If you dream to be great, be great in your action..Mere dreaming would land you up nowhere but on yo...
PANKAJ PANIGRAHI

Love is every where , You just need to know whom you love most and who is love's you most in the wor...
PANKAJ JAIN

Wasteland is land which is worthless
for cultivation. Like a child who has been emotionally
PANKAJ SUNEJA

search and read my blog at pankajsundali.blogspot.in
PANKAJ SUNDALI

I have died every day in my mind with disgust for not being able to protect my own children.
PAWAN MISHRA

A man wants too many things before marriage, but only peace after it.
PAWAN MISHRA

The obvious matters are more imperceptible today.
PAWAN MISHRA

A life without sweets is not much worth living.
PAWAN MISHRA

On the first floor, the first rule of a rumor was humor.
PAWAN MISHRA

Fate has this weird way of making your wish come true by supplementing it with ten other spiteful th...
PAWAN MISHRA

Someone asked me when is my birthday?
The poet inside me replied,
"My birthday is on the l...
ANAMIKA MISHRA

it is better to be alone than to be betrayed persistently and dumped . keeping yourself dumped in a ...
VISHAL MISHRA

When the world around is ready to back one unconditionally, one can become as unreasonable, unfair, ...
PAWAN MISHRA

The king has been moving towards absolute monarchy, which in my view won't work. We have to persuade...
BRAJESH MISHRA

All I am saying is that the availability of fissile material has been curtailed.
BRAJESH MISHRA

But the visit of President Bush has been, in my view, a success and it has been a good visit.
BRAJESH MISHRA

Normally, what happens is that you negotiate in advance and then you sign something with the head of...
BRAJESH MISHRA

A widespread meticulous consistency causes a bigger suspicion than the most obvious inconsistency do...
PAWAN MISHRA

If you are a singer, you must sing. If you are a dancer, you must dance. If you are a writer, you mu...
PAWAN MISHRA

Turn those deep feelings and obsessions of your heart into captivating pieces of literature.
PAWAN MISHRA

Be a good reader first, if you wish to become a good writer.
PAWAN MISHRA

I wonder if they were aware of the power of complimentary alcohol during World War I.
PAWAN MISHRA

Her beauty effortlessly managed to arrest the pulse of each heart at the office and keep it in a dre...
PAWAN MISHRA

I need to offer a sacred water sacrifice at the porcelain altar.
PAWAN MISHRA

Understand the game properly before you gear up to break the rules
ANAMIKA MISHRA

No great soul, as they say, lives for very long. Because God desperately wants all the great people ...
PAWAN MISHRA

There are things in life that science will never be able to see.
PAWAN MISHRA

Preach little, Pray more;
But Pray for all, not for your own satisfaction;
MISHRA ANKIT

You need to be my wife to win with me.
PAWAN MISHRA

It’s not the obviousness or the complexity of the things that’s deftly deluding mankind. It’s ...
PAWAN MISHRA

In troubled times, one wishes for a sound sleep more than usual, but on the contrary, realizing its ...
PAWAN MISHRA

They are a family of cows—so humble and honest.
PAWAN MISHRA

Anyone can lecture from the butt, only very few can act.
PAWAN MISHRA

Not receiving a request through the entitled route is no excuse for not serving it.
PAWAN MISHRA

Disappointment has quite a penchant for taking one by a surprise.
PAWAN MISHRA

You can make any promises as long as you are not going to be there to fulfill them.
PAWAN MISHRA

How many times can one have a heart attack within a week?
PAWAN MISHRA

A meeting is a collective tacit confession of participants’ unwillingness to work.
PAWAN MISHRA

As soon as anger knocks at one’s door, wisdom prepares to leave.
PAWAN MISHRA

It was a time when a degree was expected but not much respected.
PAWAN MISHRA

With the wolves around, your humbleness is your worst adversary.
PAWAN MISHRA

One of the biggest disadvantages of being grown up is seeing the time rush by faster.
PAWAN MISHRA

I may just be on the outskirts of being okay.
PAWAN MISHRA

The hope is the best and the worst thing at the same time.
PAWAN MISHRA

Psychos are in uniform circulation in society.
PAWAN MISHRA

It was definitely a rare situation where a career had started and ended simultaneously on a very hig...
PAWAN MISHRA

The only thing God is afraid of is a strong-willed human!
PAWAN MISHRA

People say there are thousands of options we have in life. I say we have only two: we can either be ...
PAWAN MISHRA

Talented minds have always been stealthily targeted by mediocre ones.
PAWAN MISHRA

Good neighbors always spy on you to make sure you are doing well.
PAWAN MISHRA

Ahh, love, why is it so easy to let you in, but so difficult to let you out? Why couldn’t you subs...
PAWAN MISHRA

It was much easier to explain the veil than to answer questions about the wounds.
PAWAN MISHRA

Isn’t life a collection of weird quizzes with no answers to half the questions?
PAWAN MISHRA

Now that I am past picking the knife to stab one, the reward of stabbing a few more comes at an unfa...
PAWAN MISHRA

The loss of a reliance on others often helpfully forces a more sophisticated rumination that enables...
PAWAN MISHRA

It’s our version of a black hole. Just like amply compact mass can distort space and time to cause...
PAWAN MISHRA

While four people were killed on the spot, five died in hospital.
BINAYTOSH MISHRA

The underprivileged are byproduct of society’s material progress.
PAWAN MISHRA

There are a thousand beautiful women out there, but only a handful of them possess the grace require...
PAWAN MISHRA

O woman, thou art my imperfection!
PAWAN MISHRA

Matters of the heart are so incalculable!
PAWAN MISHRA

Am I here to play ‘pass the parcel’ with my balls?
PAWAN MISHRA

The most ironic thing in the world is having no say when your name is determined for the first time ...
PAWAN MISHRA

The art wouldn’t complain if we leave her alone. Losing a touch with art, however, is losing a tou...
PAWAN MISHRA

We are all born artists. The nature generally doesn’t discriminate among newborns with respect to ...
PAWAN MISHRA

If the world leaders can afford a 7 hours sleep, most of us probably can too.
PAWAN MISHRA

The Sleep Problem today is not as much about being able to sleep for 7 hours; it is more about being...
PAWAN MISHRA

The traditional techniques used in getting sleep aren’t much effective any longer and our sleep te...
PAWAN MISHRA

You are the biggest enemy of your own sleep.
PAWAN MISHRA

Hope meets a dead end when the only chance in sight comes to naught.
PAWAN MISHRA

A lie for a good reason is better than a truth that destroys.
PAWAN MISHRA

The coins were completely unprepared for this and were sadly deceived by their own inertia.
PAWAN MISHRA

When the soul heals, the issues of the body disappear like they never happened.
PAWAN MISHRA

Don’t interrupt when your characters take a flight of their own.
PAWAN MISHRA

Many a times a huge problem gets solved with a trivial move.
PAWAN MISHRA

If the future depends on stories, then our future looks bright indeed.
PAWAN MISHRA

Our future depends on stories. As the world advances, literature has the ability to ground us—in o...
PAWAN MISHRA

If a muscleman like Hukum can write a poem, everyone can.
PAWAN MISHRA

One needs to pursue some sort of a creative interest in order to keep life from eating us alive.
PAWAN MISHRA

Easy accessibility gradually tapers engrossment.
PAWAN MISHRA

Jump high brother!! So high that if you fall, then people should remark on not how far you fell but ...
ANUBHAV MISHRA

You can give away parts of your soul to loving, but you must always reserve part of your soul for yo...
KATIE MISHRA

I once heard of a class teacher who’d punish every student wearing a blue shirt whenever a student...
PAWAN MISHRA

We have a mental emergency here. Our noble pal Sevak has just been wickedly divorced by his mind.
PAWAN MISHRA

If certain aspect needs to be inconsistent, it must better be consistently inconsistent throughout t...
PAWAN MISHRA

As you become a better writer, the writing becomes more difficult. You toil harder to tell a story i...
PAWAN MISHRA

Clichés are the viruses that infect your writing with diseases.
PAWAN MISHRA

A writer can do without food for a few hours but not without the sight of books.
PAWAN MISHRA

If you think there is no time to write now, there will never be.
PAWAN MISHRA

Ideas either age like fine wine or rot like potatoes over time.
PAWAN MISHRA

Good writing ideas don’t have to be about political turmoil, mass killings, capitalism, racism, in...
PAWAN MISHRA

Dreams are good at playing with your memory. They love leaving no trace behind and hate to show up o...
PAWAN MISHRA

Don’t break the rules when you haven’t fully figured them out yet.
PAWAN MISHRA

Tell a story in fewer and simpler words.
PAWAN MISHRA

Writing a story is like going on a date—you will spoil it if you aren't living in the moment.
PAWAN MISHRA

A writer gets to live yet another life every time he or she creates a new story.
PAWAN MISHRA

...he had also acquired a peculiar academic quirk. During exams, he knew all the answers but wasn’...
PAWAN MISHRA

One of the things people did best at the office was to use flexibility to its last atom.
PAWAN MISHRA

Like a deep sad note
played beneath the ocean
waving through the orb
the memories of ...
PAWAN MISHRA

Just like a boxer can’t win without a few punches on his face, a student can’t be fully trained ...
PAWAN MISHRA

Availability of knowledge is only next to prevalence of stupidity in its overwhelming abundance.
PAWAN MISHRA

The duel may go on for long, but the self-defense often wins over the self-reproach.
PAWAN MISHRA

Despite progress witnessed elsewhere in the matters of heart, parents in this part of the world hadn...
PAWAN MISHRA

If you really want to talk to the big boss now, make sure you leave your balls here with me, for he ...
PAWAN MISHRA

…golf was no longer the most interesting sport to the corporate czars because they found playing w...
PAWAN MISHRA

Create a world in front of your readers where they can taste, smell, touch, hear, see, and move. Or ...
PAWAN MISHRA

A good joke doesn’t necessarily need appreciation from others. One can freely laugh at one’s own...
PAWAN MISHRA

Run wild and free like a waterfall
ANAMIKA MISHRA

He was one of those who are not born handsome, but develop charming features with age by continuousl...
PAWAN MISHRA

Clapping is easily the best example of self-amplification in the world. It sprouts from a single wha...
PAWAN MISHRA

Let me show you how beautiful life is,
Let me take away all your pain;
Let me rekindle you...
ANAMIKA MISHRA

It seems God has been practicing shooting troubles at me.
PAWAN MISHRA

Such delicacies are relationships.
PAWAN MISHRA

Is that the biggest favor your vocal cords have done to anyone this week?
PAWAN MISHRA

The terrifying fear of a crash had triggered the fight-or-flight response in the child, making him b...
PAWAN MISHRA

Relationships are the flavors of life.
PAWAN MISHRA

Perception is to be blamed. It, if given due attention, keeps changing.
PAWAN MISHRA

One is often unconsciously surrounded by one’s own personal reality
PAWAN MISHRA

Our perception could either be our path to nirvana or an invisible cage that bottles us up.
PAWAN MISHRA

Sometimes we all get dusty by a few mundane and tiring affairs—and merely need a gentle soul wash ...
PAWAN MISHRA

While a democratic process is morally desirable for arriving at a decision, it doesn’t necessarily...
PAWAN MISHRA

Everyone’s mind has sort of a slum division—a flirtatious spot that doesn’t give a hoot about ...
PAWAN MISHRA

I will first see the background that led to him saying what he did tonight.
KALRAJ MISHRA

Kasturi was in the seventh month of gestating Coinman—a high-attention and high-priority stage of ...
PAWAN MISHRA

A true love is never defeated.
Even when in ashes,
it whirls and finds solace with air
SANDEEP KUMAR MISHRA

As the years passed in my village, I witnessed poorly educated young men leaving to seek the greater comforts and liberations of big cities. I would see them on my visits to Delhi.

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Pankaj Mishra

As the years passed in my village, I witnessed poorly educated young men leaving to seek the greater comforts and liberations of big cities. I would see them on my visits to Delhi.

Pankaj Mishra

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