Colonel Moore once asked me if I was prepared to die, and, in looking back, I was. What I wasn’t properly prepared for was to live-.

All I am saying is relax. Listen to the wind, feel the water. See where life’s breeze wants to take you. Look, if God wants to give you a bigger oar or two, he will. He has plenty. There are times, however, when he’s trying to blow us one way and we’re paddling like crazy the other. Occasionally we just need to stop and be grateful.

Of all the stories I have read about heroes, and all that I could ever read, of one thing I’m certain-he is mine.

Chellamuthu expected to feel heroic by helping Anu recover. Instead it was just hard work. Perhaps this was a secret that heroes don’t share: Courage comes from doing common things.

Grandfather had a saying: If you know a lot, know enough to make people respect you. If you are stupid, be stupid enough so they can pity you.

I leave the bridge in peace; we part as friends. I take so much of her with me and leave so much of myself behind. I think that’s what life must be about – helping others, leaving pieces of us with them, in return fitting borrowed pieces from them into our own voids, each person helping others along the way.

In almost every story, the fiercest battles often take place within.

I don’t understand. How does reading stories about others answer those questions for me?” “That is what I’m hoping you will understand – every story we read, Sang Ly, is about us, in one way or another.

We don’t use knives and forks,” Pranay replied, leaning forward, “because we are not at war with our food. We don’t need weapons. We have learned it is better to surrender to the flavors, to caress and embrace them. You see, eating for Indians is a passionate affair. Picking up the food with our fingers evokes a closeness, a feeling of warmth, a connection. It would all be lost if we started stabbing and cutting.

If you are going to do wrong, at least make sure you don’t get fat from it.