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Kamala Markandaya Quotes

you must cry out if you want help. It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life?

you must cry out if you want help. It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life?

Kamala Markandaya
Men, Speaking Up, Silence
Kamala Markandaya (2000). “Nectar in a sieve and related readings”

Wide, wide world, but as narrow as the coins in your hand.

Kamala Markandaya
Hands, Coins, World
Kamala Markandaya (1954). “Nectar in a Sieve: A Novel”

Nature is like a wild animal that you have trained to work for you. So long as you are vigilant and walk warily with thought and care, so long will it give you its aid, but look away for an instant, be heedless or forgetful, and it has you by the throat.

Kamala Markandaya
Nature, Animal, Giving
Kamala Markandaya (1954). “Nectar in a Sieve: A Novel”

Hope, and fear. Twin forces that tugged at us first in one direction and then in another, and which was the stronger no one could say. Of the latter we never spoke, but it was always with us. Fear, constant companion of the peasant. Hunger, ever at hand to jog his elbow should he relax. Despair, ready to engulf him should he falter. Fear; fear of the dark future; fear of the sharpness of hunger; fear of the blackness of death.

Kamala Markandaya
Dark, One Direction, Hands
Kamala Markandaya (2000). “Nectar in a sieve and related readings”

To those who live by the land there must always come times of hardship, of fear and of hunger, even as there are years of plenty. This is one of the truths of our existence as those who live by the land know: that sometimes we eat and sometimes we starve. We live by our labours fromone harvest to the next, there is no certain telling whether we shall be able to feed ourselves and our children, and if bad times are prolonged we know we must see the weak surrender their lives and this fact, too, is within our experience. In our lives there is no margin for misfortune.

Kamala Markandaya
Children, Years, Land

For where shall a man turn who has no money? Where can he go? Wide, wide world, but as narrow as the coins in your hand. Like a tethered goat, so far and no farther. Only money can make the rope stretch, only money.

Kamala Markandaya
Men, Hands, Rope
Kamala Markandaya (1954). “Nectar in a Sieve: A Novel”

Sometimes at night I think that my husband is with me again, coming gently through the mists, and we are tranquil together. Then the morning comes, the wavering grey turns to gold, there is stirring within me as the sleepers awake, and he softly departs.

Kamala Markandaya
Morning, Husband, Night
Kamala Markandaya (1954). “Nectar in a Sieve: A Novel”

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