page 476 -- 488 : ' Assassins'

Page 476
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" This is India, my friend ! Why, do anything simply if you can do it in a complicated way ? Have you ever been to get a driving license or a ration card ? Have you even filed a complaint at a police station ? Have uou ever got a child admitted to school ? It's the brahminical brain , so wily, so twisted, it draws a straight line by making circles ! "
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Page 487
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Guruji to Narrator : Dont' make things complicated. It's ok for human being to Want. It's ok too, for human beings to move on . Like desire, movement too, is the essence of the world.

" Everything must be continually in a state of movement. Sun, Moon, Stars, Air, Water, Earth : men, women, animals, Germs. Everything must be in flux.

"And, as you pay a price for Want, you pay a price for Movement, too ! But you need not be afraid of losses. At the end, at the VERY end, it will all be squared up. Till it is not, the journey will go on ! Finally, everyone will end up in the same place, everyone's balance sheet perfectly balanced.

"The only difference is - how, each of us got there ! We will be distinguished and separated NOT by the final destination, but the quality of our journey. The choices we made : the paths we took.

" That is the miracle of free will ! That is the miracle of being human ! Moksha is not the opportunity : Life is ! Moksha is the same for everyone and we will all eventually get it. But Life is discrete, several and separate : it is our indulgence and our gift. Hence, my son, do not be afraid of Wants, do not be afraid of Moving on, do not be afraid of the prices to pay for both. "
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Page : 488
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Guruji to our Narrator : Men make the great mistake of thinking that, every woman's karma revolves around her man ! The Truth is - a woman's Karma is far more varied and much more complex than a man's.

" Children, parents, servants, in-laws.
The ceaseless war against the small injustices of the world, of small animals and small people.
The quiet breaking down of walls
The quiet location of compassion.
Being the sail that catches the wind of good fortune.
Being the cushion that breaks the fall of hard fate.
Being the poultice on injury.
The pill against disease.

" In contrast, Man's Karma is nothing but the pursuit of money and power, whose accumulations know no limit ! It's the reason , most men soon think their lives are a failure, while women never cease to strive ! "

Narrator's monologue : The peasants and villagers left. They were given small , quick pills of wisdom and sent away. The full treatment is reserved to the City Folk, whose resistance to illumination had become dangerously high ! Still, Guruji enjoyed us. We were a challenge !

Page 378

Narrator's monologue on Sara : " Guruji was right. Too much reading, too many books, were a dangerous thing. No conversation culd be simple : no response , uncalibrated. Everything had to be fashioned into an elaborate constgruct : of motives and postures and neweroses and failings. "

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page 381
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When Sara attacked him ( the lawyer) for being money minded, he said - I could just see him, with a cinematic cock of his head, his finger tips priming his collar - " Madam ! Who doesn't like money ? But here , there is no case and there is no money ! I have studied at it and I know. We are both wasting our time. These men ( the assassins) are like rando stalks of sugarcane. Powerful men cut them, chew them , and spit them out. No one pays to kill them : no one pays to save them. You must spend your time on better things. Bride burning, child labour, witch-hunting, sati, dowry deaths, female foeticide, cholera, tuberculosis, polio, tree-felling, pollution.. "

Yes ! The whole fucking world is waiting to be saved. From itself !

But Sara was not the one to take anything at face value. She was too full of grand education for that ! The American university had taught her things like deconstruction and subtext. Instead of the cunning of the sub-literate, she had the supicion of the over educated.

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Page 384
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Guruji said, beaming, " If she ( Sara ) means, innocent because they ( the assassins ) are the victims of their circumstances, then, of course, they are innocent ! Just like the Police are, and SHE is, and you and I are ..... and Ravana was , and Duryodhana was and Pakistan is ! "

Narrator : That leaves me no wiser, Guru ji !

Guruji : Of course it won't. And in any case , this is not what she means. This is njot the way to look at the world. Only holy men and fools are supposed to find everyone blameless. And you all are , neither ! Trust is NOT like love. It is good to give love freely to everybody, but trust is like good karma - it must always be earned.

" Men must remember that, they live among men. There is no wisdom in forgetting that. For men, we know, are the least reliable of all animals. For money and power, they can forsake the womb that birthed them. Remember, Gandhi was killed by a Hindu and Jesus was betrayed by his own followers and was nailed to the cross. The Universe manufactures more bad people than good people because, the good is always tested. Continually tested. Because, it's not enough to be good once or twice : it's not enough to get the better of one bad man - the warriors of God need to best, battalions of the bad, in the course of their lives'.

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Page 402
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" All you had to do , was to remember their favour ( the dons' ). To never lose your sense of gratitude. Nothing more. No favours were asked in return. There was very little that the majority could possibly give them ( the Dons ) in return. In truth, the Dons were just like powerful men elsewhere. They wanted, not just money and influence, but also , the affection and admiration of people.
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420 ( an asshole of iron)
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that night, Rajbir Gujjar told Hathoda Tyaagi : " Rememer, beta the final seat of all achievement is neither the Head nor the Heart nor the Muscles. It is the Ass ! Courate and determination lives in the ass ! When the odds stack up against men, when the challenges mount, it is the ass that gives way first ! All my life, I have seen it. The asshole opens up and bleasts like a goat ! The head aned the heart and the muscles see it, and follow suit ! " ( LOL)
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Page 444
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Ali wore a green monkey cap pulled so low down over his face, with just his eyes visible, that Hathoda Tyaagi could not recognize him.
Ali : Hah ! Didn't recognise me ? Not even my wife would ! Might even open her legs because of that ! hah hah !
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Page 444
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Ali would be dead before long. So would be the other hitmen he worked over, in the coming years. As a rule, triggermen were picked for their dispensability.
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Page 455
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" Hathoda Tyaagi, with his growing reputation, was a hulking presence at these summits. He neer spoke and he seldom followed the train of the conversation. What he did was - to observe with fascination , the fear that gripped rich men in the face of physical violence. Men, who would have been ruthless and dismissive with underlings, men with fortunes they could not burn in 3 lifetimes, wheedled and whinged in the presence of Donullian's men. And yet, the moment they had to commission the killing of another, the acquired a rare bravura !
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Page 458
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" Along the plinth of the temple sat, a long line of beggas and alm-seekers - cfripples, lepers, the blighted and the cursed : limbs missing, limbs glarled, eyes gouged out,: men, women, children. Hathoday Tyagi walked down the hellish ranks , doling out ten - and twenty-rupee notes, sparking a ripple of cries and blessings. it was what he did whenever he got the opportunity. He had no real use fo rhis money. Some of it went to his family, some was swuandered on meat for the dogs, doles to the old man, and alms to all manner of fakirs and beggars.

For, Hathoda Tyagi knew, that all blessings ned to be secured and kept whole by concinual acts of generosity and kindness. In the company of vileness, the greatest boons were leachd of their potency. He gave what he had little need of - his money - and tried to keep what he needd - the benedications of the wretches - which were the benedictions of the Gods !
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Page 467
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Jai to our Narrator : Power is the Engine of the world. Sex and Money, its oil and lubricants. God is, at best, the invocation before you start the engine - meaningless if you have no engine to start ! God is a Goli, a multi-flavoured pill, invented by those who have power, money, and sex, to give to those , who have none ! Love is another goli. Some days, we too swallow these golis. They feel good, like a joint, a temporary high. But they are not the reality. The reality is power , money , sex. And yes, here is anohter Goli - Morality! "
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